What I'm Up To, Writing

Happy Independent Bookstore Day!

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Today is Independent Bookstore Day! It’s a day to celebrate booksellers outside of the corporate ranks, the little place in your town, the used bookstore on the side street, places like that.

It’s also a place to celebrate online independent stores, like those on itch.io, selling you books that you might not be able to find in the big stores.

For example, if you go to the Taeliana Books itch.io store you can buy my independently created book The Ballad of the Grey Swan in DRM-free epub and PDF formats.

And if you go to the top level of itch.io, there’s a lot of other authors there selling their books. Mine might not be your cup of tea, but maybe someone else’s book could be!

Keep the indy bookstores alive!

Health and Self-Care, Transition, What I'm Up To

Transgender Day of Visibility 2025

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A Transgender Day of Visibility 2025 banner, with the words in the trans pride flag colors and the background in the pride rainbow.

Hello. My name is Jen Dantes. I am:

I am all these things. All of them help to define me.

This is me being visible in the face of a government that wants to stifle me, deny me, say I don’t exist or am mentally ill (well, I knew that part) or am some kind of horrible person for the sheet reason of what I am. I am standing up and telling them no, in this little way.

Doesn’t matter what the press says. Doesn’t matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn’t matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world — “No, you move.”

– Captain America

No, transphobes and MAGA and TERFS and all the rest of you who hate me for claiming my own identity.

You move.

If you don’t like it? Go to hell.

Around Town, People, Taeliana, The Ballad of the Grey Swan

Richard Chamberlain, March 31, 1934 – March 29, 2025

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I just found out that Richard Chamberlain has passed away.

Richard Chamberlain as Aramis in the 1973 "The Three Musketeers"
Yes, that’s the formal uniform of an Imperial Swordmaster.

I never brought it up, because I had no room, but the character of Swordmaster Corin, Jey Corbeau’s sword teacher, was in part based on his portrayal of Aramis in the 1973 film of The Three Musketeers.

Richard Chamberlain as Archie Leach in Leverage
Can you believe he’s 78 here? Other than the hair, I’m not sure I can.

He’s also going to be the mentor of another character in a different book, where he plays the Chairman of the High Council of the Organization of Pilferers, Rogues, Enforcers, Assassins, Conmen, and  Highwaymen – better known on the streets and back-alleys of the cities as just the Organization or the Business. (For you fantasy readers/gamers, yes, it’s basically the Thieves Guild.) If you’ve watched the show Leverage, you saw Richard Chamberlain as Archie Leach. (That’s the part he plays in that book: a somewhat retired gentleman thief who can still outmaneuver and out-think the younger crew.)

Rest well, kind and noble sir; your gentle humor and smile will be missed.

Books, The Ballad of the Grey Swan, Writing

A Request for Assistance

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Greetings all! Things are a bit tough here, so I am asking for some help.

First, I’d like to remind you that my first book, The Ballad of the Grey Swan, is out for sale with some revisions and a new cover.

If you haven’t seen much about it, you can check it out at the link in the menu or just click on this link for the page on the book.

You can find it at:

And now to the core of things…

Click to continue reading.

Do not quote the deep magic to me. I was there when it was written.

© 2025