Ignite

Thirty-four || Just Like Old Times

SO IF YOU COULD READ THIS IT WOULD AMAZING THANKS

So first, hey, what's up, guys? How are you doing?

Alright, time to get serious.

So I was going through my books, cringing over my old writing and whatnot, and then I realized as I reread a few chapters of the Elementals that it's basically 99% composed of white people. That's it. It's horrible.

So this is a formal apology, because I, being a white person, just glazed everything over and wrote my characters with the assumption that they are/were white, like me. I'm sorry. So as I've been writing new characters and getting farther into Ignite, I've been trying to diversify my cast, and any character that I did not describe as pale and lanky I've been trying to give a better backstory (seriously though, why did I make everyone tall vampires?) And as I attempt to introduce these new characters as poc, I will most likely fail. I am going to research and try hard and do my best, but the fact is I am white, and I live in tiny little white town in the U.S., and I'm going to screw up. So this is where I ask for your help. If you see a mistake, anything even remotely offensive, TELL ME. PLEASE. You can comment, you can message me, and I will fix/get rid of the problem. I won't get offended, and even if I do it's my stupid issue and not yours. So help me, please, and we will all work together to make this book so much better.

(That also applies to sexualities and genders. I've been adding queer people, but they're pretty much limited to the sexualities of people I know or am myself, because then I can consult and get my facts straight...er, not straight. And I'd love to add a gender queer character but I don't have any gender queer people I know that I can consult and I don't understand the feeling of gender dysphoria or anything so I don't think I could accurately represent it, but if you want to help, I'd love it!)

So this author's note is really long but I also want to tell you guys a story.

So I went to the twenty one pilots concert in Boston on Saturday and I was crying. Like, it was so dumb, but in the middle of Migraine I just starting crying and it was only for like two seconds but I don't even know. I kind of hadn't wanted to go to the concert that day because concerts are loud and there's lots of people and I can usually only tolerate that for an hour or two at most, and I wasn't feeling all too hot because school has started and I vehemently hate all but one of my classes and there's too much homework and I'm tired all the time and I was just not feeling good.

But I went anyway because I didn't want to waste money and it was alright and Finish Ticket was great and adorable and Echosmith was awesome and Graham is so cute with his hat and gives really nice hugs, and then top came on and everyone was screaming and they knew all the words to every song and Tyler would just stop singing and the crowd would scream the words back with Josh on drums pulsing up through the floor like he could supply a heartbeat for us all and I just wanted to cry because I have so much going on but so did everyone else who was singing. They were singing every single word right back to Josh and Tyler because they'd finally found something that made them feel a little less alone, and they were singing back with this roar of voices so that maybe Tyler and Josh knew that they weren't alone either. And their lyrics are horrible. I mean, they're beautiful and unique, but the fact that two guys made those lyrics and 5,000 people sang them back because it fills up that spot in their chest that's been empty for too long is horrible. Because too many people understand those lyrics, but we went to that concert and at least for that five hours we were happy. And maybe twenty one pilots isn't your thing, and that's okay. But find your thing, find what makes you feel even the slightest bit fuller, and then hang onto it and don't ever be ashamed. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you're not alone, and we're gonna make it, you know? We're going to make it, so just hang on.