I get a lotta messages asking similar things, so I reckoned I'd just clear them all up in this. Apologies to those of you who thought that this was an additional part, but hey, can't be helped. I'm writing a wee (well, wee-ish) story for the beautiful PandaGutsxo, who is generally just fucking awesome. :D Also, possible spoilers, so consider yourself warned.

If you don't see your question listed, please scroll through the comments. Chances are, it's already been answered.

2021: so we're coming up for the 10 year anniversary (!!) of Top and Tail and I have a question for my lovely readers! If I wrote a oneshot short story about Ash and Jay, what would like to see? A post-canon 10 years later fic? A missing scene from the story? More of Lee and Lewis? Drop your suggestions in the comments please 🥰

Q: Is there a sequel?

A: Nah. The ending was one of the first things I planned out, and I like the openness of it. Ash learned and grew in all the ways I intended him to, and I have nothing more to add. Tacking on a bit at the end feels like it would cheapen it somehow. I do have lots of bits and bobs of their lives cluttering up my head, but nothing which would constitute a story with any semblance of a plot or timeline.

Q: What's top and tail mean?

A: Two folk sharing a bed, one with their head at each end. Like, Ash would sleep with a pillow up at one end of the bed, while Jay would sleep with a pillow down the other, next to Ash's feet. Rather him than me, eh.

Q: Why do you think [insert something Ash said here]?

A: Ash's views are part of the plot and were never meant to be representative of my own perspective. They are purely there to develop his character and drive the plot forward. Like most of my fictional protagonists, we agree on some things and disagree on others. It's more fun to write characters with their own distinct personality and perspective :)

Q: Are you/Ash and Jay English?

A: Nope. I am/the characters are Scottish. We're the slightly colder/wetter/awesomer country to the north of England. We're part of the UK at the moment, still live under a monarchy, and still drink an absurd amount of tea, but we have our own education system, shops, money (still pounds, but our notes are different colours :D), and slang/language. We have strong accents, which vary from region to region. Me, Ash and Jay all speak with a Glaswegian twang.

Still, this version of Scotland is kinda a fusion of Glasgow and America, if I'm honest. Since over half my readers are from North America, I thought that it'd be a good idea to kinda mix the two together so as to still appeal to American audiences and stuff. I mean, the whole parents coming to watch the track and cheerleaders and stuff? Never woulda happened up here! ^^;

Q: Is there a sex scene/why is there no sex scene?

A: Because I didn't fucking want one.

Also, I was fourteen when I wrote Top and Tail. Stop asking children to write you porn, I don't know how else to say this.

edit 19/01/14: please stop asking me about this. you literally have the entire internet at your disposal. go google boys touching weenies or something.

Q: I thought LGBT marriage was legal in the UK?

A: It is as of 2013! But Top and Tail was written back in 2011, two years before it was made law.

Q: Do Ash and Jay go to a private school?

A: No, in Scotland the state funds religious schools too. Ash and Jay just go to a normal state school, but since they're at a Catholic school then they also go to mass and have to take classes on Catholicism. Everything else is the same though.

Q: You can't be agnostic and atheist/Agnosticism and Atheism are "_____"/What Does Ash Mean When He Calls Himself an Agnostic Atheist?

A: Ooh boy. Here we go. Keep in mind that when I use these terms, I'm using the widely accepted theologian definitions, so some people you meet in real life will apply these terms to themselves and others differently. There are huge controversies over what atheism and theism actually consist of, and how these words should be used (◡‿◡✿)

Atheism is kind of an umbrella term? There are a lot of arguements over what constitues an atheist in the first place, and there's loads of different classes & subcategories of athiesm (implicit/explicit, postive/negative, irreligious/antireligious). On the whole though, you can assume that when someone identifies themself as an atheist, they don't especially believe in any particular deities.

Agnosticism though, in a religious context, means that the absolute truth of a higher power's existence is unknown and unknowable (whether this is due to the limits of humanity at this current point in time or the limits of humanity's innate comprehension is dependant on the outlook of each particular agnostic.)

So, as far as concepts go, agnosticism and atheism are two compatible and non-exclusive schools of thought. To quote Robert Flint, a Scottish theologian and philosopher from the late 19th/early 20th century:

"The atheist may however be, and not unfrequently is, an agnostic. There is an agnostic atheism or atheistic agnosticism, and the combination of atheism with agnosticism which may be so named is not an uncommon one.

If a man has failed to find any good reason for believing that there is a God, it is perfectly natural and rational that he should not believe that there is a God; and if so, he is an atheist... if he goes farther, and, after an investigation into the nature and reach of human knowledge, ending in the conclusion that the existence of God is incapable of proof, cease to believe in it on the ground that he cannot know it to be true, he is an agnostic and also an atheist – an agnostic-atheist – an atheist because an agnostic... while, then, it is erroneous to identify agnosticism and atheism, it is equally erroneous so to separate them as if the one were exclusive of the other.."

As you've probably gathered, I'm a bit of a theology/philosophy nerd. Anyone who's interested in theology should absolutely hmu! :D

Q: What's slash?

