That's My Spotlight | ✔

☆ postlude & bonus q&a

Hi lovelies! It's been quite a minute.

I want to thank each and every one of you once again for taking the time to check out Alexander and Inez's messy love story. As I write this, That's My Spotlight is sitting with 1.8k reads. Even if it may not be a lot, I'm still grateful for everyone that's decided to read the story.

In my last author's note, I promised that I'd give a q&a. May I remind you that this will be filled with spoilers, so if you haven't read the full story just yet, I advise you to do that before checking this out.

I've come up with these general questions on my own because I didn't have any requests, so stick around for your most-wanted questions to be answered, as well as a special announcement for the future of my profile at the end.

Yours truly,

KC

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What was your inspiration behind That's My Spotlight?

I developed the entire story while I was working on my other original novel, Behind the Books. I was going through some writer's block and hadn't updated for a while, so my mind began to wander about other possible stories I could work on. Mind that this was back in late 2021. Because I'm a student who goes to school, I also developed a mini crush on this really cute boy who had a girlfriend. I was a teensy bit jealous, but then my mind clicked. I used my crush as my inspiration behind Alexander, an Asian boy with lots of talent. My crush's name was even Alexander, which is kind of ironic. Inez, however, represents me, a Black girl who wants some love. Maybe I can't sing at all, but Inez sure can! Though I don't have a crush on this boy anymore, I still love Alexander very much, as well as the story. An enemies to lovers' romance is my weakness.

What's your inspiration behind the story name?

I think it's pretty self-explanatory. Originally, I wanted the story to be named That's My Stage. But then, I figured that it didn't really match the story that much because it's a high school concert choir story, not really a theater story. So I came up with the title, That's My Spotlight, which fits with the whole idea behind the story.

What made you name the characters the way they did?

Well, to be honest, with most of the characters, I just thought their names fit with them. Jayden was a name I really liked for him, while Jolien was inspired by one of my favorite worldwide Subway Surfers characters. It sounds crazy, and I even wanted Jolien to have purple hair just like the Subway Surfers character version of her, but to be frank, Jolien isn't from Amsterdam. Still, Subway Surfers is one of my favorite mobile games, so Jolien all the way. When it comes to Alexander, like said in the first question, he was inspired off of my old crush. Don't worry, they don't share the same last name, but the name seemed so fitting for him.

But when it comes to my girl Inez, her name was inspired by a character from a kids show. If you've grown up in the United States in the 2000s and watched from a TV channel called PBS Kids, you should know that there's a show called Cyberchase. As a kid, that was one of my favorite shows and I really liked Inez. However, what inspired me to actually name my Inez her name was that there would be moments in the show where another character, Matt, would call her Nezzie, and she'd be like "don't call me Nezzie." This caused my mind to click, thinking that it would be perfect for my story. The rest is history.

For other characters, I decided to name Dr. Terry because I simply liked the way it sounded. Ms. Terry sounded so weird to me, so I decided to make her have a doctorate degree so she can be addressed as "Dr." It matches with her job, anyway.

And with my pretty much irrelevant side character, Angelica, her name is based off of my old childhood neighbor. She was real fun and nice, so I decided to make my Angelica the exact way.

So Rylie is a grown-up now?

Yes, she is. If you've read Behind the Books, you should know that Rylie had her own story with Elias back when she was seventeen. In BTB, Inez made a guest appearance from when she was younger during their Thanksgiving dinner. This was the peak of me coming up with the plot for TMS, so since Inez grew up, Rylie had to grow up too. So now, she's married to Elias with a baby. I'm a real sucker for romances, as you can see.

If you haven't read BTB but plan on it, I'm sorry you had to find out this way. But still go read it if you want to read a cute, innocent romance story. There's much more to it than that.

Can we expect a spin-off or a sequel?

Yes, but no. The way I ended off That's My Spotlight, I don't think that there's much room to introduce a sequel. Maybe I can whip something up in the future, but there are no promises.

But when it comes to spin-offs, absolutely. All my original stories take place in the same universe, so in each original I make, you'll see a familiar character pop up, just like Rylie did in TMS. Right now, I'm working on another original story, While We're Young, which will take place in the same universe. I don't plan on having Alexander and Inez appear, but one of the characters I have planned are related to Angelica from TMS, who wasn't too relevant to the story, but is still related to her. Maybe we'll get to see some of her :)

You mentioned While We're Young. What's that gonna be about?

I can't say much yet, but WWY is going to be an angsty yet somewhat fluffy romance. I'm really excited for this story because so much is going to happen, like heated moments, heartbreak, death, and moments that aren't necessarily appropriate for every age group.

I don't think this is something you want to miss, but WWY is expected to release in Spring or Summer 2023 at earliest, so keep an eye out for that. 

Because I love you guys so much, I decided to go ahead and leak the general story aesthetic. Any thoughts? 😌

'till next time, babes, xoxo