Been listening to the MET's Christmas version of the Mozart's The Magic Flute. I have always enjoyed this opera and we actually saw it performed in Vienna. I decided many years ago to see if I could adapt the story for this site. I did, and I think it worked out quite well. I wove the very famous but archaic Adventure Game into it. The story is "Cynthia and the Queen of Knight." Take a look at it. You might find it very enjoyable. It is part of the "Cynthia Chronicles."

It wasn't bad but I echo some of the critiques: it defnitely had some bloat and some of the action could have been trimmed. Honestly while the beginning connected the end of the first tailing into the other I don't think it was terrible though it could have been trimmed a bit. I don't want to get into the plot much except Jake now has a family and it really gets into that dynamic.

I would like to wish you all a Happy Christmas and hope that 2023 will be an improvement over 2022.

This has been a hectic and challenging year for me. I had great plans to release a book a month - such are the plans we make, eh?
I still am working on so many books, I might just finish a few in 2023 - I'm not being as optimistic as I was last year, as there are too many things to stop me.

But, I have actually finished one, just in time for Christmas - Fading Memories

So I have submitted "the girl with the scars in her eyes", and "Gibraltar falls" to a Canadian magazine.

I will know if they accept it sometime in the next 6-8 weeks.

Keep your fingers crossed for me, okay?

I got an interesting email the other day from Karen Lea. She was letting me know that life has slowed from its craziness, retirement I guess, and after reading some kind words from me she wanted to let me know that she got inspired and re-examined her tale "Educating Danielle". Anyway, long story short, she has had it professionally edited and it has been formatted and she has placed the first half on Amazon. She has completed the tale.....it was previously unfinished...... and the second half she hopes to have up around Christmas.

Posting the first chapter of the new Masks book has driven home that I have not done this in a while. I'm having to re-learn stuff I should already know. I hope folks - including those who manage this site - bear with me.

- the final countdown begins!

This is the start of an idea for a story, based on "Educating Special Boys in the Feminist Republic" by Torrey Grover. It's about a kid who doesn't really identify as a boy, but also doesn't identify enough as a girl to be brought into the program for "special boys". I'm posting it here in my blog, instead of with my stories, because I haven't heard back from Torrey yet, but I'm also wondering if people think it's close enough to the original story for it to work in the universe Torrey created.

Looking for a story, but only vaguely remember the details.

Seriously? This little item is being advertised as gender free on my Facebook feed.

What happened to our Weekly Dormouse. What's up with Kathy and the bad guy?

so I have been using a CPAP machine for a while, and it had done wonders for my sleep apnea.

Unfortunately, it was only a loaner, and I have to return it Friday.

And because of mistakes I made trying to get Alberta Disabled support to cover me for one, I am going to be without one for the foreseeable

There have been a lot of times, I've made massive errors, and somehow avoided consequences, so if this time I am going to pay for my mistakes, so I can't kick too hard.

Still, its gonna suck not having the machine considering how bad my apnea is.

This site needs more revenue. Traffic is at the heart of revenue both in selling ads and in donations.

Erin is working on a Google Ads program to bring in more traffic. This has worked in the past.

I'm donating an additional $100 this month above my normal contribution. Emma Anne Tate is also throwing in an additional $100.

Will you please join us in this effort?

Traffic is a long-term solution to the funding problem.

Jill

Just found it going over old backups and done a reread of a story...
It is quite good and I would recommend it to anyone. Some minor triggers but nothing graphic. It is in PDF, but is published here on the BCTS:
https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/53387/kerries-run

yep, after several increasingly cold and frosty days, we woke to actual snow here in Brizzle!

...for a long, long time. about 50 years, in fact. Our company Christmas party is coming up soon, so I decided my hair, which had returned to the wild, needed something which wouldn't get in the soup, or require the usual ponytail band all the time. I took this here photo, just after being outdoors so pardon if the mop still looks a bit unruly. If you feel the need to laugh, be my guest! It makes me smile.

Colour needs re-doing.

