Tonight I am getting ready to share a link on "Easy As Falling Of A Bike" with a friend who is looking for something to read, so I had to dig deeply to find Chapter 1 of said epic. I notice that something had happened with it and the publication date was now 2015. Chapter 2 still says 2007. I have noticed the same thing has happened with certain of my stories, not that mine are important at all.

Well it's finally here, the full, edited and tidied up version of the latest Gaby opus!

Available from the usual outlets in the usual formats from some time this evening!

Kindle ASIN: B01N3A8G9I
Amazon print to follow
Lulu digital
Lulu print

The winner of this years Costa book award went to Sebastian Barry's Days Without End. A story about the lives and love of two young men who start out as dancing girls in a saloon in the west and their time as soldiers.

This is Brokeback Mountain with requited love. Here is a link to a review from the Irish Times, apt as the author is Irish.

http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/humorous-glorious-ou...

A little something I just thought up, plagued as I was by a petite pestilence. What's the difference between a boxer and someone with a bad cold?

My dog and constant companion of almost ten years and best friend, passed away unexpectedly late last week. I don't really feel much like writing right now. I've always been a bit socially awkward so I don't have many friends. Coming home to her after a day of work was always the highlight of my day.

Staff at the British Medical Association (BMA) have been warned not to call pregnant women “expectant mothers” as it could offend transgender people. Instead, they should call them “pregnant people” so as not to upset intersex and transgender men.

The advice comes in an internal document to staff outlining a raft of common phrases that should be avoided for fear of causing offence. “The elderly” should be referred to as “older people”, “disabled lifts” called “accessible lifts” and someone who is “biologically male or female” should be called “assigned male or female”.

I am very lucky to live in a house with animals.

Like last night, I was having troubles emotionally, and laying in bed and unable to sleep when my brother and sister-in-law's cat came into my room, jumped up on my bed, and basically demanded I pet her. After a while of stroking her soft fur and hearing her purr, I could feel my blood pressure drop and my heart rate slow. When I stopped petting her, the cat sat at the end of my bed facing my door, as if guarding me from any intruders, until I fell asleep.

Like I said, I'm very lucky.

This started out as a comment on another blog, but I didn't want that person to feel as if they had been singled out for attention. This is something that has been on my mind for awhile now.

It wasn't that long ago I only knew one person with a Patreon. At last count a few months back there were over 30. A few are set at $1.00 but most have a $5.00 minimum. A small number are higher. So I figure my monthly contributition to the people I really feel I should donate to is close to $150. A month. Ouch!

Here's a win-win betting opportunity. For Super Bowl Sunday, February 5 make a bet with someone or only with your self. If the Atlanta Falcons win paint your nails Falcon red. If New England wins paint them Patriot blue! Either way you win. It's a great reason/excuse to indulge yourself. And of course the 'loser' would have to leave it on for at least a week or more. This would be perfect for toe nails if you need to be a bit discreet. And because it's winter no one is gonna see your toes until spring anyway. And if they do say something you can say you lost a bet.

When uploading a picture, we're given the option of generating a thumbnail. I want to include a thumbnail in my story so that when the user clicks on it, the normal-sized picture is uploaded, which is the typical use for a thumbnail..

I've been messing with html and can do it if I put a link to the main picture from a title beneath the thumbnail. But I'm not certain how to link the thumbnail itself to the main picture. (It's worth saying I haven't much used html for 15 years, so I'm quite rusty!)

Is there an easy way to use thumbnails on this site?

I've just spent the last ten minutes or so looking at a few items from our writers here that are available on Amazon.

In each case, I see a small ad on the page which says: READ ON ANY DEVICE, then Get free Kindle app underneath. Is this legit?

It just seems odd as Amazon lists scores if not hundreds of Kindles for sale through the site. I know they do, I've looked occasionally, as I've thought about getting one, but the cost for the decent ones is way too much for me in most cases.

With help from my sister in law, I got the first step done to getting my name change. Total cost should be about $ 200, take probably around a month from start to finish.

But before you can start a journey, you got to take the first step, and I did that today.

delay for chapter. Posting tomorrow night. Sorry folks.

Something about this block of days on the calendar. Saturday, Jan. 28th, is the 31st anniversary of the mid-air destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986. Extra attention was being paid to this flight as it was the inaugural flight of the Teacher In Space Program. A series of interactive lessons broadcast from the shuttle by teacher/payload specialist Christa McAuliffe meant that schools across the country were watching the take-off.

