Perhaps (Book 1) | ✔

Inspriation & Disclaimer [Can Be Skipped]

Title: Perhaps
Author: escapism91 @ Wattpad
Version: 4.0 (January 2020)

Genre: Fiction—New Adult; Romance, Drama, Slice-of-life
Rating: Teen (13+)—Mild Language, Alcohol Usage, Mild Sexual Themes

NOTE: ACT II — Scene 6 has a slightly higher rating of Older Teen (16+), as it contains a scene that may be sensitive to some readers. The book as a whole does not have a Mature Tag because the majority of it does not contain Mature scenes.

Cover image made by me using the Adobe Spark for iPad app.

Inspirations & Disclaimers:
Jack the Ripper (The Musical) by original creative team Vaso Patejdl, Ivan Hejna, and Michal Kocourek. (Original title: Jack Rozparovač inspired by a book written by Ivan Hejna).

This piece was originally inspired by the musical produced by this trio of individuals, and subsequently performed in South Korea (the production, to my knowledge, is on-going, with showings every year). My inspirations specifically come from the South Korean adaptions, as it is my understanding that the original Czech version is different (i.e., darker), and that the story was modified for overseas renditions. I have never seen any of the Korean productions in person—my exposure to it is from recording snippets of various performances, synopses from those who have been to see it, and snippets of translation of song lyrics and the script. My exposure to the original Czech version is via a Google Translated Wikipedia page for it (so, extremely limited).

The characters of 'Daniel Lee' and 'Gloria Anderson' in my story were inspired by the 'Daniel' and 'Gloria' present in JTR's story. Originally, I had written blurbs completely unrelated to that musical or this story about that 'Daniel' and 'Gloria' having a happier ending rather than something so tragic. The original draft of Perhaps used completely different characters, but I have subsequently replaced them all with the current cast (as of my first revision of the book in 2018). The current story is also quite a bit different and far more fleshed out—Version 1.0 was only ~22,000 words long and extremely rough in format.

Though there are still similarities present between this musical and the one represented in my book (Descent Into Madness), I do not mean any copyright infringement; and I hope that the two works are different enough to show that. I do not own any part of Jack the Ripper, nor do I claim to. 'Daniel Lee' and 'Gloria Anderson', though inspired by that story, are separate entities; and I do claim ownership of them, as well as all the other characters used in my writing.

The love theme "Perhaps" was directly inspired by the love theme present in the Korean Jack the Ripper productions (titled "어쩌면", which is translated as "Perhaps"). After translating the original from Japanese (which was a translation from Korean) into English, I attempted to spin the lyrics into something different and more fitting for the story I have written here. I do not mean any copyright infringement on this song, and I hope that the two works are different enough to show that. I do not own any part of the Korean production of Jack the Ripper, nor do I claim to. My version of "Perhaps", though inspired by the original, I attempted to make into a completely separate song. (Song lyrics are certainly not my forte, so don't judge me too harshly on them!)

Originally, this story was written with the inclusion of Jack the Ripper as the musical being performed as opposed to Descent Into Madness (Version 2.0). However, I wanted to come up with something a bit more original, so I changed that as of my third revision (2019). The characters written into my musical are characters from a work-in-progress of mine, which is a rewrite of a old fanfiction from 2011. Thus, DIM was born. The musical itself has a timeline and backstory that I brainstormed; and, while inspired by JTR, I tried to make it different from its inspiration.

Ultimately, this part can be skipped if people are not particularly interested in where my inspiration for this story came from. At the conclusion of Perhaps, this will likely be moved to the end of the uploaded parts so that readers can immediately jump into the story and not be bogged down by something that is very likely irrelevant. But, for now, it leads the book. Feel free to skip it (as per the part title) if you are uninterested in the background. I won't be angry! :)

Thank you to everyone who clicks on this book to read it. I am truly grateful to each and every one of you! Feel free to leave comments and suggestions on chapters! I love hearing the thoughts of people who read my stories! And don't forget to press the star and vote if you're really enjoying the story! <3