So I've been going through some pretty heavy family stuff lately. Long story short: I'm adopted. Adoptive mother was wonderful. Adoptive dad was an evil, soul-sucking vampire. Adoptive parents get divorced in '05 and I move in with my a-mom. Several years later and I'm mostly over all the crap the a-dad put me through, which at it's worst included a threat on my life. Yet in the last year or so, I've gotten in contact with my biological mother, met her side of my blood family, and even met my biological father, who is thankfully a truly good person. All of these meetings have been extraordinarily positive experiences.
But as I consider the future of my career as an author, the one thing I can't stand is the thought of going through the rest of my life being addressed by my adoptive dad's last name. Just thinking about it makes me physically ill, and has led to me seriously considering legally changing my name. The only problem is that I don't want this to hurt his side of my adoptive family because they are genuinely good people. I don't want to alienate them, but at the same time, I know in my heart that this is name change is what I want. I want the name of my birth family to be my name.
I don't know how many people here can relate to this situation, but any thoughts/help/advice people can give would be wonderful. The last thing I want this to do is cause an explosion of family drama.