Hello, here is a brief announcement: I'm now going by the name Asher (pronounced ASH-er). It means "happy" and I'm very happy to be making this change!

I've been feeling dissatisfied with my name for a while. Despite many years of stoutly asserting that I don't need a gender-neutral name to be nonbinary, people who see "Rose" are always going to assume I'm a woman. Assuming I'm a man isn't ideal either, but it's less wrong, and in most contexts I'll be giving my full name as Asher Rose Fox, which is a pleasant mixture of signifiers. I also love the expansive initial vowel of "Asher", its Hebrew meaning (which is specifically about being on the right path), and its unambiguous Jewishness.

My pronouns are still they/them. My old email address will still work, but you can drop me a note there if you want the new one.

If you forget or slip up, that's okay. Rose is still going to be my legal name and my middle name, and it won't upset me to hear someone use it by mistake. I'm also holding onto 'rosefox' as a fannish identity, and it will remain my username here and elsewhere, at least for now; it has a lot of history that's meaningful to me. But whenever possible, in contexts where you'd use my actual name, please use Asher for me from now on.