Ask Amy ✔

Housekeeping

Hello all!

This post is a housekeeping chapter where I sweep up all the loose ends, thank you all for being amazing and go over some quick things. You can of course skip this little post but I'll go over my original ideas and how the concept came about as many showed interest in that.

So, first off, thank you. You gave this story life, purpose and gave me the will to keep writing it. I managed to finish this book in less than 2 months because of your encouragement and I couldn't be happier.

This story was an idea in my head for a while. I didn't quite know what I was going to do with it but some kind of advice site called AskAmy that took a dark turn was the concept. Originally, this story was going to be written as an actual story with a narrative and full-length chapters. The AskAmy header at the start of each page was just that - a header.

Someone commented on it and thought it was really cool I was doing this as a website and I realized, oh crap, that sounds way better! Originally, the story was just supposed to have a ton of multimedia woven into it but at the base, it would be the normal, narrative story. So thank you to whoever inadvertently commented as it helped me turn this into a 85% picture story instead of a 25% picture story.

In the beginning, anonymous was never going to be revealed. Fake Amy would be revealed as a forty year old man, real Amy would be alive just not running the site, and anonymous would remain anonymous. It wasn't until half way through that I decided it needed to go further.

Most of the story is actually improvised. Anytime something linked up, I would quickly put it in my notes. My phone is full of theories. I had about 4 and ended up blending 2 together to make the final one.

(one of the endings I was pondering on was that the AskAmy.com hack was actually a global hack to leak people's information and that other advice websites had been compromised too)

As far as the actual multimedia goes, most of it was done through me texting and emailing myself. For the articles, I just used pixlr and phonto and online generators. I don't have photoshop, I just have my dying iPad mini so it was all done with free apps and such. I'm not against using generators because the content is still mine but it saves a lot of time to use something that is already there and being given to you for free and it looks good!

I would also like to say thank you so much for getting this story #1 the other day. It blew my mind away and made me so happy! This is my first thriller I've actually followed through with and I'm so pleased you enjoyed it.

As for people who are re-reading and such, I have a few things to ask of you. Do not comment hints. You had the privilege of reading it before anyone else and you got the shock factors and surprises. Commenting #rr on a line you know is important now actually ruins the story for others. This story runs off surprises and twists and something as simple as commenting 'foreshadowing' can ruin the whole set up this story has. So please, if you're doing through the story again, don't leave comments that hint at anything. Let others have the same reading experience you had and the reading experience I want them to have. I don't have the ability to go through and delete all spoilers so please, censor yourself a bit :)

As for any loose ends, if you are confused on certain things, you can comment here and I will answer as fast as I can. If it's something you're confused about because you didn't even read the story (I've had these before) then please just don't ask!

As for a sequel - no. Some stories need to end and they need to be left the way they are. This is one of them. The story is told and anything more will water it down. It stands alone and strong in itself. There are no more tales for Amy to tell.

I hope you enjoyed this story. I know I loved writing it and you've made it one of the most enjoyable stories I've ever written.

And if you've always read a book with at least some romance in it then you can now happily say you read a book with zero romance and zero narrative! It's been a challenge and a roller-coaster but you guys have made it a fantastic journey for me to grow into different genres as a writer and new ways of telling stories creatively.

So thank you all so much for being brilliant the whole way through.

Till the next time.

- Tahlie x