Part 3: What the Hell is TG?

As I said, in the beginning of my writing career, my genre was loving dominance and submission, and if I’m being really honest, loving female dominance and submission. Tiggers dig gals in catsuits and heels. ;-) And the impetus to most all of my writing is usually that I am reacting to something I saw, heard, read or thought. In this case of my first real exploration of this new to me genre, I was reacting to a challenge by a domme I knew online - exploring a feminization scene and making it a story.

Well, to make a long story short, I tried to get cute and write my own version of “The Lady or the Tiger” The story that came out was called A Go-No-Go Test about a submissive told to dress en femme by his Mistress (because she thinks its hot and wants to play in public) and he safeworded her (because of it being in public). She makes it a test - a compatibility test where he has to meet her half way (no public - YET!), but without help or guidance. He has to try his best and she will judge if he is trying hard enough to make the relationship work. If he passes, she’ll meet him at the door of her bedroom; if he fails, she won’t and he has to go to his garage apartment and move out of her life. Go or No Go.

So I wrote it as Lady or the Tigger - fade to black when the timer goes to zero and his hand reaches for the doorknob to find his fate. It stayed like that for about four years, existing only on a little known BBS and my hard drive. In 1997/98, alt.sex.stories.TG started up. I had already been posting my LD&S stuff to alt.sex.stories, so when I saw that, I thought, I can do that, and posted my little story. I got feedback!! ATTA-Tiggs! Woohoo!

Then Vickie Tern wrote me. Basically her assessment was “Nice try kid, but that ain’t the way you wanted that story to end, now is it?” And it really wasn’t. The Lady or the Tiger had already been done and it (I) was dumb to leave a story unfinished for an homage I didn’t really feel. A week later (and many, many drafts back and forth between me and Vickie - she's a tough grader!), and I reposted the story. It was a little darker than I initially rewrote it as Vickie pointed out the inconsistency between Mistress Go/NoGo at the beginning and Mistress Sweetness and Light at the end of my first try. So, thus was born my first trip in cross dressing a genre.

About that same time as I wrote Go/No Go, I read a fluff soft porn piece in a magazine about a guy who was a leg fan married to a witch. Cool little story about making his face an irresistible resting place for the legs and derrieres of any gal he felt attracted to. As a birthday present no less. That just didn’t work for me -there’s so much more witches could do with that had that kind of Magic, and out that grew “Loving a Witch.” It was very popular on the bulletin boards and news groups and I got a lot of requests for a sequel. Man, I outlined and I brainstormed and I even tried to kidnap my muse, but that story just would not come. At some point, I was chatting about my difficulties in that regard with one of the reviewers who had really liked the original. His response was “Well, you already TG’ed him right their in the birthing room, what the hell else could you do?”

To which I asked, “What the hell is TG’ed??”

As I said, just a bit later, I ran across ASSTG and started reading and sharing my two stories. Another one came along due to a reaction, “What happens to a LD&S relationship if the Domme gets pregnant?” and that turned into Mistress is Pregnant (really imaginative, right?). About that time, I had a ‘cusp-moment.’ Three stories showed up on ASSTG (I think Nostrumo was doing his reposting thing). The first two stories were ‘Seasons of Change” by Joel Lawrence, and “The Adventures of Samantha” by an unknown author (I think I had seen it earlier with an anon.penet.fi anonymous address). Just a short while later “A Change of Pace” by Mike Allegretto and CaitlynB showed up on the newsgroup. These stories all shared, in my not humble opinion, two key factors. First they fascinated me! Must have read and reread them a dozen times and more. The second thing they all shared was as far as anyone could tell, they weren’t FINISHED!! Mike wrote his story that way as a writers challenge. Samantha actually had an ending but it didn’t get uncovered for several months and try as I might, I couldn’t hook up with Joel Lawrence.

I was so bugged by NOT KNOWING HOW THEY END. So I did what I did with My Darling Dominatrix. I started writing. I never really intended to actually finish the stories never mind to post either of the first two. I just wanted an idea of how they might have ended. However, the more I worked on them and the more I communicated with Nostrumo by email about the projects, the more finely detailed and complete the projects grew. The first one was A Second Season, a story that tries to pick up the Seasons of Change storyline where the author left it. Michael goes out on a date with Jane’s approval only his date dresses him because she was so turned on by his protrayal of Alice. Nostrumo finally convinced me to share the story on ASSTG. It got okay response and no one yelled at me. Cool.

