During a conversation I had with my mom this weekend, it occurred to me that she has her own kind of PTSD.

She was talking about some stuff that happened before she married my dad, and it was like she wasn't just remembering, but reliving the painful stuff.

I could suggest counseling, but she can be stupidly stubborn sometimes, and seeing someone is one of those areas.

Ah, well. I can give her lots of love, that will help a little, I'm sure.

It's been quite a long time since anyone has heard anything from you and we're all concerned about you. Are you still out there and doing okay? I've called twice and just gotten your message service.

PLEASE let us know!

Catherine Linda Michel

Well, I have a brand new story up. I hope everybody likes it!

A month ago I had a rather significant birthday. Although I'm still the same age as Johnny Rotten and Kim Cattrall, when both digits click over you tend to muse upon your own mortality rather more than you do on other occasions. In my case I can only reflect that I've been incredibly lucky to have avoided any significant health issues, and that the law of averages alone will ensure that this won't last for ever.

I can confirm that the new Nena tale will be going up on Kindle and Lulu tomorrow.

Remind Me Again finds Chris volunteering to be Nena to save a job for Global - again! It's been two years in the writing, mostly because a certain young lady with sporting tendencies has taken so much of my time!

I'll try to get some of the other part written stuff finished between Gabyness - well after my big trip at any rate!

Ttfn
Mads

Interesting opinion piece in the New York Times:

Is God Transgender?

So today I planned on posting chapter 3 of Broken Phoenix. Only to find out that I was logged out. Normally that wouldn't be a problem cause I could just type in my details and everything would be fine. What doesn't help is that I cannot for the life of me remember my password. I would change my password but you need your current password to do that which I don't remember. Looks like my story is getting delayed until I can figure out how to deal with this.

I have been writing "Amie and Jamie" for a year or so and find that I'm bored with it. The characters are young, with lots of possibilities, and they need someone fresh to take over. This has probably been done before, and will be glad to answer any questions the new author might have.
It will also be of great interest to me what avenues the character travel when guided by a new hand.
Any takers? Lemme know!

To the Team GB track riders.

After Froomey's bronze we were waiting with bated breath and they've delivered and in some style! World records, gold medals - it looks like the avalanche is about to begin!

Maybe it's the new even rounder Italian wheels but I think it's three Weetabix!

To my two followers:

If you've followed my recent blog posts then you'd know that I was having a mental health crisis to put it lightly. I went to a few psychiatrists and the last one said I needed an evaluation inpatient at a hospital. Needless to say I wasn't thrilled but I did meet up with an old friend from high school while in there who tried to commit suicide. I'm not out of the woods yet but I am just outpatient at the hospital now after a week inpatient.

Interesting article in the Guardian which is about a transgender woman who stayed married and thus never got female legal status and so missed out on the right to a pension. It has been referred to the European Court for an opinion.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/aug/10/supreme-cour...

I'm so glad this didn't happen to me.

As there will always be good and evil in the souls of man just as there are those who refuse to understand.
No matter how well they bring it all together, there will always be those who do not accept or tolerate those who blur the boundaries between male and female.

Explain an algorithm to those who only know simple math. Now explain transgender to those who have never felt they were born in the wrong body. Or explain transgender to those who are so insecure in their own body, anyone who blurs the boundaries sends them into fear denial or raging hate.

I have just seen a post on FB that caused me to laugh out loud - much to the disgust of my trying-to-stay-asleep partner! The author of the post was looking back over the years to events that happened on the 10th August.

I copy and paste the relevant sentence here: "I'd really love to relive those days all over again for sedimental reasons but also to live each day a whole lot smarter than we did before."

Maybe she was used to lying on the bottom?

Another I spotted recently was "inner continental" when talking about a flight from the US to Europe.

Well my lung function test this afternoon came back not so good.
a loss of 1 liter in capacity
and a loss of 4% airflow.

26% for my fev1 ( Forced Expressed Volume in 1 second )
33% fev1 after Ventolin

the only good news is my blood oxygen saturation level is 96%, only down 1% from 3 years ago.

with that last anything over 92% is considered good.

to many of you, but it's a first for me. I've never been able to cross my legs while seated, the way women can. Yesterday, while watching television, I casually crossed my legs...knee over knee!!!!! It took a few seconds for the information to reach what I laughingly call a brain, but when it did I laughed and called to the the attention of my housemate who was watching tv with me. She looked at me and smiled.

I started rereading Port of Departure and noted that Brian Taylor studied orchestration and arranging with a retired movie orchestra conductor. Looks like plans are afoot! We can hope so.

