Hi! The In Between Interactive Novel Is Honestly Amazing! I Love How You Added Different Levels Of Italian

Hi! The in between interactive novel is honestly amazing! I love how you added different levels of Italian also. I am bilingual and this was truly amazing to see, as primarily I use English now it was awesome to read some parts in Italian ❤️ what made you want to add Italian elements to it?

I'm really happy to hear that. I was hoping someone might appreciate this feature!

The In-Between is set in Italy, more specifically around (and inside) a famous university in Naples. I started writing this story as a novel in Italian when I was attending it, and I had really LOTS of free hours between classes. There was no crime drama in real life, though :D

When I started translating it into English, I was a bit sad to lose all those cultural references, nuances of meaning, etc.—actually impossible to translate into English. Having studied translation and cultural mediation, however, I realised that I could turn the novel into a textual adventure, thus making it possible for different translations and/or linguistic additions otherwise unfeasible in traditional fiction. Et voila, here is the end result. Well, the result in progress, actually ☺

Ehy ciao!! Ma che bello trovare autori italiani di interactive fiction qui su tumblr, mi sento l’unica italiana ad apprezzare questo genere di libri 🥲 Ho visto il reblog del tuo libro su interact-if e ho detto “wait a second… ma quella è Napoli” e sono andata subito sul tuo Tumblr a controllare se effettivamente lo fosse. Vado subito a leggere ✨

Ammetto che questo messaggio mi ha fatto ridere più del dovuto!

Nel caso fossi curiosa riguardo la genesi e le meccaniche di TIB, le ho spiegate nelle risposte ad alcune altre domande (tag #readers mail sul mio blog).

Spero che possa essere di tuo gradimento!

So that's how tumblr tags work...

Okay, so I've been asked by several people why some of my tags weren't working. I noticed it too and was surprised. Shocked. Absolutely speechless.

I kept troubleshooting for a month! But okay, I finally figured it out.

Apparently, Tumblr indexes (even within your own blog!) only the first five tags. You click one of the first five tags on your post? Voila, it shows up in the results. You click the tenth one? Nope, nothing there. Funny how Tumblr’s official blog says that the first 20 tags are indexed—apparently that's not true. Try it for yourself (no really, try it: maybe it's just my blog that’s bugged, lol).

Well, that's that. If you didn't know, now you do! And if you did know, reblog anyway—maybe there’s another newbie out there like me, silently panicking :')

How can anyone live like this? It’s a question you ask yourself often—and for good reason. In this interactive fiction, you play as a character navigating a dystopian world where gender is binary, assigned at birth, and non-negotiable, and where only heterosexual marriage is allowed.

Over the course of six decades, you’ll have to survive in a society determined to break your spirit and force you to conform—something you refuse to do. Instead, your mission is to fight for the rights of marginalized communities, as well as your own.

Notes & Mechanics:

An LGBTQIA+ themed interactive fiction written by an LGBTQIA+ author! ♥

Play as male, female, nonbinary, or anything else; intersex or not; gay, lesbian, bi, straight, aro, or ace!

Find love and take things to a super steamy level... or don't! Surround yourself with friends if you want to. Or do both—find your tribe and thrive!

In the beginning, everything is terrible. Society is hostile, oppressive, and downright terrifying. But this is where YOU step in—your goal is to change the world and strive for utopia!

Features nearly 30 different stats tracking a broad spectrum of rights, from marriage equality and healthcare access to anti-amatonormativity laws!

Over 240 planned scenes for maximum replayability (yes, it’s going to be massive!)

Seven distinct endings—can you achieve the best one? ;-)

Hope Abides is a Patreon Exclusive and launches on September 19th!

So, I may have something interesting for you, but first I have to figure out whether it can be really interesting or not!

You have a week (づ ◕‿◕ )づ ♥

Hey! In the novel the in between, what genders are the actual love interest? I know for the interactive novel you can select preferred gender but I was curious what you had assigned them in the novel ( would love to read just am not sure where to buy it from ) thank you ❤️

This is so sweet, thank you! I never actually published the novel in Italian I straight up converted it into an interactive fiction in English, but I really appreciate the thought.

I started writing the novel in 2017, and coming from a rather homophobic environment, the first thing that struck me about that university was how open-minded it was. I had already published a fiction book, and I was about to release a second one, an LGBT-themed drama set in the last century. But this time, I thought, why not write a story with non-cishet characters living in a setting that reflects my everyday life… and actually make it work! At the same time, though, I didn’t want that to be the main focus. It had to be a drama novel, yes, but of a different kind...

The protagonist in the original novel is Nicola, a skinny, introverted guy. He meets Alessandro at university, who’s super friendly, and Chiara, who’s also really outgoing. But soon after, another Alessandro shows up (this is kind of a joke since Alessandro is such a common name—think of something like Liam or Noah in the U.S.).

From this point on, there are spoilers under the cut. If you'd rather avoid them, you can stop here! Otherwise, if you want to get to the conclusion, there’s a gif marking the end of the spoilers—just scroll down to the cat image!

Nicola’s old acquaintance Alessandro not only got him involved in something dangerous, but he’s also his ex-boyfriend, the one who cheated on him. Nicola, who’s gay, broke up with him, and by the time he starts university, he’s single. Alessandro, on the other hand, is bi/pan and keeps seeing Mirko, the guy he cheated on Nicola with, but it’s more of a convenience thing than anything else.

Meanwhile, the other Alessandro is straight and has a huge crush on Chiara, but eventually ends up with Cinzia, Chiara’s childhood friend. Chiara, who’s also straight, was dating Gio, but she’s got a crush on the other Alessandro.

*confused noises*

...So yeah, it’s kind of a mess (YA college drama everyone?), but it only serves as a backdrop to the family drama and the themes of freedom that gradually take center stage in the story.

That said, this is just one version of the story, and it’s now a lot more accessible! It’s a bit tricky to tweak some of the parts that are kind of “hard-wired” into the concept of “I’m a young gay man in the closet,” but I’m doing my best to put those behaviors on MC's inherent shyness and introversion instead.

I hope this answers your question! Thanks again for your interest ♥