As I promised in my last blog I posted my emotional story 'Brother's Request' last week. I knew that story was a real tearjerker and thought for a second story I'd post something a bit lighter and sentimental. I think 'Mystic Godfather' fills that role pretty well.

My plan was to split it into 2-3 parts as the story is about 20,000 words but I struggled to find good stopping points so I put the whole thing up and hope people will give it a chance anyway. The story differs a little from the one on fictionmania as I did more editing and also added some depth.

Here's a link to my stories on this site: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/49332/sarakel

The story is a bit of a mystery at first so if you plan to read it and don't want to be spoiled, don't read any further.

STOP.

NOW.

I WILL SPOIL!

OK.

Your loss if you haven't read it.

The story of Mystic Godfather is one that many people I've seen many on this site wish would like if they had the chance. The key theme is:

'What if you could go back in time to your teenage self and offer a sex change?'

How do you think you'd react? It is easy to feel confident in yourself once you are settled in life but most of us are clueless as teenagers. The man in the story doesn't give his younger self a choice as he only tells his younger self 'It will make you feel better'. He isn't around as the changes start to occur as his action causes a paradox and a split in the universe (FWIW I used the way Abrams rebooted the Star Trek movies as my guide and added paradoxes). That meant he'd forced a change on himself and wasn't around to help in the aftermath.

'Is it fair for someone to make that decision even if they know it is for the best in the long run?'
'Can you imagine going to the equivalent of HRT in high school?
'Especially if you weren't sure it was something you wanted?'

I wish I had time to spend a few chapters on Sam#3's struggles as he went through high school but the story was already 20,000 words and I'd hoped to keep it under 10,000 as longer stories get fewer readers. The other issue was the story was a bit complex and adding another narrator would have been tough. If I had to do it, it would have been as Sam#4 sat in his room after Lynn was kicked out of the house as he waited for Sam#3 to return. The biggest challenge would have been to make sure the reader knew we'd changed narrators. If I thought I could have done it successfully it would have added dozens of opportunities to challenge the main character.

'How would he feel as he lost his spot on the track team?'
'How would the school deal with a boy going through the equivalent of HRT?'
'How do his friends treat him?'
'How do his parents treat him?'
'Will he choose to live as a boy or a girl?'

Doing this could have easily doubled the length of the story so I let the reader use their imagination. The only comment the narrator made was that Sam#3 must have gone through a lot of pain. I'd originally hoped to have the main character and the reader grow to hate his future self then start to understand. I scaled back the hate when I decided to make it less complex.

The hero of the story is obviously Sam#3 who did the best he could until his own demons convinced him the importance to follow in the footsteps of his future self and finish the job only this time he'd give a full explanation and a choice. That made the main character the narrator, the hero, and the real villain in the story. The idea made me laugh as I wrote the story and I hope people enjoy it.