you can't help but become the sun / julien baker

beyond the sun ~

Here are some interesting facts about my book!

The driving back and forth was inspired by Jim and Pam's relationship from The Office when she went to art school and was away for a little bit.

The title came from the lyrics in True Blue, which happens to be one of my least streamed Boygenius songs (DON'T COME FOR ME!!!!)

Chloé wasn't a character at first but was added as I started writing. I figured I needed a reason for Tina going to a hotel and she was written in.

Magnolia's original name was Annette with the nickname 'Net' and Tina's original name was Jenilee with the nickname 'Jeni' before ultimately getting changed after chapter eight was written. Jenilee was kept as Tina's middle name, though.

This book almost didn't happen, I wrote the first chapter of a different book about Julien, then deleted it because I knew I wouldn't finish it. I had deep regret and couldn't recover it so I reluctantly started over and wrote the first chapter of this book.

Fallon's painting in Chapter Thirty is based on that one Tiktok where Julien shows a painting that her one-year-old niece made.

In Chapter Twenty, there's mention of a funeral gray sky, which is a nod to the Waterparks song 'Funeral Grey.'

In Chapter Nineteen as well, when Magnolia says "You know that shit is gonna kill you and your pretty voice," and the lines "She kinda smiled and blew half of the smoke into her girlfriend's face and said, "Well now you're gonna die too." are based on the 2nd verse of 'Funeral Grey.'

The movie 'Sleeping Beauty' is set in France, Maggie and Julien fly to France, a rather progressive country to pick up Aurora after adopting her

'Black Light' studios, the name of the dance company that Magnolia works at in the epilogue, is also a nod to Waterparks second EP of the same name.

Aurora's new song that she sings in the epilogue is 'Rly Don't Care' by Chloe Moriondo.

I hope you all also caught the parallel between Maggie spiraling because her jeans didn't fit in Chapter Fifty-Six and Julien buying her new ones in Chapter Fifty-Seven.

Josiah in my mind is very impulsive and secretive due to his family's history of being controlling which is why he hid his Noah and Fallon for so long, then dumped it onto Maggie over the phone.

Eventually, Maggie would've come out as a lesbian but it never ended up happening.

A Thank You:

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the support and love you've shown me and this book. I've always loved writing and I'm glad I could do this and finish something.

Hearing that I write WLW relationships so well really warms my heart considering that I've never done something like this before. I've been through a lot while writing this book and I know I've disappeared for weeks but the fact that you've all stuck around really means the world to me.

I had plans to write more, however, because of my mental health dropping and inclining at random times, I need to focus on getting better. I'll still be active on here, not as much as I was but I'll do my best to stick around.

I hope you all enjoyed this story, I put so much love into this and I hope it can give some of you hope that you can have a queer relationship and be happy within it. Thank you so much.

-A