#smalltowns

Haven’t been on here in forever.

Some art I made.

The Shadow Prophecy (Shadow Wolf Trilogy Book #1) - Chapter 2: So It Begins (on Wattpad) https://www.wattpad.com/1090764320-the-shadow-prophecy-shadow-wolf-trilogy-book-1?utm_source=web&utm_medium=tumblr&utm_content=share_reading&wp_uname=Rae_Egan&wp_originator=KJwU3FATc0NWmYRKIQlvO%2F4nuH%2FFqGu5wxxJDfwGXYpt8EtY4Kd8QC4TkGk0NuB4SchTtTDFeni6sCA8q%2BP8gIvQZbcoFj1aqMdZeVoyJCkMFGNssLSdpvGnyF%2FMezy3 

 When Layla Kane moves to the small town of Forrest Edge she didn't know that her life would be turned upside down. Moving to a new town can be difficult especially when she ends up getting on the wrong side of the most popular guy in school. Faced with challenges she never thought possible will Layla be able to survive? Or, was her fate determined long ago? 

When the Story Ends (on Wattpad) https://my.w.tt/DNipvAjyG5 When her boyfriend unexpectedly dumped her, Kyra thought her story had ended. A coffee shop and some investigative journalism proved her wrong.

My very IT-interested, 11-year-old niece visited me yesterday with her dad and shared some things with me most of our family don’t know about her. She knows I love IT, knows I’ve studied the book and watched the mini-series + movies. She’s only seen the mini-series and the first movie so far; she loves both VERY much and can’t wait to see Chapter 2. When we were left alone, she immediately switched conversation about the actors and individual Losers to serious talk about Richie and Eddie.

My niece is highly intelligent and perceptive. She speaks with a mature vocabulary and an impressively heightened sensitivity. She asked me very straightforwardly about Richie’s and Eddie’s sexualities book-wise, because she had a feeling they weren’t straight and had feelings for each other just from watching the mini-series and first film. After conveying that book Eddie and Richie are gay and bisexual, she told me she knows for sure she is bisexual and has a crush on her best friend, who happens to be another girl. She felt a relation to both Eddie and Richie and wanted to know more about them from me.

My family lives in a very small, Derry of a town. I know that’s a big contributor to why the story of IT has always been so scarily familiar to me. It’s conservative here. Kids are meant to be seen and not heard. It is old and rooted in outdated customs/attitudes that show the town has not changed despite our current year. If someone were to come out as LGBTQ in this town, we just might see an Adrian Mellon situation. It wouldn’t shock me in a place like this. My niece felt safe to tell me about herself, perhaps because she felt I’d understand after talking about Richie and Eddie with me (I know for sure her immediate family deems anything gay absolutely disgusting and sinful/in need of correction. Most of our family, in general, holds this viewpoint). In telling me, she learned I am also bisexual. She now has someone older who gets that part of her more deeply.

I am honored that she shared this with me. I love that she saw parts of herself in Eddie and Richie, was happy to know about them, and wanted to talk to me about those parts of her through what she saw in them. She doesn’t seem to worry about herself, but I hope that, if her immediate family finds out down the road, she won’t be hurt in some way for it. My aunt, in particular, would have a FIT if she knew anyone in this family were anything other than straight. So far, there’s three of us I know for sure, including myself, who aren’t straight in this family. The other is my older, gay cousin who was told by his parents to keep his mouth shut “if he truly is a f*g.” His parents don’t want to be shameful figures in town; his own mother even said he needs to wait until she dies at least because then SHE wouldn’t have to see it. Certainly no concern for his wellbeing. My cousin nearly committed suicide in trying to live by his parents’ rules, even in getting married to a woman to ignore himself. He’s now divorced and has only just begun trying to be himself at age 41.