Actually, two stories.
One is similar to the Maddy Bell 'Nena' stories. A young man who looks a lot like his feckless sister gets sucked into substituting for her as a guide in a package ski tour in Europe. She is successful in the job but does confess to her manager./ All works out well, including her sister who manages to marry a rich American from LA or Los Vegas.
Another is a science fiction story. A fairly unappealing guy, I think he is a traveling sales man or tech rep, gets suckered into a Shanghai'd scenario, where someone manages a body swap with him. He wakes up as a low economic class woman, local to the planet. He/She manages to talk her ( local woman's) sister into helping her stow away on a spaceship back to earth. ( I think the sister may not understand this aspect of her plan - sister may think she is just trying to get a better job). This works, but she is caught after some period of time, 'fesses up, and things work out.
Appreciate any advice.
Comments
If it were not for that twist
If it were not for that twist, I’d say you were thinking of “Second Chance” by Dawn Natelle. But the guy in question wakes up as a girl (who has a similar history to contend with).
I’ll be honest, though - this isn’t ringing any bells.
When I read
Your discription my first thought was one of Tanya Allen's srories in which A police detective at the end of a long life of depression and failed dreams due to never having dared to act on his TG status
A train crash, mother and daughter rushed to the hospital
Twist of fate he has heart failure in hospital, and his 'Soul' ends up in the body of the daughter.
Of course he remembers nothing of her life, so s\he has to learn all about the young lady.
Until this, "and a disadvantage that his body's history is of being mean, histrionic, selfish, uncaring, and impulsive, so no-one trusts him for a while."
I know I have probably gone off on the wrong track, but maybe what I wrote will help some one else.
Question with this
"and a disadvantage that his body's history is of being mean, histrionic, selfish, uncaring, and impulsive, so no-one trusts him for a while."
Did you mean that the person new body belonged to was also TG, thus that some of the actions were or may have been because of not knowing how to deal with the feelings?
looking for a story...
Thank you both for taking the time to consider the question and consult your memories. “Second Chance” and "Every Little Girl's Dream" are both stories that I enjoyed very much, but are indeed not the one I am trying to remember. I perhaps went on too long about how awful the prior soul in the young teenager boy's body has been, as that is a very minor part of the story, and his miserableness is never really explained. I think it is mostly a McGuffin to provide the main conflict in the story, of the new soul trying to gain the trust and acceptance of their family, and of becoming a person who deserves the trust, despite embarking on a new project that first looks to their family as if it is yet another act to inflict unhappiness on everyone else. If I come up with the title, I will post it here.
Found the story!
It is "Second Chance", by Karen Singer, and I did get it from the Amazon Kindle store Now I get to read it again and see if it is as good as I remember.