Lily of the Valley

𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬

This book, being the second one I'm making alongside The Masked Pianist, another story that is still continuing, used to be a three-episode podcast that I made with two of my best friends, Sienna Liang and Pearl Chiu. 

The characters were literally all gender-swapped, and the plot was almost non-existent, with only three personas in action.  This time around, we're switching everything. Frick it, we ball. Lily of the Valley is the masterpiece that has come out after ages of planning, months of work, and half an A4 book.

It's nothing much, but so much detail has gone into this, and I hope that whoever ends up reading this, whether it's still on this MacBook or printed out on paper, will learn to appreciate that I've spent a lot of time on this, and no matter if you deem me selfish for writing these words like I'm vomiting them.

I have had a huge amount of pressure from both sides of everywhere, really. 

Writing brings me to another universe, and when it's my own universe, my very own universe, it's even better. Going through all the nooks and crannies of the world that other authors create has been fun and all, but this, this is much better. There are two things that I really want in life: money, and fame.

One or the other is fine, but, though it sounds like the greediest thing that someone can ever say, that's my ultimate dream.

 I'm not lying, and I don't want to lie. I'm doing this for my own fun because I'm a creative person. 

I'm doing this for fun in the hopes that, one day, this book will be published, whether I'm alive or not during then. If I am, then, well, yay for me. And if I'm not ... well, I'm happy for the people who will get the credit for it.

I think the biggest source of inspiration for this certain book was Attack on Titan. I actually abandoned this draft when I first wrote it, leaving it for another novel, which I quit, and then another novel, that I am now putting on hiatus for my own reasons (burnout). 

But the reason I'm back is because Attack on Titan has officially finished. I hadn't been in the fandom for very long when it had, but I have had so much fun with it, and it means so, so much to me. It started with the creation of my own character, Avery Ackerman, who would be pronounced Avery Smith at the end of the series I had started before, Humanity's Goddess.

I never finished it. Avery Ackerman was never pronounced Avery Smith and my account on Quotev was completely dismissed. By then, I had realised that I could make my own stories, and looked up to Isayama, the creator of Attack on Titan, and knew that I wanted to be like him in the future. 

I looked up to Rick Riordan and knew that I wanted to be like him in the future. I know that my ultimate dream will be for this story, my masterpiece, to become an animated series, but I know that it cannot be a manga, for I am not skilled enough to learn Japanese, and never become a manhua, because I am not nearly skilled enough in Chinese, my own language.

But I will look forward to an impossible future, still.

All in all, I'm looking forward to seeing how this piece of writing will end up to be, and I'm going to be signing off here, being the dumb dropout I am. 

But till then, I sincerely hope that you enjoy, no matter what happens to your favourite character.

- Abbie <3