Hi,

Has anyone been able to cut down on salicylates?

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I have severe sensory processing issues, including hyperacusis, and what seems like flicker vertigo, but may be a kind of visual dependence. I also have trouble with mint, which makes me vomit, vanilla, aloe vera, nsaids, etc. I also have polyuria and have trouble with gabapentin and other meds building up in my body, and may have kidney issues. I suspect I may have salicylate sensitivity and/or salicylate poisoning due to them building up in my body.

Did anyone else watch the Men's road race this morning? OMG what a dangerous course, hair-pin turns cobble stones, and the downhills were scary.
I thought the Iranian was dead. What a finish !

Experienced my first ever "Denial of Service" yesterday at a Sheri's in Hood River of all places. I've eaten in Hood River before, while out on one of my many sanity restoring "walkabouts". It was done carefully and craftily so I would not be able to file a grievance.

Donald Trump has made hatred even more prevalent than it ever was.

To those who have routinely been discriminated against, I am sorry that you had to go through that.

one thing that has come about lately for me is that because of my mom's anxiety levels, I have found myself pushing in the opposite direction, becoming more focused on the positives more optimistic, and more upbeat.

I think this is a good thing. I hope I can sustain it.

Do to a waterfall in my apartment (No Really) Tales will be late this week. May be as long as next week. *Hugs *

Kat H.

I am in bad shape, physically and emotionally, and could use some help.

On Monday, I was exposed to nasty fumes, perhaps lysol fumes, and with all my disabilities, I wasn't able to get away. Yesterday, I had a very nasty migraine and a nasty asthma attack. Today I still have a migraine, but not as bad. I have had similar asthma and migraines after exposure to pine-sol fumes.

I love finding the origins of common expressions and colloquialisms. I am currently reading Skipper by Beverly Taff. This expression is used often by the title character. Being an American, I am not certain whether this is just Beverly's own expression, or a common British, Welsh, Scottish, or Irish one.

Could anyone offer some enlightenment?

waif

To whomever posted a Trans Supers entry for me on Tumbler:

Thanks! I'm very flattered. I love the drawing of Golden Girl and the synopsis.

I found the entry by googling my name, Terry Volkirch.

By clicking the golden girl hashtag, I found out that Erin also has a Golden Girl character. I've read many of Erin's stories here but I haven't seen that one. I'll be looking for it after I post this.

Ta ta!

- Terry

edit:

I can't find Erin's story. Oh well. Maybe she'll dredge it up and post it here. Maybe? :)

3001! It's amazing!

There is nothing Easy about Falling Off a Bike 3001 Times!

Congratulations, Angharad, who has single-handed written almost 10% of the story posts on BigCloset!

Huzzah!

And hugs,
Erin and the crew

https://inews.co.uk/essentials/lifestyle/people/hari-nef-bec...

See the article in the i newspaper. They had a nicer photo in the actual paper.

Yep its Yorkshire Day when we celebrate everything great about God's Own County from Hendo's to Whitby, rhubarb to Dickie Bird - well you get the idea.

Just to show a lack of bias, a happy national day to my second favourite place Switzerland who are lucky enough to share the day with Yorkshire!

Mads

I have accomplished two amazing feats with the same stone? I've written a tale of less than 50 pages. This must be the influence of Drea. And...!!! I've also posted a tale with more than three days to go in a contest!!! This is definitely NOT the influence of Drea!!! :)

Kelly the Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrat

Sorry, Penny's World will be a little late on account I have not written it this week.
This is entirely Karin Bishop's fault for writing Port of Arrival and then setting it free from her pc. I am completely blameless.
Real life got in the way as well, but it is mainly Karin Bishop's fault.
I will start writing and stop reading now!

Sophie

I'm posting this because I know how many of you out there have issues with their families.

Earlier this week, my Mum died. It was only last year that she had to lose a leg because of the complications her ulcerated leg was causing the rest of her body and well being.

We lost contact several months ago when her computer died (or something went wrong with it) and then we had to change cell-phone providers because Virgin stopped doing pay and go. After that, we couldn't even text.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/28/chelsea-mann...

They drive her to the brink of suicide, and now they threaten to add 9 years to her sentence and torture her the whole time for attempting suicide.

Angharad asked about the ability of text-to-speech to render British Slang. Lacking any knowledge whatsoever of said British Slang, I offer the attached rendering of the current issue of Easy As Falling Off A Bike pt 2995. The software is an old version of Text Aloud by NextUp.com (very old as software goes), and the current versions are (hopefully) better.

