The days before she died was all the time that I really knew the real Anna Renee Joel. She was very sweet; always helpful and polite to me and that kindness made me feel threatened because whenever she talked to me my guard would come down and I was pretty much hypnotized. She could read the directions for soup from the back of a can and it would have sounded like poetry in motion.

“Jacqueline, meet me at the abandoned warehouse when you come home. I’ve got a surprise you will not believe.”

Jacqueline had lost track of how many times she’d read that text. She still wasn’t sure if she should reply. Ben never texted anything else after it. Every time she checked her phone, that’s where their texts ended.

Jacqueline put her phone down. She knew it was only a matter of time before she pulled it up again, doomed to repeat the seemingly never-ending cycle of reading that same text over and over.

My Dominant
A Very Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I thought that Miles was the coolest guy in school. All I wanted was to be with him. It was not a gay thing … or maybe it was?

“Sure, you can tag along”. Those were the words I wanted to hear. I tagged along, alright, all through school.

When we left school I went to work in a warehouse and he went into business with his uncle. I was frightened that we would drift apart.

“I really value our friendship, Miles”. I meant it. To me, nothing had more value. Nothing.

“Last time Brenda and I played backgammon,” Grandpa said, “we talked about venning into little bitty bodies, maybe two or three inches tall, and seeing how the board would look from that angle. Big enough to roll the dice and move the pieces, but small enough that it would be as good a workout as an hour at the gym.”

He’s stumbled upon a collection of Grandma’s old dresses and his cousin insists he try them on. But it's all just for fun... right?

It’s the summer before college, and Madison’s task is to clean out his late Grandma’s entire house before it’s sold. Even worse, he has to do it with his annoying, bratty cousin, Olivia. But while digging through boxes, they discover something unexpected: beautiful, vintage dresses of a wide variety of styles… and Grandma’s unfulfilled dream for someone to wear them. What starts as silly bonding activity for Madison and Olivia turns into much more when they realize how convincing Madison looks as a girl, leading them to take advantage of his feminine looks.

This ~50,000-word novel is available in its entirety for Kindle. This is the second of three chapters that will be shared here as samples. Hope you all enjoy! :)

-Jennifer

House on Fire
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Kaif and Leo had just bought their 4x4 rock crawler “Boulder Boy” and were keen to put it into action. This machine had the power, the super-lifted independent suspension and the wheels and tires for the job. The cab was tight but well protected and the seats were good quality. It seemed to be in good order, but then neither of them knew these vehicles that well.

A tired academy student returns home to recharge with her favorite person: her clingy little brother who also happens to love crossdressing!

A swirl of leaves spun infinitely around Ben as she frolicked through the trees. With every step she passed by hordes of flowers and wondrous, lifelike plants. She felt them along with the grass below her with her bare feet. Her entire body was bare, for that matter. She figured it brought her closer to the bare Earth.

“Oh, good. This feels weird. Not as bad as I feared, though. I know you said I wouldn’t feel paralyzed or claustrophobic, but hearing it is one thing and experiencing it is another. It just feels... sort of normal to not have any arms or legs?”

I’d originally been going to title it “Venn-Splitting for Long-Distance Relationships,” but Sophia had come up with a snappier title, “Splitting for Togetherness.”

Queen Dana of Highwinds the Elf Kingdom inside the Empire has a problem. One that she cannot fix personally. The problem is with a small minority of her population. A problem that has been brought to her attention by the half elf son of a problematic Duke. What is a Queen to do? She calls on help from a friend. The question now is does she realize what she is letting loose on her kingdom?

One day in mid-December, a few days after Meredith came home from UNC Chapel Hill for Christmas, I was taking a break at work and hanging out with Genevieve and Terri for a few minutes. Genevieve was a kind of beetle-bee hybrid, with a bee’s striped fuzzy underbelly and a beetle’s elytra over her wings, and a slightly human-ish face. Terri was a big mushroom with a face and arms and four small feet, apparently based on a fantasy creature from a story she liked, “though the ones in the book are a lot smaller,” she said. I was in one of my more outre dragon-like bodies, slender with silver scales and four smaller wings more like a butterfly or moth than a bat.

Carrie, delighted, smiled. Her eyes sparkled. "I knew something was up! It's like Freaky Friday, isn't it?" she laughed.

"Well, yes, I guess it is," I admitted. "Except that I'm not his mother."

Mukti's eyebrows went up. "And we can't switch back," he added.

Chapter 11

“We should go to London,” Grace said after a while.

Greg didn’t move, but said, “We’re descending right now. We’re almost there.”

Grace sighed and turned to look at him. “Look. I know it was tough seeing what happened to Gracie, but we’ve got a job to do here.”

I, like many others, learned to read from the “Dick and Jane” series of books to which I was first introduced in the first grade. While the dog, Spot, ran and Dick played games with Jane, I was absorbed in looking at pictures of the pretty dresses Sally wore. I was envious of the puffy sleeves, the pink, the ruffles, and the short hems. I learned to read really quickly while pouring over those books wishing I could wear those beautiful outfits.

"Rona? What on earth are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to be sunning yourself in Cancun or Acapulco?" I said when I answered the door.

"I was actually sunning myself in Thailand, but the opportunity to do some good business was enough to get me on a plane home."

Suddenly, I felt a warm, wet tongue give a quick lick to my right ankle.
I yelped and scrambled my way out of the car, clutching the plastic bag.

"Hey, sorry about that!" said a young male voice. "I tried to stop her,
but you know... dogs..." as if the word dogs explained everything.