I have succumbed to a virus, I don't know if it's Covid, but I have a stupid tickly cough that has kept me awake for two nights and prevented me from attending a geology workshop that I have wanted to go to for a year. I am so fed up with life at present I'd like to disappear to a tropical island and never come back.

Roommate/caretaker requirements:
I have a large bedroom whom I am willing to give a trans girl a good place to live, all utilities paid, and shared food bills. Full laundry and kitchen. Dogs/cats are welcome.

In exchange I would need someone with a car. she would be required to run occasional errands, do minor housekeeping, and take out the trash.

of the winter here in Brizz!

I am pleased to see that BCTS readers accepted my story “Discharged – Female” for what it was – A harrowing work of fiction firmly based on researched fact bringing to light appalling injustices done to gay people during South Africa’s apartheid regime. Some on Fictionmania saw it as something very different.

The ebook for “A Cracker Barrel Christmas” will be free on Amazon for the next five days.
Please leave a review, if you choose to.

Today was my 70th birthday and I admit waking up remembering what day it was and then thinking that being 70 was a new experience and wasn't I supposed to feel old? I didn't I I felt the same, despite my stroke back in May. My daughter was visiting with her hubby and I had arranged three roast beef dinners, 'Denis dinners', which those who have visited me in Dorchester for things like a Gabyfest will have experienced and named from the owner of the cafe where we ate.

I'm looking for a story that had a guy moving from the British Isles to the US. He had a name that is male there, but female here (maybe Shannon?).

There's an issue with his luggage and he's stuck with a suitcase of female clothes (I think they are even close to his size).

He's got long hair and everyone in the new town (except the relative he'll be living with thinks he's a girl.

I *think* he's high school age as well.

It's *not* Texas Two-Step. I just re-read that because the synopsis seemed close.

Some time after I had been on this site for a while, I realized I had managed to publish at least one story, poem, or essay each calendar month with one exception.

Being the kind of individual I am, it became an obsession to keep this streak going, and honestly, I think the quality of my stories suffered for it.

Well, as of midnight tonight, the streak is over, as I have not been able to produce any content for the month of November.

November, coulda done without your legacy!

I spent a lot of yesterday trying to piece together a “meeting of the minds” between Jennifer Monroe and Travis Miller. Travis was one of the guys who left her for dead on the side of road in Missoula, Montana. Three years later, she returns to Missoula to confront her past tormentor:

I want to know if this is a good example of “gas-lighting”:

“It Can Only Go Up From Here”
Chapter 8 “Not Just a Girl” (snippet)

of mice and men....

I really ... really wish I could have a father/daughter relationship with my dad. When I first came out to him, I wasn't especially surprised when he had issues with me saying I was his daughter. But ... it's been a few decades since then. I'm pretty lucky, when compared to others, because my dad is willing to see me, and tells me he loves me. But, deep down inside me, there's still a little girl who wants to be held and cuddled by her daddy. I guess that may sound silly for a 58 year old woman to say, but that's how I'm feeling right now.

Would my friends here please consider this? Samirah Johnson - known here as Violetfyre and on Facebook as Meave (Her primary FB account was hacked at the same time as mine)

Samirah lives in the Richmond area and has had virtually no help from her family The note below references her circumstances.

Amy Schnieder won the Jeopardy Tournament of Champions. She outplayed a formidable field to win the $250,000 prize.

She has become the most successful female Jeopardy contestant ever, and is Jeopardy's first trans champion.

Jill

I am thankful for all of you, readers, writers and supporters. And not forgetting our staff and helpers. Or absent friends like Bob Arnold.

This month marks the 23rd year I have been privileged to help present BigCloset/TopShelf as a friendly place to read, write and discuss TG fiction.

Thank you all,
Erin

I have just posted a story based on fact entitled "Discharged - Female"

I had heard about these forced sex changes in South Africa and so I researched it a little and discovered more about the whole horrific thing, and that the number of mutilated victims was larger than I thought. Some stories have been told but many more have been buried. I did not access the findings of the "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" but I do understand the reasons why the post-apartheid government would want to bury the sins of the past in a bid to move forward as a mixed society.

so yesterday, I went to the endo doctor's office, and ran into the doctor who had been treating me when I was part of the bariatric program, and she complimented me on the growth I've had since then.