Well, anyone reading my two latest posts here will possibly realize that the two stories are connected.

Upside Down, Inside Out has a ways to go before it catches up with Home Is Where The Heart Is. I'm not sure, but it may take another post or three of Upside Down, Inside Out before the two stories timelines begin to match.

At the moment, these are the only stories that are interconnected, but that doesn't preclude the possibility that one or more of the others will not become interconnected with one or both of these stories. We'll have to wait and see, won't we?

To say Ihave been depressed for the last while is an understatement.

Looks like My paralyzed leg has decided to work in tandom with mr good leg Evey day I wheel my wheelchair in front of the kitchen sink. I use my good arm and hand to grab the edge of the sink and counter and with assistance drag myself up and stand and balance for as long as my strength allows the dead leg is helping me stand though I still need the assist small l baby steps is the ticket to walking someday

Thanks to everyone has posted stories I live for them.

Author's Commentary on Somewhere Else Entirely: Chapters 19 to 22

In these chapters a major character gets introduced and Garia receives a shock which underlines her new reality to her. Otherwise, the business of introducing basic technology to Palarand continues.

There isn't too much in these chapters that required major attention.

The power of the written word is a line I have heard my whole life. In this day and age of Social Media, I was beginning to fear that the power of the written word was dying. Yesterday, two things happened that proved to me that the power of the written word is not yet dead.

The first in what may be a very long
series is up

Higher than Eagles.

Hopefully, Erin and team will have it through this site soon,
but for the impatient, link to Amazon.com here - Higher than Eagles.

Amazon.co.uk here' Higher than Eagles

Is also available as a paperback through CreateSpace on Amazon

Tanya

It came to my attention this evening that The southern Comfort Transsexual Conference is no more!

http://www.tgforum.com/wordpress/index.php/the-southern-comf...

I attended in 2009 and it was a life changing event for me.

The Con had relocated from Atlanta Ga. to Ft. Lauderdale, but apparently there were some lawsuits that have ended the Con that had been a fixture for Trans folks for 26 years!

I just got done with a story by C Sprite. Call I can't go home like this great story. just like to know if and when the next chapter coming out.

A tale of storms, poisons, and misdirection.

I was looking for some thing to read.

I found the 'The Bronze Maiden' by Desiree Jones

Which reminded me that Desiree took a sabbatical for medical reasons, I don't remember if there were updates, I was wondering if Desiree is ok?

Not a good day. It turns out my work was not happy with me, so I am being transferred to another store further away from home and only 4 hours a day 7 days a week.

Its a dam sight better than nothing, but it still feels like I failed.

On top of this, yesterday I got an email from my sister in law that contained a paper on "victim's syndrome" - basically saying some people love saying "woe is me" and getting sympathy rather than taking responsibility for their own choices and mistakes.

To me, that seems to indicate she thinks I'm one of those people, and that stings.

My grandmother often warned against "getting the big head."

She believed in humility and, of course, she was right.

Damned if I didn't go against her sage advice -- and grew a melon of above average size.

I've been able to order extra large wigs from Paula Young in the past, put they seemingly have stopped making them.

The searches I've made for extra large wigs have brought me to sketchy sites that appear to be selling poor quality products to desperate people for exorbitant prices.

The link below states why the movie makers like to use British accents, don't you know, for film villains. Damn, I'm to old now.

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/movies/reason-british...

Okay, I've submitted a few stories, but I have some questions that remain unanswered:

First, I work over my stories quite a few times, but after I cannot be sure that they don't have errors. So, how do I find an editor?

Second, I submitted a multipart story to Fictionmania. I was thinking about re-submitting it here. I have noted that some stories appear both on Big Closet and on Fictionmania. Is there any protocol about submitting a story on both sites? Is it considered "bad form?"

I seem to be almost over the Shingles attack now. I finished the anti-virals (Aciclovir) yesterday but I still have to put some ointment in my right eye, which remains slightly inflamed.

Commentary on The Prankster

So...

After a somewhat lengthy hiatus, I have returned. I'm currently working on the next chapter of Emma's Story, and hopefully will have it up in the next few days.

Samantha

Hi All,

I'm sorry about the late and short posting of Amadeus 14. RL has been a beast and will be for a while. I will keep posting as I can, but it may be more sporadic in frequency and length.

