So I've been just kinda messing around today, trying to get inspired to write some more. I hit up Pandora, and set it to fit my more eclectic style. I've been in a rather tranquil mood today, so I thought I'd start with a little Enya, but she wasn't who I really wanted. I felt myself drifting back to my darker days (in part due to writing Inner Demons), and thought I'd give a group I hadn't played in years another go - Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

Not quite sure where Cathy will fit this in her survey. Or a couple of others.

A new cat on the block?

You know I did that study on Mountain Gorillas... meet the new neighbour!

I'd like to talk for a moment about my newest story, "Sacrifice".

If's a pretty rare story for me, because I basically inspired myself.

See, a long time back I wrote a little story called "puppets" which had a person with the ability to control others and yet was also a victim of control at the same time. It was so dark I eventually wrote a sequel where the main character became free. And yet, because the story also featured a family who had been victimized by the main character my brain kept going back to the story wondering what happened to them next.

For all those following our little story into the alternate world of Retah, Leila has given me permission to post Mandela 4. We hope our readers enjoy the fruits of our combined labors.

*Kisses*
Haylee V

After having what I can only describe as a toxic relationship with food for most of my life, with my internal organs in danger and chances for SRS growing fainter, I have been forced to face the fact that I am a food addict.

I have now joined a support group that uses the methods of A.A. to help people like me change not just their diets but their relationship to food, and I am going to do my best to get into recovery.

All hugs, prayers, and words of support are appreciated as I begin this difficult journey.

'3 Generations' movie has a lot to say. Ray (Elle Fanning), a transgender teen boy, is aching to begin his physical transition but first needs written consent from his conflicted single mother, Maggie (Naomi Watts), and estranged father, Craig (Tate Donovan). Meanwhile, Maggie’s lesbian mom, Dodo (Susan Sarandon), and longtime partner, Honey (Linda Emond),

As you may have notices, there is no chapter of The Wildcats this week, due to the double posting last week. Leslie is hard at work on the next chapter, and you will see it next Friday.

Any of you who are needing a Wildcats fix should go back and check that you read both Chapter 23 and 24. The numbers for Chapter 23 are only about half of what 24 (and prior chapters) got. It looks like a lot of people saw the two units posted close together, and assumed that they were duplicates, so only read 24.

If you did read both ... hey read one again.

Dawn Natelle

Hi Everyone! I posted about helping us, and helping NinjaBaby via the POAC - Autism: Walk For A Difference already once, but with the walk only a few days away I thought I would post again.

And for those of you that are reading this after saturday (should you show up late to the party) It's NEVER too late to donate, even if the walk is over contact me and I will give you information for how to donate to POAC directly (not via our walk page). Every little bit helps (just like at BigCloset).

I just put up a poll on my website and am hoping folks here could head on over and vote on the sort of content I'll be adding to my website in the future. Mainly this would be for fans of my writing/people who intend to visit my website. Cast your vote or share comments in the blog. Either way, your thoughts will be appreciated.

Please, click here.

To want to cosplay your own characters?

One part of my writing i've not owned up to before is that I try to imagine myself as the main protagonist, whether it's Nena, Peaches, Gaby or the latest addition, Trixie. By imagining that I am those individuals I get a better feel for how they will react, talk etc.

i just moved to jefferson county missouri and due to flooding am now cut from access from most of the st. louis area, so i was not able to make my doctors appt. or visit family. this is the second flood like this in 18 months where this type of floods never happened here before and many people are asking why. one theory that is going round is that the army corp of engineers built new levies upstream to protect farmland that was always getting flooded and now that water has to have somewhere to go. so now it floods heavily populated areas.

I have posted a new story I hope all my readers will enjoy: Inner Demons, AKA Journals of an Angry Trans Gurl.

To date, it is the LONGEST serial chapter I have ever posted on this site, at over 3,700 words.

Yes, it is COMPLETELY autobiographical.

Yes, it is dark. Future chapters may cause some readers to shudder or sicken at its darkness. Such is my life, and fair warnings will be given at the appropriate times.

