So here's a semi-not-secret secret. In my writing, many of my characters are baed on real people I know, at least in part. Sometimes that part is very, very big. When I know someone really well, or there's some aspect about them which really speaks to me, they begin to take up room inside my head.
One such person is my friend Aiden. Aiden Carlin, one of the main characters of my novel, Concerning Littleton, is soundly and squarely based on the real Aiden, who is amazing.
Here's Aiden's "official bio"
“Try-sexual” by nature, I enjoy pushing my boundaries or deconstructing them altogether as a dodecahedron of passion, play, and desire. Using school and life as my classroom, I have spent the last decade (and then some) learning about myself and my passions by delving into love and relationships, sexuality, gender, kink, polyamory, spirituality and more. I advocate for authenticity in all areas of life – especially sexuality – and enjoy inspiring curiosity and exploration, as well as informed decision-making as a sex-positive nurse-midwife, sexuality educator, sacred intimate, model, blogger, bootblack, Cuddle Party Facilitator-in-Training, founder of the Judgment Free Health Care Providers Resource & Directory, as well as the host of a monthly sex-positive social gathering in NYC called Prohibition NYC. As a "Kinky Catalyst," I tend to encourage debauchery wherever I go. If I'm not organizing Cuddle Parties, Fist-A-Paloozas, Safer Sex Orgies, or Sensual Feasts, I am generally out and about orchestrating mischief or silliness as a Mad Scientist or Little. I positively love being a facilitator of deviant fun and mischief. :)
Aiden has been instrumental in my own growth as a person. Aiden's transgender, and gender fluid. I first met them back when they were presenting female, and found them to be plucky, quirky, silly, sexy, and fun. I was instantly charmed. As Aiden progressed through several gender transitions, that's a feeling that stuck with me. I was attracted to the essential Aiden, the person inside, not how or as who they presented.
I came to realize that I wasn't straight, because I was attracted to Aiden regardless of their gender. That didn't mean I was gay, or bi either, but something else entirely.
So, here's another super important thing you need to know about Aiden.
For the past several years, they've been in school to become a midwife. They graduated just a little while ago, and passed the licensing boards too but due to mistakes on the part of their school's financial aid office, owe about $6,000 in additional debt. This debt is preventing them from getting their transcript, literally the VERY LAST STEP between them and practicing their career!
This will not do. It's a grave inequity. I've already donated to help them, as have many other folks, and they're about 40% of the way towards correcting this terrible mistake.
Operation: Sex-Positive Midwife is the website where folks have been helping Aiden.
I'd be ever so grateful if you could help, too.