I have a promotional post I should be doing...

...but my brain is having thinky thoughts, and I am feeling too scattered to organize everything, even though it'll actually take like ten minutes. :P

I am thinking about names.

Goober child has a classmate named Aidan. (Aiden? I dunno.) This kid appears to be a girl, which annoys me even more than the trendiness of Aidan and its derivatives. It was a rare name when I picked it, with a backstory that meant something to me! And now it's not only everywhere, but the current usage leads people to misgender me! If I introduce myself as "Mike" or whatever, people go "Oh! Right! Guy!" But "Aidan" doesn't do that anymore and I kind of want to scream. IT WAS A MALE NAME WHEN I PICKED IT, GODDAMIT!!!!!!

Ahem.

Anyhow, the other thing about that, though, is that I turn around whenever the teacher calls this kid's name while I'm dropping off my kid at school, lol. I don't turn around for Stephanie quite as readily. There have always been other people named that around, it was pretty common when I was young. There was always another Stephanie, or at least another Tiffany, which sounds the same shouted across a playground, in my classes growing up. So I double checked before answering to it even before I ID'd as trans/as Aidan.

Now hearing Stephanie has that "...Oh, right, I guess that's me?" feel to it.

Which seems to be different from other trans-spectrum types. Most I know hate and loathe their dead name. I don't. It's just very secondary at this point.

Back in the day Stephanie was me, and Aidan was my favorite role-playing character and most comfortable online persona.

Now Aidan is me and Stephanie is my femme alter-ego and sometime writing pen name, since I can't go back and change my old books. I don't hate it, it's just less me than it used to be, that's all.

I'm just as glad, really. I know some people struggle with some pretty deep trauma on getting called by their deadname. Me, I just take a little longer to turn around and answer to it, that's all!

Actual thing I should be posting: The Magic Returns is out!

The Magic Returns

All the world changed in a single moment. Lives were ended, and even more lives disrupted. For magic had come back into the world, destroying all modern technology in an instant. And with the magic came elves, dragons, were-folk ... and vampires.

Thomas is one of these, and one of the oldest, for he was there when the world changed. He has been alone for a long time. When a chance encounter leads him to Justin and Ian, a mated pair of werewolves, he finds that he may not need to be alone any more.

Justin, ever-curious, asks Thomas about the day the magic returned, and Thomas shares two stories from his past, describing the confusion and horror of the old world's destruction, but also sharing the blossoming relationship he found amid the chaos.

Or, in other words, my shamelessly gay vampire character fucks his way through the apocalypse. :D I mean, it's more thoughtful than that, because I can't resist plot and character development, but it's pretty sex-heavy all the same. Werewolf threesomes, feral were-cat loving, lots of other fun stuff.

It's on sale from JMS right now, so now is a good time to pick it up!

Buy from JMS Books.

You can also get it on Amazon.