Elias Alizadeh, sixteen and a half

Foreword

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A story about a guy, his life, his love and being a teen. Simple as that.

Elias and Alex have been my companions for many years. I think it's probably close to a decade, soon. I had this vague idea about a BL story I wanted to write - but I just couldn't get it right.

Caught up in my obsession for Asian BL , I set it in Japan. It didn't work. It didn't matter how much knowledge I have or how well I researched the details. It didn't come alive. 

But practically all BL novels are set in Asia. The BL fandom is mostly Asian. Is it even possible to get someone to read BL that isn't set in Asia? I don't know. What I do know - is that I'm not Asian.

So I decided that I'm going to write about what I know. The teen life I lived, that my friends lived. The people I've met, the places I know like the back of my hand, the reality of teen life here, in Sweden. I haven't been a teen in Japan. No matter how many dramas I watch, how well I do my research, how well I know the culture and language - I wasn't there. I was here.

All of a sudden, characters started popping into my head. Scenes. Things I want to tell. Issues that engage me. The story just started writing itself, rapidly fleshing out to have a detailed setting and main plot. I don't quite remember when I started putting the ideas down on paper.

(I usually write on paper first - I'm oldschool... I have notebooks lying around and when I get an idea, I write.) I'm pretty sure it was about late 2007 or early 2008. Just a few random texts, scenes really, rather than well constructed chapters of a novel. 

I still didn't have all the details so I didn't know where to start - nor did I have any ambitions about the story. It was just for fun.

Then, 2011, while making my application to  Comic Arts School, I decided to make my work samle an intro to a manga based on the story I had started. While drawing the 10 page intro, the story started to grow rapidly in my head. I got inspired, wrote more chapters and started doing extensive research for it. (Since parts of it are about a culture and a history I am not completely familiar with.)

A couple of chapters grew to a bunch of them and they have just been there in the stack of notebooks and my PC, forgotten.

Then I got caught up in the huge "Love Sick" fandom, wrote some fanfics that became quite popular - and thought that I'd try translating and uploading a couple of chapters - just to see what the reaction was from people who are not familiar with Sweden nor its culture.

The response was really good, which of course made me very happy. However, I posted it on AFF (Asian Fanfics) and that wasn't really a suitable place for this novel. But Wattpad is and I've moved all my works here.

So here goes nothing.

The "Mature content" is mostly a lot of cursing and foul language. But there will be sexual content further down the line.

The background story of Elias' parents, is a true one. The story of a woman I know, who has been kind enough to let me use her personal stories as a background for my novel and comic.

Thank you.

(Though, the actual characters of Elias' parents and their Irani friends, are purely fictional.)

Some parts are inspired by the real struggles of real people in my life. People who aren't free to love whom they want to, for one reason or another.

I will start by uploading the five completed chapters that were posted on AFF - then I have some editing to do. I have a bad habit of writing random chapters, bits and pieces and end up with a mess that lacks joints. But if I can just write those bridges that'll connect the parts - I have a shitload of stuff to work with.

I write all chapters in Swedish, since I want the flow of the "teen talk" to be just right. Then I translate into English. I will probably post it in both languages, but since BL isn't exactly a huge thing in my country - I might as well focus on the English.

My stuff are always works in progress. When I discover errors, want to add art or something, or just feel unhappy about some detail - I will definitely go back and edit.

I hope you'll enjoy it. All comments, upvotes and promo, is of course welcome.

ANY DRAWINGS I MIGHT POST IN THIS NOVEL (INCLUDING THE COVER) ARE MADE BY ME - DO NOT STEAL MY ARTWORK WITHOUT PERMISSION!