Love Next Door

Notes- The Past and Future of Love Next Door

I'm not sure if other authors feel the need to make notes or explain stuff after they finish their story, but I want to do it because the end seemed too abrupt for me and I couldn't fit all I've wanted to say in one little author's note. Nevertheless, This might become a bit of a ramble, so do not feel obliged to continued reading. 

If you are interested in the history of LND and what is happening next, please do read on :).

Disclaimer: 

Okay, this isn't so much a disclaimer as an explanation of how I feel about LND.

LND was a passion project and a challenge for me, It's the longest piece of writing I've ever created and I was so excited that my motivation stuck with me that I had to keep writing this and get to some kind of ending.

By no means is this story perfect (if such a story exists) or the best I can do, and I did not try to make it seem so. Besides, It's a first (sort of second) draft so I think non-perfection can be excused (for now).

I realise that the ending may not have been great, and I probably left a few paths unfinished and unaccounted for, But I hope that it was an enjoyable journey for you guys as much as it was for me.

Where LND came from:

Love Next Door started its life in 2014, midway through high school. 

As far as I can remember, I had recently finished reading 3 of the Mortal Instruments books (I could not stomach reading anymore- sorry, It just got on my nerves too much to be enjoyable). That's probably where I got the idea for a relationship between a human and a warlock. I also had a weird vague dream about two guys in a hot tub (not 5 feet apart, cause they are gay) but lets not talk about that. It was the first same-gender couple I had ever written (and my first lgbtqia+ story altogether).

I wrote about 5000 words in 2014 and then dropped it for other ideas (including my story Madness, which had a few chapters published here). This was mainly because I had intended the story to contain some mature themes which I was too inexperienced and nervous to write about (I even password protected the file in case my mum ever came across it :P).

Fast forward to the end of 2016, I had just started getting back into creative writing after the last two senior years of high school and horrific exams. I found it on a flash drive, or maybe somewhere in one of my old writing folders. I expected to read through it and cringe so much I would have to close it again and pretend it didn't exist. While I did cringe, I also fell in love with the story again and decided to rework it and try to develop it more. 

Over the next month and a bit I wrote about 40,000 words. 

What's next for LND:

The next step would be full editing and fleshing out the plot as you would when editing a novel. While I will probably do this in the future, It might not be for a while because I have another new project I really want to get into. 

As I finished this and began editing, I started to create a sequel of some kind in my head. It would explore Ash & Jay's families more and have more fantasy elements in it, which is something I would have liked to have explored in better detail in this novella. I can't guarantee this will happen, or if it will be very long.

If you enjoyed the fantasy/supernatural elements of this story and the modern, urban setting, my new project Is all about that. In fact, It's planned to be set in the same universe and the same city as LND (I don't know if I'm lazy or just can't let go of this story). It's not a romance, but will definitely have romantic elements, plus it's going to be very lgbt+ (and not just limited to BL) so that's a great bonus in my opinion :P.

Problem is, that will probably take about a year to finish (let's be real, it will take much longer) because I would love to create a full length novel. I may publish some stuff on here once I have a substantial amount of words.

Acknowledgements:

I wouldn't have had the courage to post this, and would have had many more grammatical errors and lazy spelling errors If it weren't for the support of my mum and all my friends who listened to me complain and screech about this story daily. 

Also, if it weren't for all you guys who read this and commented and gave me support, I might have just given up on publishing this half-way through.

Thank you <3

Ash's POV:

OH, I almost forgot. I have written some backstory and alternative perspective pieces from Ash's POV which I might post after this. I guess I'll just keep it in this book, because It kind of needs the context of this one, but I might change my mind.

Anyway, Look forward to more of our favourite bisexual, blue haired warlock ;)

If you have any questions regarding the story or my writing in general feel free to comment here, ask on my tumblr (storiesbykathryn), or PM me. I promise I won't mind (but please don't be mean heh).