Will repeat for a few issues or texts of your choice.

Well, we're officially in crunch time for our move. Tonight I will be packing the last of my stuff, and tomorrow morning we move.

Since I'll be offline for a couple of days, let me take this opportunity to thank everybody who takes the time to read this little blog, especially those who have left comments.

I am so blessed, and I thank you all.

Well there you go, a new chapter on the right day!

There's more - well a bit of an update anyhow.

Look out for new Kindle stuff at the weekend, the first segment of Gaby book 17 should be finished so for the impatient, that's something to look forward to!

I am writing this for two reasons. One because I need to. Second, because I hope it might inspire some writer.

Since 2004, life has been unimaginably hard at times but over the last 5 or so years it has gotten much easier. Being the odd sort that I am, I never really engaged with the LGBT folk's political agenda, choosing to simply be a woman. I've learned a lot about writing, but lack the talent to ever be a star. I'll likely be increasingly absent because, for now at least, I have lost interest in the whole male to female thing, and never had any interest in the female to male one.

(I see I've already been scooped!)

Yes, Port of Arrival is finally published, the follow-up to Port of Departure. Here are the links to the Amazon pages and, well, I think I'm going to pour myself a glass of wine and relax for a little bit ...

... cookie crumbles / dice roll / penny drops / knife falls.

So after a week of doing nothing other than forgetting all the threads and sub-threads in Julina, a week in which I learnt much from my esteemed and most delightful visitor, I decided it was time to finally polish my next Julina episode and get it up.

But first, I would peel and chop the 2 kilos (4.5 pounds) of carrots I just purchased over the border in France for about one third of what they would cost here in Switz.

And the kilo of celery.

Peel, peel, peel, peel, peel.

We authors here at BC are blessed by our readership.

Really! BC has a large, mostly active community of readers and writers, and comments on stories are quite common, which is a wonderful change from the majority of other fiction sites I've seen, even mainstream ones. The community here is supportive of new writers, positive in their outlook on most tales, and generally a great place to be a part of.

Now, having gotten THAT out of the way, on to the point of this blog.

here it is! chapter 18

more on Wednesday

Sorry folks keep falling asleep over Bike so I think I need to et an early night. We had two dormice this morning, so numbers are down. One of these was in a box I checked an and I managed to handle it. The mouse was very active and thus fiddly to grab, especially as I couldn't always see through the bag to ascertain where he was and what he was doing.

Hopefully, I'll be less tired tomorrow.

Its been a while, but I got two authors that submitted two new TG stories to my blog. Karen Jensen's I Was a Boy Bridesmaid and Brenda's Sissy Steve and Me series.

Great stuff about boys that discover a new side about themselves.

http://forcedfeminizationillustrationart.blogspot.com/

Great stuff, hope you enjoy!

I had a splendid week with my two outstanding hosts, who fed and spoiled me. I saw some of the Alps, the historic city of Berne, two stages of the TdF, countless wild flowers and insects (some of which bit), some mammals - admittedly - in captivity, some new species of birds and a nightmare journey home from Basel airport. P dropped me off about 3.00pm for a flight at 5.30. We eventually took off after 7.15pm nearly two hours late and made good time flying back only to have to wait over an hour in the plane because they were short of ground crews at Gatwick. I finally got home at 12.10am.

so for arguments sake, let's say we somehow have discovered a way to reset someone's age, back to childhood and maybe even play with gender a little.

Now, let's say that someone has personally and deeply harmed you, use your imagination. I'm not sure what each individual would constitute a great injury but let's say it's something deeply personal and wounding.

Would you be satisfied with this person's life being started over and them being re-raised as a child? So they don't make the same mistakes or decisions in the future? Or would you want more punishment added?

So as everyone probably remembers the last blog post I did was a real hard one for me to write and I've gone to a few doctors over the last few days and had tests done and had a psychological examination done. The test results came back today and let's just say I thank whoever told me to have tests done in my last blog post I would never have found out that I am Anemic and that my vitamin levels were dangerously high. When the doctor called me I was shocked to hear what I did.

AFP•Jul 19, 2016 2:09 PM

British cyclist Mark Cavendish, pictured on July 16, 2016, will not be starting stage 17 of the Tour de France on Wednesday, finishing his run at the race this year with four stages won

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British cyclist Mark Cavendish, pictured on July 16, 2016, will not be starting stage 17 of the Tour de France on Wednesday, finishing his run at the race this year with four stages won (AFP Photo/Lionel Bonaventure)
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