Beautiful Artwork

By the author

By the author's friend, J Sun (you made my day drawing Hannah!!)

By bloopingbloopers (bloopingbloopers)

By NefertitiFenison (NefertitiFenison)

Caption: It's happening. The great three-way cooking contest with Moiya as the jury. I think Nora would make eggs benedict with smoked salmon and sun-dried cherry tomatoes, Kenta would make strawberry-jam filled croissants and buttery waffles, while Ujuu would make pancakes with a lot of blueberries. Kenta in the corner is passive aggressively folding his arms while awaiting results.

***Moiya and Ujuu are characters from the fantasy novel "The Chronicles of Soraya Thenayu" by ChristinaSilva9 (ChristinaSilva9). Kenta is a character from NefertitiFenison's sci-fi/teen-fic novel, "Looking for Hope." I encourage you to give both of these a read.

Caption: Kenny's Pop is the one holding two mugs of beer. The one putting a bottle of beer next to the pizza plate is Mr. McIntyre, I imagine him with beard and glasses, kinda nerdy-looking and frail, weary. Tishva is the one with pony tail. Beside him is Myrl and then there's Mr. Demarko not really sure what he's doing with the fathers of his kid's schoolmate but just going along because Jacquelle asked him to get to know them ever since she befriended Soraya and the boys. Maybe this takes place after the Matumi beach concert/duet.

Nef drew this masterpiece while I was stressing out. From left to right, it's Nef's puppy, myself, Rain from Looking For Hope, Hannah from Keychains, and Nefertiti herself. We're playing Uno. 

By OmeletteDanish (OmeletteDanish)

By Fayesther (Fayesther)

By 9Worlds using HeroForge

Thank you to all the artists for their beautiful work! Seeing Nora and her story come to life is just really wonderful. Be sure to check our their works!

Acknowledgements

First of all, a big thank you to Nittan, J Sun and Reese. I am lucky to have friends like you. Thank you for reading and listening to me rant about this 6-month long project. Your positivity, sarcasm and support for my story cheered me up during the darkest days and gave me hope.

Also, thank you to: NefertitiFenison, 9Worlds, SuVida777, Pipwusa, elsewhither, sandydragon1, ChristinaSilvia9, Fayesther,  RowanCarver, readwithjeremy, curiousgeo, _summering_, Voyageavecmoi, Kymeraent, MiniMoxx, normalsandwich, MarieLotte, and many many more for making it to the end. Your lovely comments, insights, analysis and encouragement keep me going, and I am so fortunate to have you guys find my story. 

Author's Note

Keychains was supposed to be a novella of 35k words, completed in four months. Now it's sitting at over 40k words (novel threshold, yay!), a span of six months, and some lovable side characters I didn't see coming. When I uploaded this book, I honestly wasn't expecting many readers. Two readers was an achievement. But by the book's end, I had at least eight people reading at the same time, and I cannot tell you how gratifying it is to know my book—despite its flaws—is being appreciated.

I was not intending Nora Whelan to be as similar to me as she is. I was quite embarrassed to realize my first MC (different story) was a copy and paste self-insert. But I also write characters with issues that I feel are not talked about in real life; personal attachments to problems I perceived as important. And I do think family issues are important to talk about in the open, not only when you're walking into a school counselor's office, but with friends. In classroom settings. In public safe places that aren't advertised as "Come as you need," but rather "Come as you are." Because everyone is dealing with these problems, quietly.

Until recently I was under the self-centered impression that I was the only one with a dysfunctional family. Then I found a small circle of friends. Slowly we shared our stories. I made more friends. And gradually the proportion of people I knew and people I knew who, in fact, do face these hurdles at home, shrank. It astounded me. I wasn't alone. These problems weren't the seeds of ill-luck that had cursed my family; it was present all around. People just didn't talk about it.

This isn't some shocking discovery for the world. But in a house that discourages open discussion, it was for me. I saw to see the subtle signs—well, what I thought was subtle signs, because approaching a classmate unprompted and saying, "Hey is everything okay at home?" would be perceived as nosey, egoistic, and rightly so. But sometimes X person isn't quiet because they're naturally shy. Sometimes Y person doesn't snap because they enjoy being disrespectful. There are moving parts behind the scenes, but they are turned a blind eye.

