I went and Googled myself today. Of course some AI had to stick its nose in, and made this audacious claim:

Iolanthe Portmanteaux is a pen name used by a prominent author of fiction on BigCloset TopShelf, a popular community site and archive hosting transgender, gender-fluid, and gender-variant web fiction.

It made me laugh. Shows what AI knows, eh? "Prominent author?" Ha! Just imagine if anyone was foolish enough to believe it!

Hold my beer while I prove them wrong!

I tried the same search a few more times in other browsers and other search engines – just as one would with the last century's AI, the Magic 8-Ball – and wouldn't you know? My alleged "prominence" came and went, like an occasional swelling.

I'm quite sure that a good number of you have no idea who I am at all, and that's as it should be. I take comfort in the thought.

In any case, I was taken aback to see that I haven't posted a single story here since January 2025. I have muddled and played with pieces of ideas. writing and rewriting... but nothing caught fire.

In real life various things have changed. The company I worked for was bought by another. Inevitably there were layoffs: one group after another. It was no surprise when the tide finally reached me. So now I'm retired, which is fine, but it was an adjustment.

I'd assumed that retiring would mean that EVERYTHING WOULD STOP and I'd find myself wondering what to do with my time.

But no... it's been one thing after another. Not that I'm complaining! It's all necessary, bona-fide things-adults-must-do. I'm not going to list them, because it's tedious, and because each element in itself sounds like nothing. Each item separately *is* nothing. But there is always is something. Some of it has been quite physical. Some of it was alarming. A lot of it had deadlines. Most of it was paperwork.

At the same time, I've been doing a lot of reading. Not BCTS, unfortunately, but books. Many of them were books I'd read as a child and never forgotten. It was great to revisit them. Again, not going to make a list, but one of the books is one of my favorite titles: Black Hearts in Battersea. I think it's the coolest book title I've heard. I don't know how old I was when I first read it, but I do recall how surprised I was, years later, when I learned that Battersea is an actual place, and not a fictitious locale dreamed up by Joan Aiken.

Today I moved one of my old Kaleigh Way stories under my own name. Brought it back into the light. I expect to do more of that, but not in any wholesale or predictable way.

I don't know what's ahead. I do have plenty of story ideas and chunks of stories in various stages of development, but as I said, nothing is catching fire. I think I need to work out my relationship to my writing.

All the best to all of you. Thanks for being part of BCTS!

- iolanthe