This story owes its existence to fan fiction. I have struggled with depression and anxiety for so long that there were whole years wherein writing at all was a struggle, even when I was on meds. What finally got me out of my struggle to write was writing fan fiction. Fan fiction writing gave me immediate feedback from readers, both praise and constructive criticism, which helped me improve my writing and gain more motivation and energy to write with. While writing fan fiction, my writing improved greatly and moreover, writing became fun again.
Another way this story owes its existence to fan fiction is because the initial idea that eventually evolved into the Ravenstone story was for an Addams Family/Harry Potter crossover fan fiction story wherein Wednesday was a trans girl, Pugsley was a trans boy, Morticia was intersex, and the Addamses were all witches/wizards. (Before J. K. Rowling outed herself as a bigoted dumpster full of human garbage.) But then I had a dream that I later adapted into the story of the day Dalia and Sally met and became friends, which made me realize I didn't want to add another fan fiction story to the two I was already working on. But I liked the idea too much to let it go entirely.
So, instead, I took that idea as a baseline and started shaping and molding it into something entirely new. Taking bits and pieces from novels and fan fiction stories I'd read, folklore, and a lot of my own ideas. I tweaked the ethnicities and other aspects to increase the diversity, because I love diversity in writing, which in turn is because I love diversity in life. I took ideas for diversity from reality. An autistic trans girl with depression, anxiety, and multiplicity, that's me. Changed her race because there's far too few people who realize that there are in fact both autistic girls and autistic black people (I even know some autistic black women with depression and anxiety), and I wanted to raise awareness of autism among black people.
Furthermore, there aren't a lot of stories with trans characters in them, especially where they're the main protagonist, and most that do exist are all about the coming out process or centered on the struggle of being trans. I can't think of any stories where the protagonist is transgender and it's just a part of their character without it being their defining feature or the point of the story. Dalia being transgender is important to her, but you could take that out – make her a cisgender girl – and it wouldn't break the story. It'd be a different story, of course, but the major events would still occur.
That's not to say Dalia being a trans girl is unimportant. Far from it. The importance of Dalia being transgender is very important, it's representation. Other trans girls (like myself) will be able to see her, and see that they too can be the heroes of their stories. And people who aren't transgender will be able to become familiar with a character who is transgender. When a child comes across a transgender person in their life, and someone explains it to them, they'll be able to go “Oh, you mean like Dalia Ravenstone!” The same will be true for representing people with mental illnesses like chronic depression and anxiety, and hopefully help educate other people on what life is like for autistic people and people with mental illnesses.
Anyone who's ever read my two fan fiction stories (“Harry Potter and the Trouble With Neurotypicals” and “The Many Faces of Adira Potter”) will be able to see that there's a lot of heavy borrowing from those two series. The first one was my first foray into a black autistic character, and the second one features a transgender Harry (who renames herself Adira or Addy) who is a multiple. The first of those series also contains a lot of ideas that eventually became Tirffiniol and the character Kobalos, among other things. The Adira Potter series has a lot of exploration of the nature of wandless magic that has been informing my Ravenstone series, as well.
In those stories, I got started on my quest to increase the positive media representation of oppressed groups, and with the Ravenstone series I hope to continue that quest. I want to set the record straight on Multiplicity and DID, on transgender people (especially transgender kids), and on mental illnesses. I want to educate people in a fun way, and I think I’ve been doing that with this series. Which, after years of dragging my feet (I have six finished books in the series, and number 7 in the works!), I finally realized I didn’t have the energy or desire to try to get the books published through regular publishers nor through Amazon. There are a lot of reasons for this, but the two big ones are that I just don’t have the energy for all the hassle, and readers on Amazon have this bad habit of buying a book, reading it, and returning it, which costs the author a lot of money and hassle. And since I’m ultimately doing this for fun, I decided at last to just get the books out there, for free. Starting with the first book, to iron out the wrinkles.
There will be those who don't want me to do this. They will scoff, and scorn, and say I'm playing “SJW bingo” with this series, but I assure you that any combination of descriptors in any “oppressed people bingo” will have real-world representatives, genuine people who really exist. Even as I write this, I'm certain that someone out there exists that matches Dalia's description of “half-black, half-Navajo transgender autistic girl with chronic depression and anxiety, who is also bisexual.” If even one person sees themselves in a character, then all this effort was worth it. Though of course, you don't have to match every description to see yourself in a character. I'm not black, but I'm autistic, transgender, a Multiple, and I have depression and anxiety, so I see myself in Dalia.
That said, Dalia is not a Mary Sue, either. First, I'm white (so my apologies if I get anything wrong, I'm doing my best here). My anxiety doesn't work the way Dalia's does; if I knew someone like Dalia in real life, I'd probably look like the calm one compared to them, because Dalia acts out because of her anxieties and I repress mine under a falsely calm exterior. I also don't get panic attacks or go mute from stress, though I do occasionally go mute from not knowing what to say or not wanting to say what I know I need to. I don't have a phobia of public restrooms, which Dalia does have. I have no desire to fully transition, unlike Dalia. (I'm actually more like Chooli, in that I'm a third nonbinary gender leaning toward the female end of the spectrum, and I use she/her/hers mainly for convenience.) My special interests differ greatly from Dalia's. Dalia loves dogs (at least from a distance, since she also has a sort of phobia of saliva), and I'm afraid of them – the medium sized and big ones, anyway. And – it hasn't shown up in this story yet, but Dalia also has an intense fear of policemen that I don't share. (I'm wary of them, but not shaking-in-my-boots afraid.) She has a physical disability, and I don't. And of course, the others sharing my body with me are nothing like Doñela and Tamir, and there are more of them than just two.
Are there similarities between Dalia and me? Of course there are, she's the vehicle through which I am trying to help other people understand transgender people, autistic people, people with multiple guests in their body, and people with depression and anxiety. Furthermore, I put a little of myself into every character I write. If I don't, they end up flat and lifeless and boring. Even the villains and other less likable characters have to have something in common with me. (For instance, Principal Park and I have in common an annoyance with the necessity of eating, it's a chore to us both. But I do still enjoy food and eating, unlike him.)
But I also put other people into my characters. Cally has aspects of her personality borrowed from a couple friends of mine. Another friend is the partial inspiration for Acorn. I had to do research about panic attacks and selective mutism (going mute under stress) to give those to Dalia, and those are parts of other people.
And anyway, self-insert characters are a dime a dozen in fiction. I've lost count of how many books I've read where boring white men have written self-insert protagonists every bit as boring as themselves but with like magic powers or kung fu or who are destined to save the world or something like that. Dalia isn't a self-insert character, but even if she were, at least she's interesting, which is more than I can say for the majority of fictional protagonists these days.
I hope you enjoy this series, and I would like to hear from you if you do. I also want to hear from people about any mistakes I may have made, especially about the non-English real languages in the books, like Spanish. But if you’re one of the people who scoffs at “woke” and sides with bigots like Donald Trump, if you contact me it will go straight in the trash and you will be blocked.