A: 'Slash' is what boyxboy is known as pretty much everywhere else except wattpad XD. Before the internet was generally accessible, fanfiction writers wrote their stuff in low budget fanzines that were sold at conventions. Star Trek was easily the biggest writing circle. The writers who wrote romantic fiction between characters Kirk and Spock needed a way to differentiate between their romantic fics and the platonic fics, commonly marked 'Kirk&Spock'. In the late 70s, people began denoting a romantic pairing between the two with the notation 'Kirk/Spock', pronounced as Kirk-slash-Spock. This notation was adopted across multiple fandoms, and the slash soon became synonymous with male/male pairings within fanfiction. Eventually, slash evolved to simply denote a work with a romantic pairing with two characters of the same gender. Femslash is often used to indicate a female/female pairing too. Slash has been around way longer than boyxboy, and it really surprises me that it never caught on here.

Anyhoo, I add both tags because boyxboy is the expected tag on wattpad, and that's the tag people search for. I wanna make to stuff accessible to readers obviously :) . I add slash as well because anyone coming from pretty much any other fiction archive (especially if they have a background in fandom) is probably more familiar with the word 'slash'. Like I was :D

Q: It's not called High School in the UK, it's called Secondary School! / Why do you keep saying 'High School' ?

High School is a Scottish term! The first High School in the world was the Edinburgh Royal High School, which was founded in 1505. If you check up on the Scottish secondary school statistics, you can see that most secondary schools in Scotland are called High Schools.

Q: Who won the bet?

Hm. Technically, I'd say it was Jay, and if I was Jay, I'd argue my point to hell and back. Lee hinted, sure, but she didn't make a move, so Lewis was initiator. However, Jay being Jay would just pass up the win for the sake of Ash, who'd huff by himself until Jay conceded that he'd won.

Q: How can Linda talk when she's on life support?

A: "Life support measures" are any process that helps support life after the failure of one or more vital organs. It doesn't just mean keeping someone alive when they're comatose. Feeding tubes, dialysis, and respirators all fall under the banner of 'life support', but you'd still be able to talk hooked up to any of them. You can find more info to corroborate this on webMD, wikipedia, and medicine.net. 

Q: Why did you make the characters Catholic? / Why include religion at all?

A: Oh boy. Top is Tail contains some autobiographical elements, one of which is Ash's struggle with his sexuality vs the religion he grew up with. I think that this is something that many LGBT people are familiar with, and I know that when I was struggling to come to terms with my identity it would have meant a great deal to read about characters who faced similar issues - and by extension connect with other readers who were in the same situation.

Why Catholicism? Because I was raised Catholic. I went to a Catholic state school for 13 years; was baptised Catholic, confirmed and took Communion; studied for qualifications in Catholicism; every single member of my entire family is Catholic; much of my family work within the Catholic Church; I dated a Catholic alter server for two years and together we became Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion; I volunteered with Catholic charities... the list goes on. My entire life was deeply entrenched in Catholicism. It didn't even occur to me that the characters might not go to a Catholic school until a few chapters in! I'm intimately familiar with Catholicism and all it entails, and personally experienced a lot of what goes on in Ash's school.

Q: What's fourth year in ___________ country?

A: I have no idea. Different countries begin school at different ages and have different cut off dates. Two people in the same year group in one country wouldn't neccessarily be in the same year group in Scotland. It doesn't really have any impact to the story anyway - Ash is 15/16, and Jay is 16 and that's all we really need to get the ball rolling ;D

They'd also technically be in fifth year in Scotland anyways, because I shifted the timeline from after Christmas to before Christmas and forgot to move them up a year group accordingly. I didn't change it, because I figured no one would know what fourth year was anyway and by the time I'd realised, I had like 5k reads and thought "eh, this is as popular as it's gonna get it's fine." XD

Q: What is a cheese toastie?

A: It is literally just a slice of toast with cheese on it.

Q: What is regi?

A: Short for 'registration'. It's a brief 15 minute period that some schools have before morning classes begin where they check the attendance of all the kids and read out any announcements, hand out newsletters and permissions slips etc. I think homeroom would be an American equivelant? Not all schools have it - mine scrapped the concept last year.

Q: What is TESCO?

A: A British supermarket chain. The larger stores have small cafés that serve breakfast buffets and teas and coffees in the morning.

Q: What is a Scottish flapjack?

A: a snack of sweet syrupy oats baked in a tray so that the outside is hard and crunchy while the inside is has a soft, gooey texture. They're best served warm *wipes up drool*

Q: What does 'fykie' mean?

A: I get this a lot with anything particularly Scottish, but 'fykie' seems to have disappeared from the net entirely. Fykie just means picky or fussy, 'specially about food. My advice would be to hit up Urban Dictionary if you're ever stumped. If it ain't there, feel free to message us :D

I think that's about it to be honest. If you want to ask anything else, please don't hesitate to do so :D And thanks so much to everybody for the overwhelmingly positive responses I got from this sludge of a book D:. Honest, I read and grin at every single message/comment I ever receive (I'm sad like that ;D). And a super extra special thank you to folk who've drawn fanart/wrote about this on tumblr. I love you all :')