In the meantime, I kept plugging away at Samantha and just as I finished my little tale, Nostrumo found and posted the original ending to ASSTG. I opened dialogs with other prominent authors on the newsgroup (I don’t remember precisely who so I won’t say any names) and I was encouraged to post my proposed ending for the story with proper attribution and stating it was essentially, a ‘fan fiction.’ So I did. Again, it was received politely and no one complained so I thought “well, that’s done.”

And then Change of Pace hit ASSTG and I . . . went . . . ballistic!!! Claws, teeth, hackles, I mean, had I had my eye on Jack’s Mom, there would have been literary blood spilled. What she did to her ‘beloved son’ was just SO wrong. So I wrote the authors and growled and they said, “cool, just the kind of reaction we were looking for. Gonna do something about it?”

I did mention that I write to sort out my reactions, right? So that’s what I did. I think it took me about three months and I copied every line and correction to the authors seeking their input and approval. It’s one of those stories that I look back at and think, “did I write that??!?” I originally posted it on Mindy’s Listserv as a twice revised draft in two chapter chunks per day, asking for help with proofing, help with continuity and just any other constructive criticism. Took two weeks but the rewrite went up on Fictionmania (back when it was a “.com” and not a “.tv”). I think the thing I’m proudest of is that my story inspired one of the best TG authors ever (we really need a hall of fame, folks!), JRD to write three sequels and/or alternative universe tales on top of my story. Pretty cool, huh?

The six or so months that those three stories consumed marked the start of Tigger as a “TG” genre author. One of the things I had to explore in AcoD was possibility of suicide, which got me rethinking my ending to Seasons of Change. Reaction; What if? And in my second Seasons Tale, Michael attempts suicide because he was ‘losing himself’ or so he thought, and that led into a whole bunch of other story ideas.

What if Jane got a student who was transgendered? What if a student reacted emotionally to the 911 attacks to the point where he’d compromise his masquerade? What if Jane tried to help a hard nosed tomboy get in touch with her inner girl? Was one of my characters ‘man enough’ to be a woman for the woman he loved? And so it went as I continued to mature and so did my characters.

At some point, my perspective changed and my approach to my questions took a turn. I once had a reader ask if I was Aunt Jane? My response was a dumbfounded and stunned “HUH??” I thought about it (for about ten seconds) and realized that at the time, the answer was no. I was Michael and Darryl and finally Kenneth - each time reacting to the different questions I’d had in thinking about Seasons House. Now, looking back, I can see that changed, over time, as I matured (got older) and became more deeply involved in my second career as a public educator. I became ‘teacher’ and I became ‘administrator’ dealing with a child in trouble. So, yeah, in my later stories, I guess I was reacting as Aunt Jane. Except maybe for some of the vignettes and story pictures for A Time to Every Season and Ken’s Barbie. Even then, I was still had a paw in there ‘helping’ the boys court their chosen ladies.

And so I come to where I am now. Part of my stories grew out of what I dealt with on the job in the school system. Then I retired. That’s a big piece, I think as I don’t have the day to day interaction with younger folks to guide my responses. I try to write about Aunt Jane or about her kids, and what comes out feels wrong and I don't know why or how to fix 'it'. If it feels wrong, I can’t build on that as a foundation for the kind of ending I want. HEA remains a Tiggish Story Requirement.

The story I’m working on now is different. I don’t know that I am reacting so much as hunting for the little bits I know are missing, that I haven’t fully explored quite yet. So many little tidbits and memories have jumped out at me since I started this, and I am quite enjoying the stroll. I call it “Change of Seasons” as it is sort of intended to bookend my time at Seasons House which of course, started with Seasons of Change. And like Tom Clancy with Jack Ryan, just because I write this, doesn’t mean I can’t go back and fill in some of the missing pieces later, or that I can’t build on the story I’m writing now and take it in some new direction. Or make it a challenge universe like Mike Allegretto and CaitlynB did with their Change of Pace. All I know is that what I’ve written and what I’ve plotted out but have yet to detail ‘feels right.’

And when I am done and it’s posted, I hope you will enjoy the ride.

Warm furry hugs!

Tigger