Yes, it was painful. Dealing with demons always is.

Finally got around to a new Keyboard!

Hopefully when I resume Gaby on Thursday I can go a bit quicker - it's a cheap but durable Microsoft bit of kit - wonder how long it'll last! Anyone want a KB with no letters?

Anyhow there are now 4 Trixiebell Heartswoon 'chapters' completed. The way is open for more but for now it concludes here.

Should be back to normal posting from tomorrow.

Mads

There’s a very interesting site called Quora (quora dot com), billed as “A place to share knowledge and better understand the world”.*

Questions are asked by anyone and answered by anyone, but “best’ answers are upvoted to the top. You’re liable to find internationally known scientists, authors, and politicians responding—a lot of teachers, too—as well as regular folks. Have a question about the Battle of Yorktown? It might be answered by an American History professor at Yale . Have a question about guns? The top answer might come from a Marine gunnery instructor, or a police officer, and so on.

But some of the answers take unusual spins; as with the one below, which may comfort some and infuriate others, but it may be of interest to BCTS authors and readers.

The general question, open to anyone to answer, was “Which novel changed your life?”

This response is interesting in terms of self-perception of gender.

Erin has agreed to post my new story, The Girl Who Saved Aunt T’s, in Hatbox. Hatbox is one of the ways you can support this site. Make a contribution to Hatbox and Erin will send you a password allowing you access to a group of stories that have been set aside for this purpose.

The Girl Who Saved Aunt T’s is a 50K novel.

It's been a long time since I have written new stories and continued existing ones and I apologise for that.

Since 2013 we moved from our lovely home in Lincolnshire to live with my mother in law as she was finding it hard to cope on her own due to Alzheimer's.

Anyone who has had experience of dealing with this condition will know that it never gets easier. Since moving I have been trying to re-build my IT business from scratch and helping my wife to look after her mother.

Here I am in the hills/small mountains south of St Ettienne and we had a big gale last night. Strong winds and rain that brought more than a few trees down.
Woke up this morning with the prospect of a 550Km drive ahead of me and we are snowed in. Yes folks, the 1st of may and I'm snowed in at my hotel. About 4in of the white stuff fell in the night.
It is also a bank holiday here so the snow clearance vehicles won't be out. I'll try to get out after breakfast as I have 4WD but I don't recon much of my chances.

Deep Joy!

Samantha

Should a story (third person POV) reveal the inevitability of a change or leave it a mystery?

that when I was looking at something on my personal account page that a month ago I achieved my 10th anniversary as a member here. It doesn't seem that long ago, though it might to some of my readers. In those days I was only posting the odd blog here while I was still writing Snafu for Sapphire's Place and the early attempts at doing some Gaby stories on Maddy's site, then I got soaked riding my bike in a thunderstorm and Bike happened.

Writing is hard.

Well ok, its not so much the writing thats hard but managing to focus, to keep working on the same novel and not get distracted by the many other projects in the works. To that end I've been focusing on one novel in particular, "Rhysling's Rue". Despite the delay between chapters it seems to be going fairly well. I'm discovering things about the story that I'm writing, things I hadn't really suspected when the concept occurred to me... things and people that I think make it a better story overall.

I was re-reading all the Penmarris stories, as well as the St. Vlad stories (including the incomplete The Power)

Anyone know what happened to Susan Brown? The last posting I can find from her was that she was dealing with an elderly relative, but that was two years ago.

Thanks

Just a further update

Trixie's life now runs to the third instalment, Gothic Friends which will of course be posted after Gothic Girlfriend .

Part 4 will be started after tonight's curry, Gothic Girlhood will take Trixie's life to some sort of conclusion - I think! It will bring elements of the first four parts together and add some further complications to the situation!

Part 5 - well we'll have to wait and see - after the holiday weekend I really need to get back to writing Gaby!

Well I'm absolutely stunned by the reaction to this story! Thank you all so much for your comments / feedback.

There is a follow up story wot I wrote yesterday, Gothic Girlfriend will be posted next time I get a real internet connection. That in turn will be followed by Gothic Friend - not yet wroted but in theory it concludes the tale of Trixiebell Heartswoon - or does it?

