so speaks the artist formerly known as elliemurasaki

So the first chronological Toby Daye story (thus far) by Seanan McGuire, "Rat-Catcher", has a fascinating scene. Cut for spoilers:

( spoilers for the story, anyway. not so much spoilers for the novels. well, maybe a minor spoiler for one of the novels, but I forget which. )

So you probably all know that I'm genderqueer and have so identified for a few years now. A few months back, I got to thinking (possibly even prompted by "Rat-Catcher", though I'm not sure): the name my parents gave me, 'Elizabeth', is an explicitly feminine name. So is the name I chose from that, 'Ellie'. For that matter, so is 'Murasaki'.

I'm only sometimes female. I'm not real feminine. And I'm half Irish by ancestry and not Japanese at all.

'Seanchai' means 'storyteller'. The word is from Ireland, pronounced 'shanachee', with the 'ch' like a 'k' in that Gaelic way, as in 'loch'. 'Alex' is short for 'Alexandria', and I insist the long name (being, y'know, a city, with inhabitants of all genders) is as gender-neutral as the short name, though it is read as feminine as often as I am. Alexandria is of course the city of the famous library, and its name derives from two Greek words: the pertinent one, 'alexo', means 'to defend, help'. I'm keeping the surname I chose, Conall; you may notice that my professional account at elizabethconall is now alexconall. As for the timing, today's my twenty-fifth birthday, which seems an auspicious time for such a change. Also, Yuletide's over.

Elizabeth is gone. Alex is here.

(no subject)

The European Union is soliciting opinions from the world about how to fix EU copyright law. This seems like a really good opportunity for all the fannish people to descend on the eighty-question questionnaire and express fannish-friendly opinions, since EU copyright law will have an effect on the whole world.