Dear LeahPeah/Kate,
I just read your book. It was pretty good and I liked it allot. But I have a question. If you are being so open and honest or whatever, then why did you change your name to Kate in teh book? Why not just keep it LeahPeah in the book? I mean, I know your name when I came to the website. So it’s not really hidden, is my point.
Signe,
Annon
Dear Anon,
Thanx for reading my book. I changed my name to Kate in the book for three reasons.
1st, when I started writing the book, I wasn’t planning on publishing it under my own name. I was going to remain entirely anonymous (like yourself) mainly to keep anyone from knowing who I was so they wouldn’t contact anyone in my family. That remained the plan for a very long while and most of the book was already written by the time I had changed my mind. At that point, I thought about changing it to Leah, which brings us to 2nd.
Leah was also one of the names I went by. Yes, it was my birth name, but before I was integrated, there were 6 other just as valid names that I went by. So, in deciding to switch it to Leah or keep it Kate, it made the most sense to use Kate since then none of the other 6 personalities would feel bad. After being integrated, I could easily see how it would be fine to change it to Leah which brings us to 3rd.
As I reread the book for the millionth time, looking for errors etc., I tried to imagine how I could change my name from Kate to Leah and still keep the present ‘voice’ of myself as strong as it was. For example, if I’m calling myself Leah before integration and also in the present tense, it might get a little confusing.
I hope that made sense and thanx for your email.
best,
lpc