Trying To Endure

We Need To Talk

Hello everyone,

I hope you are all doing well.

I want to rant and address a problem.

I mentioned countless times - from the Welcome page to a few authors notes - that this isn't your ordinary Wattpad book where the protagonists have sex in the first chapter.

If you don't like to enlighten yourself of social dilemmas and truths, read another book.

I wrote this story for you to enjoy a slow burn between April and Derek as well as to inform you of societal issues.

And yet, readers are expecting Derek and April to just fall in love directly after April breaks up with Roy?

How does that work?

Do you understand how relationships work - toxic relationships, to be more specific?

Of course, it is different to everyone. But the majority of the time, if you are a survivor of a toxic relationship, you need your space to get better and find your worth. That is what I have done to April.

Derek is working to improve his mental health. Both of the protagonists are.

I wrote Derek Matthews to show problems within the high ranks, to show how power and conflict work in one way or another.

I created him to show men's mental health because it has been poorly stigmatised by everyone - mostly by men due to toxic masculinity. 

I wrote April to show the effects of sexual assault (I am a survivor of harassment) and, again, mental health.

I don't want anyone to hate themselves due to the actions of other people and the flow of life. I want people to realise their worth.

And yet, the majority of the readers are asking for sex.

I've seen comments like this on the chapter of Bodie's death - which is the product of racial and systematic injustice - and you have the audacity to ask about sex on a sensitive scene!

Do you have any idea how rude and disrespectful that is? 

If you want to read about sex, read 50 shades or something. 

Don't get me wrong, it's thrilling, and I will perhaps write those types of scenes, but please be respectful.

I wanted to address the issues first. 

I don't want April and Derek to meet in the first chapter and fall in love. 

(The characters did kind of meet each other as I mentioned their names and that April found Derek unconscious on the floor, so ...)

But I think books have glamorised and hidden the fact that those who jump into relationships really quickly tend to end badly or sooner than they started - hence April and Roy, Derek and Destiny.  

See, there are so many little aspects and hints, so small but speak a larger truth. All the characters I made are done with a purpose. I just leave it to YOU to figure it because it is better when you understand yourself rather than just me telling you. 

If April and Derek were to fall in love, Derek and I would both want April to love herself FIRST before she's interested in relationships. 

After everything that has happened in the past couple of years, I realised how messed up the world is. I realised that the fate of the world is in our hands, in your hands (one way or another). 

I realised how a lot of people don't know or choose to ignore what is actually happening in front and behind the scenes. 

Again, this book is written to inform you. Take it or leave it. Read it or don't.

But if you disrespect Bodie's death in that way, you're disrespecting a lot of coloured lives who died under the same or similar circumstances. 

It's upsetting to know that readers are so eager for sex, they disregard and insult important issues. 

On a side note, the sequel:

;)

I'll be posting hints on my Instagram and Snapchat just for fun hahaaaa