Well that remains to be seen, each part has so far been a 15 hour road crash of writing effort.

I'm not going into depth on this article. I had a meeting with five veterans and this was mulled over. From what came out of that meeting is veterans are being systematically robbed of close to two billion dollars annually. Seemed like a chunk of change to me. We didn't go that far into how the total was figured. They pointed the finger at a lot of high profile figures dipping into this secret money scam. Judges, lawyers, politicians. I didn't understand the mechanics of this mess. After the meeting I dropped onto the web looking for more data.

First off, I want to thank everyone who read/commented/kudo'd my recent stories ^_^ The reception I've gotten to them is amazing and it makes me feel great :D The Waitress especially is something I've been planning and working on for a while
I really wanted to get the next chapter out today or tomorrow, but unfortunately that's not going to happen :( Some personal things have come up that I've had to deal with, and I've started to get the sniffles >.<

I just posted updates to Crayola Chronicles: Alicia Steele (please note the title change), as well as chapter 2. Tentative date for chapter 3 is mid-May (17th or so). I have the next chapter of Mandela Shift ready, pending Leila's permission to post, and receipt of her notes for chapters 5 and 6. Smoky Corners 0: A Journey of a Thousand Miles has been started, with hopes of chapter 1 being completed and posted next week. I'm working on revisions to all my SC works, so stay tuned. I'm working on a spin of Beauty and the Beast. Whew! At least they let me write in ICU, huh? LOL...

They are trying to compare my problems with normal people with body image issues.

It's not something they can understand, every minute with my eyes open is another second I'm screaming inside my head. Because when I'm awake I have to face the fact my body is wrong. The screaming inside my head doesn't stop anymore. I want to rip my skin off sometimes. No medication can fix the constant emotional pain, the frustration, helplessness and hopelessness I'm in It's why I stay in my room, reading sometimes distracts me.

"Learning to Talk Like a Woman (or Man)"
Learning to Talk Like a Woman (or Man)

I have been thinking a lot about the mistake I made with Mercy. Namely, that I posted chapters as they were written, rather than wait until I had the story complete. I believe that the length of time between posting, especially when I couldnt even say when more might come, helped lower the opinion of people about the series. Plus, I believe the pressure I put on myself to try and keep interest in the story led me to post very short chapters that also probably turned a lot of people off.

According to Deadline Hollywood Avatar 2 and 3 have got real release dates.
http://deadline.com/2017/04/avatar-the-next-four-installment...
We have been waiting for the Second Installment of this series for so long i feel it has lost relevance.
Maybe that is why they might actually o them, heck Camron has said the studio talked him into doing all the way up to Avatar 5 .
Heck Disney has gotten in on the Act.

I need to amend my previous blog post because I really didn't explain what happened all too well.

Indeed sorry to all the Gabfen expecting the last chapter of Gaby Book 14 today. For reasons outside of my control i've not had any internet access today.

As a result it'll now be posted on Wednesday when i'm expecting that part one of Book 20, Gaby Express to become available.

Which reminds me, I'd best get back to actually writing it!

Tschüssi
Mads

Nature is reputedly red in tooth and claw, things will kill each other possibly to eat or as rivals. This was the sad end to our dormouse survey today. The picture contains the body of a dormouse which has been attacked and killed possibly by a wood mouse. It was the only one we found today, making it doubly sad. To think the poor thing survived the winter then possibly went torpid overnight and met a wood mouse...

Oh this isn't about politics or religion so you can rest easy on that front. What I'm writing about is something that occurs in some authors writing on occasion and that is references to other authors and their works. Now I understand that it's nice to be able to mention your friends and fellow authors in your work. I am sure it gives you and the aforementioned authors a nice warm feeling and does the same for many of their friends.

Caitlyn Jenner reflects on how her life has changed since transitioning into a woman

It is a nice article where Caitlyn expresses her emotions and feelings. An excellent read from a beautiful person who only wants to be what she has always felt in her heart and soul.
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/caitlyn-jenner-reflects-...

sound bites from the story:

Just so anybody reading chapter 20 of Mercy and worried that it says "The end ... for now", dont worry just yet.

