A/N: This is an unedited, significantly different version of the soon to be published novel by losangelesque aka L. Akhter. This draft was written when I was 15-18 years old and I highly encourage new readers to read the published version instead.
F...
Okay, first: TLDR if you don't want to read all this!
1. I am self publishing TMoL - anticipating it will be out in September. Will update here and link. All updates will also be on my Instagram - ls.akhter (follow if you'd like to support my journey as an author!!)
2. Before that, I am publishing a collection of poems titled 'Shurma'. Link is here: https://amzn.to/2SR0MFa [also in comments + external link on this chapter. Please choose your region's Amazon site! For me, that would be Amazon Canada]
I'd really appreciate your support if you like my writing - I'd like to reintroduce myself to you as a grown-up. Please heed content warnings!
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Firstly, thank you for wanting to read what is about to be a long-ish ramble. I hope you are taking care of yourself through this time, I know the year has not been kind to us.
I started writing on Wattpad as a teenager, and started TMoL when I was fifteen. I was hurting, lonely, and convinced I could not be loved up close—and writing this story helped me through those feelings. When I began writing it, I had no idea that so many people would connect to it, and I didn't know that it would impact so many people. I'm twenty-four now, and I still get messages and emails from readers who, like me, experienced this story when they were younger, and remember it as an adult.
I have been wanting to publish this book for a long time. I was in an 'editing process' for years, where I'd sit down to change things, improve things, but couldn't complete the task. I think, for a long time, I was in recovery mode. I was reliving my traumas and my own highschool experience, and I was not in the right mindset to do justice to Lolita and Frank's story as their own.
That being said, I think I am finally old enough, wise-ish, and in a place of relative stability. I think I owe these characters a full, complex lovestory, and for that reason, I am re-vamping TMoL. The story overall will be similar, but vastly improved in character, plot, and hopefully writing—since, you know, I'm writing it as an adult with more capacity and understanding.
Some of you have been with me and Frank and Lolita for many years. Some of you maybe stumbled on this story recently and are reading it for the first time. I hope you'll stick with me through what's next.
A big part of my healing process was also writing poetry, some of which I published here through the years. Publishing this poetry collection means a lot to me, as I process my grief, trauma, and recovery through the years. God, I look back at some of what I wrote when I was young, and I want to give myself a big hug—I was in pain, and I was struggling. This poetry collection, working on it and publishing it, has given me an unexpected amount of peace. I held my own copy of it in my hands today, and I can only imagine what it'll be like to hold TMOL the same way.
I hope you'll read Shurma, but if not, that's okay too—I'm thankful you're here.
Currently, a former reader and amazing artist, Kashish, is developing the cover for me, and I'm still editing. Hopefully, we're looking at early September for publishing!! Both of these books and my future ones, will be available via Amazon (TMoL will also be on Kindle). All updates for all my writing stuff and general related things, poems I like, fanart, other art, pics you all send me, will be on Instagram @/ ls.akhter
That's all for now. See you very soon!
Here's the cover and description for Shurma, my poetry collection:
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