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If you’ve been here for a while, you already know this story has been unfolding.

This year, it finally has a name: The Ticket Home.

The new year often arrives with a quiet question: What are you carrying forward—and what are you finally ready to return to?

This moment isn’t about announcing something new. It’s about standing firmly in the work that’s already in motion.

Over the past weeks, I’ve shared glimpses of the sequel to The Ticket to Freedom in fragments, reflections, and small check-ins...

There are seasons when life slows down just enough for us to hear what we’ve been carrying. Not the loud thoughts, not the rehearsed answers, not the façade we’ve learned to perfect — but the quiet truths beneath all of it. The truths we avoid. The truths that linger. The truths that rise from the heart.

And when they rise, they come gently… but they come with weight.

These reflections come to me in moments when I’m alone with myself — early mornings, long evenings, ordinary days that somehow...

There’s something about this season that slows the world down—just enough for us to breathe, reflect, and remember what truly matters.

Maybe it’s the soft glow of Christmas lights against winter windows. Maybe it’s the scent of food that pulls you back into childhood memories. Or maybe it’s the truth that no matter where we are, we all long for connection, for warmth, for a place where our stories are welcomed.

This year, as I look back on my journey as an author, I’m filled with a deep sense...

Some books are written.

Others are survived.

And a few — like this one — are felt all the way through.

Writing The Ticket to Freedom was never just about building plot or creating characters. It meant sitting with emotions that lived quietly in my chest for years — the fears I inherited, the identities I carried, the contradictions I learned to navigate. As a Nigerian, queer, immigrant, I understood the weight of this story in a way that made the writing both healing and heavy.

There were days I...

Even though the story is fictional, grounding it in truth mattered to me.

Representation isn’t only about accuracy — it’s about honoring experiences. And as someone who is both Nigerian and queer, the emotional honesty in this book didn’t come solely from research. It came from the intersections I’ve lived.

Being Nigerian shaped how I wrote about family, culture, silence, duty, and the unwritten expectations placed on sons.

Being queer shaped how I wrote about fear, longing, identity, and the...

If David is the foundation of the story, then the other characters are the beams, walls, and hallways — each one shaping how the house feels from the inside.

Writers like to pretend we’re in control of our characters. But the truth is gentler, and a little humbling: we don’t create them so much as meet them. And if we’re paying attention, they show us who they really are.

Daniel was the first to surprise me.

He stepped onto the page quietly — gentle, steady, almost easy to overlook. I assumed he...

Building David: The Heart of the Story

If The Ticket to Freedom is a house, then David is the foundation.

David didn’t arrive fully formed. He emerged slowly, piece by piece — a young man shaped by fear, tenderness, survival, and hope. I didn’t mold him into existence. I paid attention to who he was becoming as I wrote.

But before he could have a story, he needed a name.

And choosing one was its own journey.

For weeks, I circled different possibilities. Malik was one of the earliest contenders. It...

Thanksgiving always makes me pause — not just to count blessings, but to acknowledge the quiet, complicated paths that led me to them. This year feels different. Bigger. Deeper. Almost unreal.

Because this is the first Thanksgiving where I get to say:

I published my debut novel.

I put a piece of my heart into the world… and the world held it.

And that still amazes me.

The Journey Behind the Gratitude

When I think back on the road that led to The Ticket to Freedom, what I feel isn’t pride first — it...

A reflection by The Luu, Author of The Ticket to Freedom

Identity is one of the earliest truths we carry — long before we can define it, defend it, or even fully understand it. It begins in the quiet corners of who we are: our instincts, our fears, the things we’re drawn to, and the feelings we can’t shake even when the world tells us to. Belonging, though, is different. It’s not something we simply inherit. It’s something we wander toward, often without a straight path, often without a guide....

The Spark: Where the Story Began

Every story begins somewhere, but The Ticket to Freedom didn’t begin with a plotline or even a character. It began with a question — one that lodged itself in my mind and refused to loosen its grip:

What does freedom look like for someone who has never been allowed to live fully in their truth?

That question followed me everywhere. During slow mornings. During long commutes. In moments of quiet I didn’t know I needed. It wasn’t loud — it was persistent. A pull...

When I began writing my debut queer fiction novel, The Ticket to Freedom, I never imagined how deeply the journey would reshape me as both a storyteller and a person. What started as a quiet idea — a young man navigating identity, culture, and the search for belonging — slowly grew into a powerful coming-of-age story centered on love, self-discovery, and what it truly means to be free.

Launching this author website marks the next chapter in that journey. And I’m grateful you’re here.

This space...