I explored these themes in Keychains, and out of that was born Nora's story. Perhaps, this seems extreme to you. Rare. Only the worst-of-the-worst would do this to their child, right? Not every dysfunctional family has Nora's exact situation. But you'll be surprised at what things can be done without prevention, and how commonly they occur. I also had Nora's Unlocking ability, to explore the themes of how things look from different perspectives. "Hurt people hurt people," so is the saying—so are these things justifiable? To what extent can they be prevented? To what extent is the blame on the parent, child, both, or neither?

Nora and her father may, or may not have made a decision that you agree with. That is for you to decide, and you to see as it unfolds in the future. I want to show that no decision is ever perfect, but you can only do your best.

If you're still here, thank you. I would like to pose some questions to you, dear reader, so I am aware of what things to change in my rewrite once I finish the entire trilogy (because goodness knows how long I'll spend rewriting Keychains if the trilogy isn't done). If you could answer at least 2 questions, that would be much appreciated.

1. Currently, "Keychains" is sitting at just over 40k words, which is longer than the novella length I've planned. Do you think the current length fits the story I wanted to tell? Or should it be shorter/longer for the plot points (especially the emotional ones) to hit?

2. I hate writing dialogue. It's tricky and somewhat monotonous and believe it or not, Nora is an extrovert. I realize a lot of my dialogue "feels" the same, or has the same emotional/plot formula. I want the characters to do something instead of just standing and talking. Ideas?

3. Did the memory flashbacks at the end of each chapter get tiring to read? I knew I was taking a risk with those, but that I thought that a) it fits with Nora's powers, and b) it's a bit tedious to have Nora talk about her past in the actual text instead of just jumping straight into it. At least I don't have any ideas for how I can do that, if that is possible. Your thoughts?

4. How was the emotional abuse parts handled? Well? Not well? A little too preachy or "whoa look at this it's so bad, feel pity for Nora and hate her parents!" I do not want Keychains to come off as black-and-white, one-sided, teenager kind of ranting, pity-begging. I want to illustrate reality as it is, and reality is full of complex human beings.

5. General improvements? Please be honest here; I don't want to repeat the same mistakes in my sequel.

6. Any unanswered questions that you think should be addressed in "Keychains" instead of its sequel? Did I miss any loose ends?

(Update before you read the next part: the sequel to Keychains, Backstage, has been published on my profile! I update weekly.)

The sequel will be written from Tai's point of view, which is why I am so glad Tai got a positive reception. I am planning to release it in September 2021 at the latest. Let us hope I've learned enough from Keychains to avoid wasting time rewriting. I want to use that time instead on educating myself more on autism so I can represent his character properly. (But first, I shall rewrite Keychains' first chapter, because man oh man are there inconsistencies about his travelling details which contradict his personality! I also forgot that unless you're really rich you have to somehow finance your road trip. For now I'm thinking that he's only been on the road for a couple months at a time. I'll put an announcement when the rewritten chapter is ready.)

Ah, and one more thing. I strongly recommend reading "Running On Empty" by Dr. Jonice Webb and Christine Musello. It's a non-fiction book that dives into something called "emotional neglect." Give it a read. You might discover something new about yourself. At the very least it might give you a new perspective when it comes to parent-child relationships. 

Thank you so very much for reading. I would have quit halfway through if it wasn't for you guys. I am equally thankful to those who've seen Keychains' strengths, as well as those who kindly pointed out areas of improvement. I will not be rewriting Keychains until I finish the entire trilogy, but I promise your suggestions will not be in vain.

That reminds me, what would be a good trilogy name? Keeping these supernatural powers in mind, I suppose. I can't give away everything, but in general you can expect each installation is more focused on emotional stuff than action. Each supernatural power ties into the character, their personality, challenges and therefore story.

I will see you guys soon. There are many scrapped drafts and memory pieces from Keychains, which I will upload into a separate collection called "Jade's Garage." 

Thank you. <3

-Jade