For those that are wondering what's going on with Jess. Here's the update. Currently she is having problems with the power going out due to the weather, so it may be a while before she posts anything. She's been able to update me via email(probably using her phone) so I offered to post this entry. She'll post as soon as she can.

Here's a sort of report on a survey of transgender issues, for what it's worth:

http://www.vox.com/identities/2016/12/8/13890996/trans-survey

Hugs,
Erin

I have found that the writing of FTM stories are greatly more challenging than their MTF counterparts. By this, I exclude body/mind swaps and stories that include both MTF and FTM at the same time. I mean exclusively a story that features two straight female friends and one of them ends up a straight male by the end of the story. I will try to sum up the difficulty in writing this kind of story and why they are so rare.

I wanna share a story that I have told very few people.

When I was 16, I was a mess on the inside. Rape and physical abuse had broken me into pieces, and it was only because I was so good at running on autopilot that nobody really knew how bad it was for me.

In my head, I felt like I had a hundred voices - it was so bad I tried to create a mental "parliament" just so there was some kind of order.

In talking with my Doctor, he finally sussed out that I am not a genetic female, much to my surprise that it took him this long. I've been very ill the last two months with Pneumonia, a UTI and intestinal flare ups.

In talking to me about ways to prevent more Urinary Tract Infections, he said to avoid pants, pantyhose, leggings and to use only cotton panties; none of the pretty stuff. He further recommended a full shower after riding my bike, even casually, and no baths; showers only. He also said to use baby wipes after every trip to the loo.

I know it's only a couple of days since my last post/blog. But my daughter (Eldest) should avoid me if she wants to see Christmas. We had a parent-teacher meeting at school. Generally she's really doing pretty well in school. She reads well and considering she was held back a year I'm proud of her. Due to the time of her birthday and the UK education system. While in her first school she had to repeat her last year. Her teacher at that school was amazing and he kept her busy. Helping any class members who were struggling.

Well I've had an unexpected chance to get online this afternoon before I leave for my trip so you lucky people can read the second installation of the 14th Gaby book right here

I will bid you Auf Wiedersehn and return thoroughly sizzled and no doubt the wuerst for wear next week

Tschussie
Mads

You remember all that fighting I went through to get my drugs covered by my work even though that had been promised from the day I was hired, and they finally told me they got it fixed?

Well, I tried it out today, and my wonderful drug plan saved me a grand total of under 2 dollars on a 45 dollar refill of my estrogen gel.

Can I pull my hair out now?

As some of you might know, I vented here a little while ago.

My brother has now fully redeemed the money he 'borrowed without actual permission' and the situation has been normalised.

Already I feel Ms. Muse working her way back to me.

I leave tomorrow morning at stupid o'clock to drive to England, some 650 miles through a total of 6 different countries and intend to spend 7 of the 14 days with my granddaughter.

I hope to meet some of my contacts here during the non-granddaughter days.

Just a quick update for anybody wondering when more stuff is coming from me - I managed to make some progress on a couple of stories this weekend, but nothing is ready just yet. maybe soon, I hope ...

Originally I had planned on releasing "Old friend, New love" in weekly chapters. To enter it in Christmas contest, I started with daily releases. Reader feedback say's this is too frequent. I tend to agree, though one reason I love Bike is knowing there is a new chapter each day (not so much anymore). So I am changing to Mon, Wed, Fri, releases. (pending RL issues of course).

Well the first part of the 14th Gaby Book - The Girl can now be found, here on BC just click here!

As I've previously mentioned, I shall be going to Germany on Wednesday so the next posting will be a couple of weeks away. Enjoy this chapter and prepare yourselves for more Wunderkind adventures in the run up to the festive season.

This really isn't news to anyone as I hardly ever post on the site and my story I was planning on posting is bogged down thanks to writing myself into a corner that can't get out of without use of an extremely blatant deus ex machina, but I've changed my user name from Natasha Sanotova to Hotaru Lind.

My neighbor is an idiot.

Sign on my door about my respiratory health problems and he drops a smoke bomb on the floor right beside my door.
damn near lit the building on fire with it.

I just hope the landlord takes the action that is legally available for endangering the safety of the other tenants and gives him an eviction notice.

Because Sephrena is an important part of the community here, people should know that there is a situation involving her that may turn more serious or may be soon resolved. We're not comfortable sharing details at the moment but will try to keep everyone appropriately informed.

Hugs to all,
And especially Sephrena,
Erin and the crew

NEW shadowsblade is here!

And this is the part that some readers have been waiting for!

What happened?
How did it happen?
And maybe even the why-----a little bit?

