Here’s what’s keeping me super-busy this month… Can you believe it’s been 15 years since Magic University hit the (digital) shelves?

It feels like a different era of history. In 2010, Obama was president, the Kindle was still a newfangled thing, and Twitter still felt niche (at 40 million users). And the final Harry Potter book had come out only 3 years earlier, and the final movie was still to come…!

At the time I didn’t know that writing a trans-inclusive magic school book was going to become such a political statement. I mostly wanted to write a magic school series where we knew up front lots of the characters were queer and that would actually pay off a rivals-to-lovers trope/plot line. I wanted to write original fic that my fanfic-loving friends would love to read.

I didn’t include a trans mentor for my hero to spite J.K. Rowling. At the time she hadn’t yet voiced her anti-trans views. I included trans characters because trans people exist.

I also include some characters who change gender magically. While I wouldn’t call that “spite,” it did always feel like a missed opportunity to me (and many fanfic writers) that none of the many ways a wizard could change gender in the Harry Potter books (Polyjuice, animorphmagus, etc) are ever explored.

But here we are, in 2025, with JKR leading a brigade of anti-trans voices in the UK, and the USA devolving fast into a book-banning fascist nation trying to legislate trans people out of existence.

It’s why now seems the right time for me to produce a hardcover omnibus edition of Magic University. So I’m running a Kickstarter to do just that.

I launched last week and it took off like a rocket! The more people who back it, the fancier I can make the hardcover edition, too, so if I can nerd out about books for a minute: it’s already slated to have a really nifty fore-edge design on the pages, a Wibalin buckram binding, and a foil-stamped or debossed title on the cover. If the campaign continues to do well, well reach the custom designed endpapers goal next, and at $10,000 we can add a ribbon bookmark! (I really really want to get to the ribbon bookmark…!)

The link, if you want to read more about it or become a backer:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ceciliatan/magic-university-collectors-edition-hardcover-omnibus?ref=depv7q

(Mock-ups of the hardcover design and such below the cut…)

Mirrored from Cecilia Tan.

I’ll be hosting a one-hour live chat via YouTube Live, streaming on my YouTube channel! This Thursday from 9-10pm Eastern (Apr 21) I’ll be talking all things Daron, the latest Kickstarter, and reading from Daron’s Guitar Chronicles, as usual!

As a bonus, if we can pass the $3,000 milestone by the time of the chat, a special one-hour text chat with Daron will follow for backers only! You can back the Kickstarter for as low as $1, right here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ceciliatan/darons-guitar-chronicles-third-omnibus

You can pull that chat up on YouTube directly at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSJWPwxEjGA

OR should be able watch the video chat via this embedded video:

Read the rest of this entry »

Mirrored from blog.ceciliatan.com.

Mirrored from the latest entry in Daron's Guitar Chronicles.

And we’re done! Woo! The Kickstarter is done! And in the end the grand total including Paypal donors came to $5,458! So all rewards are unlocked! I’m totally ecstatic. We’ll be doing individual paperbacks as well as the omnibus, and as promised everyone will be getting a backstage pass! Those who ordered physical rewards will get a laminated one and those getting digital rewards will get a PDF you can print yourself.

Tomorrow I hit the road to New Orleans for the RT Booklovers Convention. I come back for 2 days then on to Wiscon, then back for 2 days and off to NYC for Book Expo, the Bisexual Book Awards, and the Lambda Literary Awards. So I won’t really be back in the office until June 4. But I ordered the backstage passes today, the stuffed animals for Ziggy to decorate have been ordered, for the T-shirts I’ll send backer questionnaires around asking for sizes after I pick what brand they’ll be. More info on that coming. And the omnibus is in its first pass of page proofs! It’ll go through proofreading which will take about a month. So we’ll be ready to print in June most likely!

I’ll send the official Kickstarter backer surveys out in a few weeks when the packages are closer to being ready to ship. Those of you who donated via Paypal I’ll send a separate email to with the details so you can confirm your shipping address, etc.

Thank you everyone. This is a huge success. We reached every goal except the one to revamp the website, but some things are in the works that may lead to that happening anyway. So really, everything is GREAT. You’re all great.

Since I’m leaving Saturday morning (tomorrow) I’m not sure if I’ll get a story post up, but I want to, to thank everyone for a great great effort. Check the site because I’ll do it if I can!

Yes, it’s been two years since the last Daron’s Guitar Chronicles Kickstarter and it’s time for another. Daron’s Guitar Chronicles is my ongoing web fiction serial about a gay guitar player and his various life struggles with love, fame, music, internalized homophobia, family dynamics etc. in the 1980s.

In 2012 we did an omnibus collecting the first 200 chapters into a big-ass book, and now it’s time to do the next 200 chapters, basically. Click here to donate: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ceciliatan/darons-guitar-chronicles-second-omnibus-paperback

And here’s a short link to share! http://kck.st/R31kCx

Here’s the video I made for Kickstarter! (Under the cut, if it will embed properly…)

Read the rest of this entry »

Mirrored from blog.ceciliatan.com.

Mirrored from the latest entry in Daron's Guitar Chronicles.

Okay, it’s a Sunday, which isn’t a regular posting day for DGC, so here are news and notes about the Kickstarter which is ongoing and other cool site news!

Kickstarter
The Kickstarter stands as of this writing at 86% funded! $2,367 pledged, $383 to go.

Posting Schedule
Plesae note that as soon as the Kickstarter ends, we’re dropping back to Tuesday/Thursday posting,