I caught up with an old schoolfriend on New Year's day. He's known about my transition, but he caught me a bit by surprise when he said that he'd bought my book and enjoyed reading it!

Once I get a chance, I WILL go to see him (he's a bit disabled and in a wheelchair) and sign it for him. He's never actually seen me as Catherine, but he's said, several times, that he has no problem with me becoming Catherine and looks forward to seeing me in person.

I am working on the next chapter of "Mercy", and I'm getting stuck on one thing.

I need some names.

I need a good name for the species that Faith draws her powers from.

I need two names for two different groups within that species.

and I need a good name for her antagonist.

Any suggestions ?

I've had a few things removed from BC. Nothing bad has happened.

I decided I wanted to change the format of how I posted my stories. This entailed the removal of almost half my work so far. It's all going to be put back on, but not until I'm happy with the format.

Other than that, I'm doing okay.

I know that in the Starforce Trilogy, and in Spinrad's "Void Captain's Tale," space travel depends on gender-specific teleportation abilities. Usually female-only.

I wonder what people think of using the idea in stories.

I was planning to use the idea, with modifications, in some space opera stories, because it dodges the physical objections to faster-than-light travel, and it complicates the gender politics of the societies involved. I figure it could involve a drug and/or cybernetic implants that help people do this, but make some people too dysphoric to do this.

I don't get it. You see, I have stumbled across stories from it here on this website and elsewhere, and i've done some research into it. What I've learned is that it seems to be an extremely sexist, hyper male power/sex fantasy where females seem to be nothing more than worthless abuse toys. I...I just don't get it. If someone can help me try and understand this I'd be grateful because I don't understand why anyone would find this attractive or would want to be part of it.

No Shadow of the Heart this week due to illness.

In doing research for a story character, I am building a little boy, the heir of an Arab family, who was kidnapped from the UAE at age 4 and brought to the US, castrated, and raised as a girl slave by criminals. Her nanny, also kidnapped, but from Saudia, has raised her, teaching her Arabic, and the things expected of a woman. The child is very bright. This is still developing.

My muse is resting at the moment, but she might kick in next year. I have a lot on my mind right now. I'm trying to find a professional agent for "A California Saga". I've been going through those listed on the "Predators and Editors" web site and have found several that look acceptable. I started at M's and am through the R's at this point, I'm contacting only those that work through email. I've sent queries to around a dozen so far.

I have a glimmer of an idea for a story in the Cynthia Chronicles series. Not even close to putting anything in print.

And so it came to pass - A writing fest!

Yep, the muse is back and it being Christmastide I've tapped out a short Chrimbo tale - well it started out short but its ended up with three parts, each edited on Boxing Day by Angharad! Its a bit of a Marmite but if you do enjoy it please hit the kudo button! Parts 2 and three will be posted very soon.

You get the usual chapter of Gaby too so there's something for er, someone.

I've put my own Christmas Day disaster (dead cooker) behind me, guess I'll be using the microwave a lot for a few weeks!

Well it's been a more interesting day than i'd planned but certainly not the worst.

So from the top, I did have stuff to unwrap that I didn't buy including from my offspring.

I did have my Christmas lunch - that's where things went a bit awry! I lost my power and heat just after starting to cook so I ended up cooking on a tiny camping stove! When the electrician got here he quickly identified the problem - my cooker is no more - oh joy, at least the freezer and microwave are still running.

I'd like to write a couple stories.

Right now I'm struggling with pain and rsi, and busy with work and other hobbies. So it'll probably depend on my health, and my trouble typing.

I've tried typing breaks, which seems to help, a lower desk, which definitely helps, a small tilted keyboard, which seems to help, speech-to-text, which has not helped, and a drawing tablet software, which has not worked with my disabilities. I'm not sure what else to try on that end.

But in the near future I'd like to write:

Well I got some good news today. I don't have MS. A brain MRI scan came up clean. The bad news is I have virtually no vitamin D in my system (3 ng/ml - minimum needed to not be consider severely deficient is 30-60 ng/ml - depending on who you believe), the lack of which can mimic MS. I am now taking 5000 units of vitamin D a day. Doctor says it will take at least 3 months to get it up to where it needs to be. More bad news - They found that I also have severe multi-layer spinal arthritis, which is causing the weakness in my legs by abrading and compressing the sciatic nerve bundle.

Katie Leone is still in the hospital.

Would you like to make her feel better? Here's her Amazon page, do what you can.

Katie Leone's Amazon Page

Hugs,
Erin

I just had a look at "My Stories" and I notice that there is activity all along the line back as far as Chapter 1. So, people are still re-reading it! I admire your stamina.

I also noticed the date I posted the first chapter, 22nd December 2010. Wow, a whole five years! I swear I never intended for it to take this long!

Warning: word play ahead.

I got a bit distracted playing with my new BlackBerry playbook (second hand variety) my fingers didn't always do what I wanted them to do, or so it thought. Even so it has a bigger brain than I do, and certainly a bigger memory

Has anyone heard or know anything about Ellen Hayes?
Her site does not seem to have had any updates in over 2 years.....

Looking for a story in which the father buys gifts for his son exactly the same as he buys for her daughter as punishment or something...
Secondly...
I love a story which is unfortunately incomplete with the name Mrs. Cavendish by Paula Hanson on fictionmania. Does anybody know where is the complete version or stories with a theme like that?
Thanks

I've been working to complete a story that I started years ago and trying to fight off the relentless win10 boogieman. With so many open projects, I don't want to allow that onto my desktop while not knowing how to use win10.

So, I have an aged Toshiba laptop that has been running the upgrade since 9:00PM last night. It is 9:33 AM and it seems to have finished.

What have I done?

Gwen

Here we are, 12 days before Christmas, the extreme weather is about and my muse has taken a stroll - it may be gone sometime! Well I hope not but what it'll come up with is anyone's guess.

I might not have been to the German markets this year but I've visited a few around the country instead, Birmingham, York, Lincoln, Leeds and of course Sheffield. I've managed to acquire some gluhwein mugs for the collection, eaten a variety of German goodies, drunk oodles of gluhwein, bought a few prezzies as well as some treats for home!

All in all I'm feeling quite festive.

This afternoon I notice that a comment I was posting on "Jenny's Story, Ch 6" was having the last paragraph cut off. Is this a temporary issue or is there a space limitation on comment sizes?

If so, a size limitation on comments seems reasonable, I just did not know about it. How about PM's, will they be limited also?

Gwen

Sorry it's so late but real life and being diagnosed with diabetes in this past year and all the resultant changes to life have kind of occupied most of my time for the last while. I had a bout of pneumonia a while back whose infection contributed to pushing my sugars to 29 (normal for most people is between 5 and 8) and my A1C hemoglobin to 16.9 ( normal apparently is under 7). Let alone still doing all of the travel I was before as well as work and looking after my elderly parents who have both had health issues this past year.

Dear readers, as a Christmas gift, of sorts, to the fans here and as a way of apologizing to all for being such a turd bucket from time to time when commenting here on TS/BC, I have discounted the price of all Kindle books written by myself and Persephone.

The new price, across the board is 3.99 USD per book, which represents a saving on many of the books of up to fifty percent. They are still not prefect. They are, however, good stories that are unique and far ranging.

I'm really, really near the end now. Only three chapters to go. Unfortunately, the "little deers" still have the capacity to completely derail my time and energy.

Still, at least they now all have a home they can call their own.