I Would Take A Beating For You

Fun facts :)

In honor of a sequel to this book being published, I thought I would share some fun facts about the book.

1) The entire first chapter is repurposed from an old scraped book of mine called "The People In The Paintings."

2)  Richie and Julius's original names were Scott and Alex. (Weird, I know), but I didn't like how they sounded together and just overall didn't fit the characters.

3) The story is set in Michigan but was originally set in California.

4) I fully intended on killing off Julius but thought it would be too harsh of an ending.

5) In another alternate ending, I was gonna have Julius and Richie run away together and end up breaking up. Another sad ending :(

6) Another alternate ending I came up with was Richie being kidnapped by Steve and Julius rescuing him, but it made Richie seem too helpless and needy, like a damsel in distress situation which I hate.

7) Mitski was supposed to be Richie's favorite artist, but I felt Billie fit his personality more.

8) The abuse situation used to be backward, Julius being the victim and Jennifer being the abuser, but the more I wrote, the more I felt Jennifer was too sweet of a character.

9) This story is actually super drawn out. The original idea was only about 5 chapters ending after Richie leaves Julius's house and skips town, but that felt really anticlimactic and cheap.

10) Trevor was also supposed to have feelings for Richie and have a huge fight with Julius over it.

11) In a deleted chapter, Jennifer and Tina get into a heated argument that turns physical.

12) Jayla was originally a twin, but I kept forgetting to add the second girl.

13) In another scraped chapter, Julius gets Richie's name tattooed on him at a street festival.

14) The book was originally titled "Sticks and Stones" with a sequel and spin-off called "May break my bones" and "Words will never hurt me," but it felt cheesy.

14.5) The spin-off would have revolved around Julius's life. (Let me know if you want to see that.)

15) Tina was almost not a character. Steve would have been Richie's foster Dad.

16) Originally, Richie and Julius were supposed to meet at the school's counciling office after getting into a fight, kind of an enemies to lovers storyline, but I had already done that.

17) Richie and Julius were almost girls.

18) Richie was supposed to die in chapter 5 after Steve caught him with Julius.

18.5) Julius was supposed to sustain a serious head injury after Steve pushed him (You can see how I hinted at it in Chapter 9), but after some thought, I decided on this ending

19) Julius' coma was supposed to last almost a year, but it felt a little too drawn out.

20) The flash forward was supposed to be 10 years in the future when Julius and Richie are married. It was supposed to be the ultimate happy ending, but I wanted to do a sequel.

21) Richie is named after Richie Tozier from "IT."

22) Richie has glasses, but I forgot to mention them.

23) The book switching POVS was a decision I made because I couldn't decide who's POV the story made more sense from.

24) The book was supposed to be an unbearably slow burn with the boys unofficially getting together in the last chapter, but I scrapped  it because I hate slow burns myself.

25) Tina and Jennifer were originally supposed to get together, but that felt weird to me.

26) In chapter 1, I mention that Richie has been through 5 different schools in a super short period of time, and I totally forgot to explain why. (I honestly forgot what I was thinking)

Which brings us to now, Sequel "I Would Die For You" is out on my page now.