BUT it's in three parts right now? Maybe four?

as the rest is being written right now!

Stories without endings. I live in a city with a major state university. Listening to my scanner today there was a call for a welfare check. People were reporting a girl on the parking garage at the union that seemed out of it. She wouldn't respond to people and she had 'an odd look in her eyes'.

The university police responded to the garage and the first one on the scene reported she was standing on the top rail of the top deck of the garage. A fall from there would be three stories down to concrete.

I have started to post a new series, "Old Friend, New Love". I thought I had posted as a novel chapter, but it didn't appear that way. From comments, some have interpreted this to be a (very incomplete) solo. It is my intention to post a chapter (or more, as in the 1st installment, when the chapters are short) each day until done. The part of the story I am releasing for the contest, is done (though open to further editing). I hope you enjoy it. Comments and PM's are welcome (and may be used to determine if I write more or crawl back into my closet).

The route for next years event has been announced.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/38174348

Maddy will be happy as the finish is in her back yard.

One of the names of the climbs got me laughing... Côte de Shibden Wall
Would not want to ride (up or down) in the wet though.
http://cyclinguphill.com/100-climbs/shibden-wall/

Samantha

Been busy rereading Snafu over on Sapphire's Place and didn't realise the time. Not sleeping too well with pains in my shoulders and arms, so I fell asleep in the chair. I have a visitor over le weekend, it's my birthday on Saturday so I may or may not have time to do any writing - I also have a committee meeting - wonderful way to spend it.

For those who haven't read SNAFU here's a link.It's a full length novel.

If you've been here a while, you'll know what this is all about.

For several years, I've run a "Christmas Tunes Acronym Quiz" through December, whereby I post up a spreadsheet containing acronyms of Christmas tunes, and The Internet attempts to solve them.

So today the final part of Four Star is up! I hope you enjoy it.

Writing Gaby Book 18 continues apace and a heads up, Book 14 will start being posted this coming Sunday! So if you've been waiting patiently or just enjoy revisiting the books, The Girl will hopefully keep your attention!

Also, with a following wind, you should be able to find the second Gaby book, Summer Girl, available as an Amazon printed book within the next day.

ttfn

Maddy

Great! I think that I've had about the worst day of my life. Karen, my young sister in law visited this afternoon. I have to tell you that I love this girl to death. But certain situations, cause and effect created a bad afternoon. Let me explain something first. My twin girls are three years old and are in the last stages of potty training. What that means is that we still have more accidents than I like. My youngest is still in diapers. The twins are now wearing pull-ups and on the whole, that sets the scene.

I had a bit of a problem with Characters high jacking my story this evening. Tricia insisted on going someplace I really didn't want her to go. I even tried stopping her and changing it, but she would have none of it. ::sigh:: Writer problems.

This really wasn't a post I wanted to make but I need to say something thats been eating at me since Thanksgiving.

A while back one of my sisters kids was in the car with her when she got into an accident. If you want the full story I made a blog post on it. Long story short her kid had to have a gender "switch" and they're not taking it well at all. I had the kid alone with me in the den and they told me "I don't think I'll be around much longer, I'd rather be gone then be like this."

Sorry folks, I ran out of time trying to verify some stuff for the latest Bike. Hopefully I'll get it sorted tomorrow.

I also ended up with a boot full of mud and dirty water when I slipped into a ditch while out doing fieldwork with the RSPB. Took me ten minutes to get my sock clean enough to wash and my boot might be dry by Christmas! Oh the joys of fieldwork.

If you peeked at my latest story, and wondered what the heck was going on, let me take a moment to help explain things.

See, about 8 years ago, I found this site, and after lurking for a while, I took the plunge, became a member, and created my first story.

It's called "The Saga of E-Girl", and it was kind of a tribute to the Shazam stories I had loved as a kid.

I wont say its a bad story, but I will say I think my writing has improved since then, but despite that, I have a soft spot for that story, and have revisited the "E-Girl" universe a few times since.

A couple of people pointed out a small, but significant typo in my latest chapter...

To those that noticed and pointed it out, THANKS!

To those that noticed and glossed over it, be comforted that it is fixed.

To all else, thanks for reading it!

HUGS!
Shauna

In the nearly 10 years since my SRS, I have had many Urinary Tract Infections to the point that at my next Doctor's visit, I plan to talk about getting my Neo-Vagina removed. Because of my Amish conditioning perhaps, I have never gotten my head around having sex with a male outside of a lawful marriage, so it has had no use outside of my plastic bf. My hypothesis is that due to lack of use, germs build up in there and indirectly provide the source of the UTI germs.

I also plan to discuss the use of Lavage to perhaps keep that more clean.

