There’s a saying that adulthood isn’t about finding who you are now so much as reconnecting with who you used to be. I recall my tween self often: cloistered in this world but adrift in many others. She nurtured escapism on her Apple IIGS by moonlight until dawn declared it time for school. She felt as strongly as the thunderstorms she bathed in, as devoutly as a witch dancing ‘round a fire, and as deeply as only someone safe from the world could. It would take me three decades to meet her again, after the excitement and grueling duties of living quieted enough to hear her. My nom-de-plume fuses our two personas together, and may we never again be apart.

Marblon Ton’Cirth lives on the east coast of the United States with her husband and their menagerie of furry children, aquariums, and fantasy/scifi memorabilia. When she’s not working or cultivating the surreal quietude of their cottage home, she’s astral-projecting into a fantasy tavern and cheers’ing every loyal patron, traveler, and knave.