Category Archives: What I’m Up To

The announcement: I have published a novel!

Yes! That’s the big announcement for today, the thing that’s been being counted down to in the margin and in my other posts. I have published a novel! My first novel. And I’m excited.

It’s called The Ballad of the Grey Swan. It’s a swashbuckling fantasy novel inspired by things like:

  • my love of Dungeons and Dragons and fantasy
  • the works of Alexandre Dumas like The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers,
  • books like War for the Oaks which involve people rising up to be the equal of magical powers
  • swashbuckler movies
  • my desire to have a fantasy novel that reflects trans people and gay people as just people living their lives (well, as normal as you get in a fantasy world, but you get the idea) until things get weird
  • and an image I got in my head and had to get out one way or another.

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Transgender Things: The Cost of Being Yourself, Part 1: Name Changes

 A name change is important – you want to be yourself, and when you’re transgender, your name is a big, big part of it. This got brought up in a comment on my last post, so I thought I’d go into a bit of detail about the costs for a name change here where I live in the state of Pennsylvania.

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