Curse - Septiplier

Final Author's Note

Hello everyone!

I cannot believe that I've already finished another book. It seems like only a couple of weeks ago that I had this idea all ready to go and written up. Its incredible, isn't it? I'm more surprised that you all loved Curse as much as you did. I worked really hard at making it the best that it could be, and even with my hiatus in the middle of its creation you guys still waited for me to return and continue writing it, and for that I cannot thank you all enough.

So, let's point out the obvious here. Curse, the title. I wasn't sure if it was totally clear, but let's start from where I got the name. As some of you know, Imagine Dragons is my favorite band of all time. I adore their music, and they just so happened to have a song titled "Curse" and I'm so glad that no one seemed to catch onto it, lest it gave away the plot line I had ready to go (it talks about someone giving their life for another that they love). However, throughout the book the actual "Curse" happened to be Jack and Mark's fault of being gay in the time period that they were in. That was their curse, and believe it or not that entire plot line for this book came to me while I was on a walk outside and in the rain. The song came on and all of a sudden I had an entire plot in my head, and I rushed home and began to write what you all know today. Crazy, right?

Now, I feel as though I should address the ending to this book for a couple of reasons. I know that many of you feel uncomfortable or unhappy with the ending that I gave the book, and I know that it was pretty sad and probably not to some of your tastes, but I'll give a few reasons for the ending that I chose. For one, if any of you have read "Experience 2013" by @FlyLemon you will know how absolutely powerful a bittersweet ending can truly be, and the thought of writing a book like that always simmered in the back of my head; I've always wanted to write a book where I thought the ending fit. Curse simply seemed to fit the bill, and the ending fit rather well I thought. The other reason that I wrote the ending the way that I did, and several of you caught onto this which I was proud of, was that it was supposed to convey the idea that reality isn't always so sweet. Stories can't always end in a happy manner, and the hero can't always get the princess and slay the dragon at the same time. This story was meant to be real, from Jack's naive nature to the greedy King to how true and honest I felt that Mark really is. All down to the wire, I tried to plan this to a tee, and I thought that overall, it worked out really well.

I feel as though with every book that I write I have to answer this question, so I'll do this again.

I will not be writing a sequel to Curse.

I know that most of you absolutely fell in love with this book, and while I was writing it, I did too. I put what I thought was some of my best work out there, and it turned out just the way that I hoped it would. However, the ending was clear, and it ties back into the realism part. Mark is dead, and forever gone. I can't really think of anything else to put into a sequel that would be plausible. On top of all of this, I really am not a person for sequels. There are hardly any book series that I claim to appreciate with sequels, and I don't feel as if I could portray the characters and everyone the same way. I like this book, but I like it just the way it is. No more and no less.

With that being said, I cannot thank you all for your support and kindness throughout this book. From when I first started to when you were all so patient when I went on hiatus, and when I returned. You were all very supporting, and the comments always entertain me. I go back through them when I need something to lift my spirits, and you guys just being you and reacting to the story makes my entire day. I'm so happy that you all enjoyed reading this story nearly as much as I enjoyed writing it :) but I suppose that's a debate for another day.

So here's to one book down, and many more in the future to come (I have another currently in planning, so I hope you're all excited for that)! Have yourselves a frantastic weekend, and I'll see you all in the next one!

~Jay