HUGS!
Shauna

Just a bit ago:

"Error 503 Service Unavailable

Service Unavailable

Guru Meditation:

There are many on this site that have experienced tragedies too horrific to comprehend. Some have managed to, somehow, find balance and deal with these hideous, monstrous demons, some have not. I have shared some of my childhood tragedies with a few close friends- people that have been through, or are currently going through- similar circumstances. PTSD is a ROYAL BITCH, and sometimes, we all need a shoulder to cry on, a gentle hug, an understanding heart, and a listening ear. I would like to be that person, and give back to a site that in the last three months has given me so much.

Hi all,

There used to be hardware and software, then came along firmware and the rest.

My favourite in those days (yes, back in the last Millenium !!!) was what was called 'Vapourware' - defined as something promised but never actually delivered.

Which is where I hang my head in shame and talk about the next Julina episode.

I see from my notes that the first words for this episode were actually written back in 2015.

(As a further illustration, I have already penned stuff for episode #80.)

I woke up about three hours ago, needing to use the washroom, fairly normal for me, as I have a weak bladder.

What isn't normal is what happened when I tried to go back to sleep.

To put it bluntly, I started remembering things that happened when I was a child, specifically things that occurred during the eight years of my being adopted. The memories wouldn't stop, and I came very close to having a full-blown panic attack while crying for nearly two hours.

To put the whole thing into a proper semblance of order, I need to describe my memories of my childhood.

In between writing chapters right now I was rereading some of my old stuff, and thought this would be worth sharing here. This was one, that a few years ago that earned me speaking to several different support groups in my immediate area. While I wasn't writing fiction back then, I was more of an emotional writer. When I would end up with an emotional high, either good or bad, I would usually write everything out to get it off my chest. 95% of the time when I would write it all out it would end up deleted since writing it out did what I needed it to do.

A few days ago, Lilly85 posted about the struggles (we all have) with authentic dialogue for younger characters. I just found a Washington Post article (link below) and while it won't help with directly with writing dialogue, it is a very illuminating look at how a 13-year-old girl lives in the social media world. For those of us who write about characters in their teens, the article (and the linked ones that follow the article) is helpful to add realistic touches of social media ... although the apps and websites used now might be obsolete in six months!

I just came across this cute short video of one of our favourite animals here at BCTS.

http://www.tierfreund.co/dormouse/?ref=fb

Unfortunately the text is in german, but it doesn't say much more than the video shows. I wonder however do they really not wake up when someone handles them?

is the latest chapter of book fourteen!

So of course Gaby has to get into a pickle - an unexpected one this time!

enjoy

Mads

As some may have guessed, Higher and Higher 8 is the last of my backlog. I will now be dividing my time between Higher and Higher, Chakats Give the Best Hugs, Out Of Retirement, and whatever other stories I decide to dip into. I expect to be putting out a part a week, or so.

tommorrow I am going to have surgery on my ankle this will surgery # 5 from a break that happened in April 2014. the moral of the story is watch out fhe ladder

Worried about the advertisements showing up on the computer?

Just an FYI: I posted the first chapter of "No Good Deed". Enjoy.

Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, died today. No other details have been released by NASA at this time.

Requiescat in pace

I hope this post isn't violating some kind of site rule, but I need to make my fans and readers aware of something I think is quite critical.

When you read my blog(s) and/or stories, please either comment or PM me your thoughts. Some of you may not realize this, but I really DO READ your comments, and rely on them to gauge whether my writing is being well received, what points need to be addressed and/or expanded upon, and to glean further ideas. Your comments have helped- and continue to help- me develop into a better writer, and, in a way, help encourage me to continue.

Okay folks - here it is, Part 3 of the 18th Gaby book, Summery.

Its available through the usual outlets from today and sees our heroine get into more interesting situations than you can shake the proverbial stick at!

Lulu paper
Lulu digital
Kindle - soon!

I have trying to find a story that I read some time ago. The story starts out in either New York or Boston and the main character is a young man who sees an add for mail order brides and decided to try to trick the company with the help of a brothel of ladies who disguise him. On the train to his destination he meets an old lady and an orphan boy and is slowly changing into a girl but doesn't seem to realize she is female until she meets her husband and saves the boy from a hard life with the family who are only wanting him to do the work on the farm.

I revised my story Foster Mother to add more details.