8/10/2021
Dear friends,
Thank you for coming along on this journey with Sam and Tiana and me. As this story grew from the initial five chapters I had intended it to be, y’all were right there encouraging me with your likes and your comments. I know it's a cliche but I really couldn’t have done it without you. It’s due to how much Tiana came to mean to me and you that I changed my original planned ending and gave her a happy one. You saved her life.
I know that most stories don’t have a chapter sized letter from the author, but Letters from a Friend isn’t just any other story. It was my personal pet project, spun out of a desire to make a trans version of Shop Around the Corner and This is How you Lose the Time War, and now it is yours. I doubt if anyone has noticed but every story I have written and published is in the public domain. I don’t really believe in copyright, at least how we handle it now, so I decided to just completely ignore it. This story belongs to you and it’ll belong to every person who ever chooses to read it. That’s part of why I’m making this story available as a pdf. Not only out of a vain sense of ego that someone will like my story enough to want to download it, but to prevent it from ever truly being lost.
In another weird twist, I have some sources I wish to thank. The book LGBTQ Cincinnatti has been a huge resource, with many of the small subtle references to queer culture I tried to scatter throughout only being possible because of this book. The National Park Service report on Kentucky LGBTQ History, in collaboration with the University of Louisville, helped me to put wider context on a important period of time in local queer history. These were my two biggest sources by far, although many other smaller sources were also consulted. There really are too many to list.
I truly can not thank you enough,
Danielle
Thank you so much for this story
I think it has helped me, and i hope it helps many more!
Congratulations on completing the story! And thank you for sharing it with us. <3
This was a really neat story!
I'm not always the best at following the plot of this type of story, especially with in-person meetups that aren't described, but you managed to catch me even so. Thank you for sharing this story, now excuse me while I go look at the next story on your page
Thank you for the story! I was so happy to see it resolve happily, and the letter from years later showing the ways that Tiana (and everyone else's) life has changed for the better is really really nice. Also neat to peek just a bit behind the curtain at the research and stuff you've looked at - that kind of history is really fascinating.
I hope to get to read more from you in the future, too!