📚 A Signed Story, Rescued for $2

I just bought back a signed hardcover copy of Reborn in Shadows for two dollars.

It was a giveaway copy — one I mailed out with joy, with care, with a handwritten signature inside and the hope that it might land in the hands of someone who needed it. Someone queer. Someone maybe a little lost. Someone who didn’t have the means to buy it, but who deserved to see themselves on the page. Who might hold the book close on a hard night and think, “I’m not alone.”

But that’s not where it ended up.

They hadn’t even opened it. No review. No mention. Just a listing: “Brand new. Signed. $2.” Flipped like it was nothing. Like it hadn’t cost me anything at all.

But it did cost something.

It cost me the emotional labor of pouring my entire heart into this story — my grief, my identity, my survival. It cost time, effort, love. It cost the postage. It cost a copy that could’ve gone to someone who would've clutched it to their chest the way I used to do with the books that saved me.

So I bought it back.

Not out of spite. Out of protection. Because I still believe this story deserves a reader who sees it as more than an object. Who recognizes that it was written by someone who’s lived the trauma, the healing, the fight.

Every signed book I give away is more than promotion — it’s an offering. A lifeline. A bridge from my story to someone else's.

And I know I can’t control where every book ends up. I know not every copy will be treasured. But this one came back to me. And that means I get to choose again. I get to re-home it with someone who needs it — really needs it.

Someone who’s been made to feel like too much or not enough.

Someone queer.

Someone brave.

Someone who’s still learning how to survive.

I’ll write a new message inside it before I send it off again. Maybe something like:

“This book came back to me. And now it’s yours.”

Because stories deserve to be held by those who feel them.

And so do we.