When I thought of Deja Vu, I was at a slump in my life. It was nowhere near as dramatic of a tunnel as what these kids undergo, but similar to their dilemma, the world as it was hit me like a brick and I wasn't sure what could be worth it anymore. Living and creating both lost much of their meaning to me, and I was running through motions to try to find some schedule, some magical cure, that would pull me into productivity and stability.

I had been more or less unable to write human characters up until this point, in part because I was scared of fucking up some crucial part of basic human interaction, some minute detail that would cause the whole book to unravel, hell, no matter what I did, it never felt like genuine. I have to confess I was also lacking an emotional connection to most of them, which was why Extraordinary failed. I wasn't thinking, "hey, let's make an engaging story," I was thinking, "wow, a half-decent book... with humans.". All this changed when Deja Vu barreled into my life and held me at gunpoint. Anyone who has talked to me for the past year knows that I didn't talk about anything else for the past eight months. I didn't really draw anything else, either. This was a major inconvenience for my Dreamland stories, which barely scraped through (you might recall a petite novella known as "Roses and Thorns") but eventually I had to write this story, and all that anxiety was good as gone. This story probably saved my career, but it also taught me more than I bargained for about myself, my writing style, and all sorts of insightful life tidbits. In the end, the story ended up being about the dark side of escapism, abusive relationships, and my take on the "magical destiny" trope, but really, above all those things, this is a first draft of a  rambling story about depressed teenagers with superpowers. Regardless, hopefully it was at least a fun ride. I'd say this is far from finalized, because then we'd have to decide what Diosite is a metaphor for, and the answer it it's complicated and not meant to be taken as any one thing, but rather a conglomeration of things, and hell, that's just kind of a mess. Plus, I wrote half of the book in a week because I needed it over with in my tiny, dark heart so I could move on with my life.

I have a lot I'd like to do with this story in the future (revision and... more revision), but let me get one thing out of the way: there will be no sequel to Deja Vu. Ever. This story by its nature does not need a sequel. There are no loose ends that necessitate their own book. You may feel free to write your own sequel, create a dramatic 100K epic about Anthem getting run over by a bus, or write the coveted masterwork for the AU where Evan is inexplicably a cat. In fact, I'll probably die if you do, which I'm sure many of you would be okay with after this book. I apologize. Kind of. Hey, I cried too!

However, earlier in the book, I put up a lengthy tirade about how this would be a "rough draft", and I stand by that. There are contrivances, issues that are skirted around (parents, teachers, Karen's arc, Garrett and Harper getting shafted), and all sorts of small problematic technical errors. I do think that the heart of the story is in place, whatever your opinion may be on the functionality of that heart, that will probably stay the same, if streamlined. The heart will probably drop its cholesterol level and work out more, thus hastening the rate at which it can pump blood, but it will be the same heart, whatever that counts for.

Whatever you thought of the story, your support was certainly not amiss, and the incredibly positive reception from my fans drove me through the last few chapters like a comet about to hit a small planet (the planet is my feelings). Wherever you are in your life, whether you're on top of the world like the kids earlier in this book or trying to figure things out, like me when I wrote it, here's to getting better.

-Chrona