The Recital of Terrance Reed

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

When I began writing this story, it didn't start as Terrance Reed. It started as Norman Dale. It was because I took a trip to Ontario for the winter of 2021. My fiancé and I were driving around his old stomping grounds. He showed me old sites where he and his friends would hang out.

We went to this small beach town called Normandale. It was a ghost town. It felt like it. But it is mostly just a small keep of Ontario's legacy. It faced the ominous lake, Lake Erie. Riding through the ghost town. I saw what was left and houses tucked away in Ontario's lower lands, away from society. The places seemed still and calm as if the world around them hadn't evolved. It was interesting.

As we travelled a little deeper into the ghost town. There was a dock where it faced the entire Lake Eerie. In the distance, there was a plateau called Long Point. My fiancé was describing the area around. I was standing there, taking every single detail that he was saying. It was almost like the ocean, but it was technically because it did connect. But besides that. I started getting this idea for a story. A small town boy who is awkward and a wallflower. And an uptown boy who is confident and revering in ways that make the small-town boy feel small. That is where I started whipping ideas for the story. Getting ideas that were more accompanied by small-town vibes. The story begins as the small-town boy meets the uptown boy in a donut shop. Very classy.

I wrote a manuscript of up to forty pages. But I stopped because I wanted to focus on my other story, "Big Family High School" Then, the story slowly drifted away from me. Losing interest, I store the story on my laptop around the end of summer. I had seen the story "Normandale" in a lost folder. I remember gasping because I had thought I would forever forget it. Then, when I had time, I whipped up an entirely different story.

Terrance Grey was created.

I had this entire idea for these lovebirds to never fall in love. But in fact, be more of a growing-up story. Kyle never existed. He was just a nameless person. But as time went on. I was sitting there, thinking of different things I could make up. Like kidnapping? Or is Kyle dying? It was the original plan of the story. I wanted Kyle to die at the end. It was a fixed setting. I had planned his death scene and how it would affect Terrance Grey.

But as time went on. The story kept shifting and kept changing. I was writing the story and kept changing plot lines as I went on. What I had on my planning sheet was utterly changed to what I had on my laptop. I have drawn Terrance Grey and pulled Kyle at the job I had. I fell in love with the last name of Kyle. But Terrance, I felt iffy at first. I had looked up the name, and Terrance Grey didn't fit. So I decided to change his name to Terrance Reed finally.

The entire story of Terrance Reed was different from when I started. He was meant to grow up to be a successful art critic. I plan to have Terrance Reed become a millionaire, and everything that plans goes accordingly. But for Kyle. Kyle was meant to be kidnapped in part three and lost and exploited. Kyle was going to be addicted to drugs and die. But it was just too sad for the character. I loved Kyle with all my heart and didn't want him to die unlawfully.

So I deleted half of the story and redid the entire story to make Kyle and Terrance happy. And as well, the trope that Gay Relationships in media always end up sad and sombre. I wanted to change that and make it happier. I wanted them to end up satisfied and alive, and thriving. I made the right choice by making them grow and be who they were meant to be.

Now, it's 2023, two years since I started the story. It had changed and grown in many different ways than where it began. And I am happy to say it is finished. And I want to share a story that will relate to many gay men.

And I am proud to say that this story will hopefully be your favourite someday...

Miigwetch (Thank you)

-Julian M.