I plan to bring Mercy, Brand, and company back for a Book 2, with a focus on the idea of self-forgiveness.

I mean, its great to forgive others, but what if you cant forgive yourself?

I have no timeline for when I'll actually be able to have something to share, but I promise that as soon as I do, I will post it for everybody who still likes these characters to enjoy.

And I'm having a fat-tailed feline hissy fit because I can't find it!!!!

Spoilers follow . . .

I've come to a realization that I'm not the kind of person I thought I was. Last night I went to post a story I had written and I come to find out that what I had written had unknowingly ripped off another story. Upon that happening it really hit me, I can't write anymore. Anything I write could possibly end up the same way and I don't want that.

So, to save my sanity and put this to rest I'm putting down the pad and paper and moving on from writing as a whole.

To anyone that even cared to read what I wrote, I thank you.

Well, I am glad to report I have made some progress on stuff. I got my tax rebate into the bank today, and discovered that my former employer had FINALLY given me my holiday pay. Then I went to the E.I. office, and discovered I had made a small mistake which was delaying my claim, and fixed it.

All this, plus I've gotten some serious progress done on the next chapter of Mercy, so I am super happy at the moment.

Anime is an art form, specifically animation, that includes all genres found in cinema, but it can be mistakenly classified as a genre. In Japanese, the term anime refers to all forms of animation from around the world. In English, anime (/ˈænəˌmeɪ/) is more restrictively used to denote a "Japanese-style animated film or television entertainment" or as "a style of animation created in Japan".

Had an interesting day, put up some trellis for my ex, took my daughter to lunch and then fixed her bike plus a hundred mile drive each way. Then just as I'm gearing up to start scribbling Bike, my glasses fell apart or shall we say, a lens fell out. I then spent a fruitless twenty minutes trying to find the screw responsible only to discover it was still in the frame. It's a weird arrangement because the screw holding the lens in is under the arm not on the top and I couldn't see it because I didn't have my glasses.

This is so frustrating and not sure what I should do... I'm so close to wrapping up Robbie's Revelation (The 1st book at least), I have 3 maybe 4 chapters left to where I want to end the Revelation part at.. Now my time is already limited severely for writing, so what's my muse decide to do?!? She starts throwing a completely new story around in my head and it's distracting me from finishing Revelation...

Trying to get her to focus on the story I want to write right now would be harder than herding cats..

God if I have to hear anymore Hold Music I am going to snap!

45 minutes on hold with the Good Old Sate DPS customer service to find out where my License is since I renewed it over a Month ago.

Now I have been on Hold with one of the local hospital for 30 minutes on hold!

If I ever find the people that designed those automated systems just to get threw to a human being, and or chose there Hold music, it will not be pretty.

I dont know how others write, but I tend to write in sequence - that is, I write the first part of a chapter first, then each event as it occurs.

Once in a great while after I have finished a part of a chapter, I realize something would actually work better earlier, and switch it around, but generally the story unfolds as I write it.

But I think I need to do something different for the next chapter of Mercy.

Couldn't resist sharing this one with you.

Sometime last evening, I read a new chapter of A Longer War by Cyclist.

This has proven to be one of my favorite stories, and many of the chapters have had a serious impact on me - especially the early ones. As the story progressed, it continued to stir my emotions and sentiments - although for different reasons. But this latest chapter, lake many of the early ones, has stricken a particular chord within me.

A post on the BBC (with Video) about a Ballerina who was a Racing Driver and other 'manly' things before transitioning and going to the Royal Academy of Dance.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39555703

Does this RL story copy a story here?
Samantha

It's hard to believe that real life can prove that men are stupidly competitive. Even while many BC stories stress how 'men' are over competitve and 'women' are collaborative, is that how cliches work?

Check out this vileness from last Wednesday's episode on CBS of 'Survivor' (recorded last year).

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/entertainmenttv/survi...