I really needed to hear that.

I tell ya, its the weathers fault!

Okay, so here's the breakdown of The Mockreet. I can't believe I have to type this out, but here we go:

Timeline 1(Faedrye): Lyra appears in the body of Micah Lavoric, she lives in Auglire with her sister Sheena Rossi. She's been abducted due to Calliope's idiocy and now Sheena is searching for her. Lyra is now hiding amongst a group of would-be revolutionaries led by Quinn Mallory in their fight against both the High Landy and a smuggler named Old Jaf.

I just finished reading a Wiki piece on the Eroticism of Islamic thought. The gist of it is that men are sexually attracted to a covered woman. And, generally women like being sexually attractive. In my years attempting to be a practicing Muslim woman, I liked being covered and really felt secure in the full face covering. The article strips the mystery away for me, not that I think there is anything wrong with being modestly covered. I think that being Muslim or not, generally men like to be in power over women. The Quran and Bible reinforce this. It's a funny funny world isn't it?

I got my GCS in June of 2021.

That is all.

"Won't the tacos just get soggy in the shower?" she asked.

"Captain Brown" is a rather large story that I have worked on for years, perhaps since 2007. During Covid, I became ill several times and was surprised to find out that I survived. Along the way I forgot about that story.

I realized today when looking at the site's list of my postings that it's been exactly a year since the last set of chapters for the fourth book 'Light and Shadow' was posted. Yikes does time go zipping past!

Thought this was as good as a lot of fictional stories I read. Three mermaids rescue a scuba diver. It's a nice long story with lots of pictures of the beautiful mermaids.
https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/mermaids-california-save-s...

“Couple hours sleep, and you’ll feel like a new woman.”

The Genesis of Scratch!

This little amusement created itself while we were away for a few days in East Anglia. The hotel had been booked before Her Majesty died, which meant that we ended up with two days (Sunday and the Monday of the funeral) when almost nothing was open. Stuck in a hotel room with only sandwiches bought the previous day and kept chilled in the room mini-bar, the idea slowly matured...

Things to look out for.

Something that happened to me today…again.

When my hackles get up due to a perceived insult I become defensive. If it moves to a direct insult on me I get mad.

When I get mad I get very stubborn.

At that point I try to hurt the person that hurt me just as much or more than they hurt me. All reasoning with me goes out the window, along with any common sense apparently.

This is a family trait. I know about but can’t stop it from happening.

Makes me feel very bad afterword but the moment of apology is long gone.

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I've been wondering about two stories, and what happened. Anastasia Allread wrote Healing a Princess, and Admiral Krunch did Christina Chase. Both have lain fallow since the last chapters were written, though neither story felt finished to me.

Penny Lane's Somewhere Else Entirely seems to periodically get charming carry on chapters.

I suppose HAP could have ended with one more chapter? It is not said what happens to Christina Chase though there is a strong implication that something would follow.

I'm thinking of reading all three of these stories again.

Gwen

One must love watching and talking to old people and or kids. Many have no disconnect on what they are thinking and what comes out of their mouth. To put the encounter into perspective I counsel those like myself. Too many take themselves too seriously and demand others don't make any errors in talking to or addressing them. Most little kids six or under seem to find me fascinating as they stare at me while holding their mother's hand or sitting in the shopping cart. Not my fault. Although I don't have her curves, I'm like Jessica Rabbit, I was designed this way.

I went away for my last "fishing trip" of the year this weekend. I do actually go fishing, but the main reason I go is to have time as Leeanna. The memories I have let me cope with not being who I want to be.

After my mother helping me and pushing me the last time. She wanted us to go into the bar on the site. I refused. I just went for a short walk in the dark with her. She told me not to wear red lipstick and keep my makeup understated. She also told me not to use the red wig I have.

I went for a plain look. I just wanted to look like an older lady out for a walk.