I do not plan to live as a man.

I wrote my first story yesterday, because I had an idea stuck in my head for it. I thought it would get maybe ten or fifteen reads, but I was surprised and delighted that people cared about what I wrote. Not only did it get attention, but I found I liked it. That story was my first try at writing something outside of a assignment for school. I realized I loved writing that story, because it was something I cared about. I'm working on a second story and might continue my first. Writing also helps me pass time, I got lost writing earlier for two or three and felt so alive.

As the title says I need an editor for a story I'm writing. I have the first chapter complete but I need someone to go through it and see if I need to change anything as well as a grammar check. PM me if your willing to do this for me.

Phew.

Julina #73 is with the beta readers, then I will do one final polish and post it --- later this evening (it is 3 in the afternoon with me right now) or in the morning.

From my diaries, notes, and stored clippings and snippets (do we need a new combined word here, clippets???) I see that the first words in this episode were set down at the beginning of October - 2015!

I would never have believed that 14 months would whizz by before I got it to post stage.

But there we go.

RL distractions have sure taken their toll.

Awake at three in the morning. It's a contradiction of human existence, I guess.

I'm awake right now because I was having a weird dream. In the dream, Mel Brooks asks what if Buddha had been a nice Jewish boy from Queens?

Siddhartha the Buddha, or as his mother called him, Siddhartha the Bum.

She says to him, Sid, Sid, why don't you get a job? Your brother Marty has a nice job on Wall Street and what are you doing? Sitting under a tree eating plums!

I woke up laughing.

I tried to go back to sleep but Mrs. Gautama kept talking.

I want to ask if it bothers anyone else that you have to scroll to the end of a story to bookmark it? I have a lot of stories recommended to me. I usually bookmark them immediately and read them later. It has bothered me, on occasion that when I scroll to the end of the story, I accidentally read part of the ending. I am curious why the bookmark option is at the end of the story rather than the beginning of each story or chapter.

I've been working on the next Unaccounted Gains book for a while but needed a distraction, so another Tammy series has started.

Shiraz

For those of you in the U.S.--Happy Thanksgiving! (Well, for those of you NOT in the U.S., too, if you like! :) )

Because I am spending extra time with the family today (and had to help prep things this week), I won't get an Amadeus posting done today. I hope to get the next installment up this weekend.

HUGS!
Shauna

Just wanted to give a big "thank you" to all those who sent me a compliment.

All your positive vibes helped me overcome my negative self talk, so yay for team Dorothy, and huggles for all!

It seems, as the years go by, that the real message of this time of the year has faded to overstuffing oneself on turkey, or whatever passes for the holiday meal and vegging out in front of the TV or computer, engaging in whatever non-activity one prefers.

To me, the true meaning of this holiday, that of being grateful for what one has received in life, has faded into self indulgence and solitude from the scary world outside one's "safe place." In this post, I shall attempt to re-affirm what is truly important to me in my life.

So its been a little damp on this rock this week, 'Angus' doing his best to drown half the population and wash away the rest!

It does mean that I've not been tempted much beyond my front door for a few days which in turn means my editor has taken delivery of more new Gaby than I had anticipated, the first 6 of the new book are complete. This in turn means that with a following wind the first complete arc may be made available on Sunday! I've written so fast I don't even have a title yet.

I hadn't been able to do much writing for the last two months but I've discovered, or re-discovered, something. Writing energizes me.

One of the reasons I wasn't writing was that I had so much else to do that it seemed wasteful of my time to write. And yet, I wasn't getting all that much of those tasks done either. Just staying even with the site was about all I could do.

I've been stewing for a couple of days over all the hate that has been spewed lately against several writers and enough is enough. Recently, Efindumb announced that they (I'm using a non-descriptive word for a reason) would be leaving BigCloset because of all the negativity that has been leveled against them in their writings. I made an initial comment about it on her blog, telling the author that I thought they should not leave, that the story the author is writing is not finished yet, and that I thought their Muse would drive the author insane if the story wasn't finished.

I'm looking for a story I read ages ago was about a ex space corp marine who's planet was attacked by space pirates, and thinking his family was killed he went looking for revenge. He was captured by pirates and put in a medical pod, an changed to a female, a cple things happened and the pirates were put in some and ended up being turned into young girls, who saw the older women as their mum. I remember that her sister was alive and she hired a governess who ended up opening a school. But that's about all I can remember I just don't know what it's called.

because some unthinking fool has given them grief has made me very angry! I've spent years here at Top Shelf and, while not every writer is one I read, their work is nontheless important to them and their fans. Writing is a way to deal with the anxiety and even pain that comes with being Transgender and being able to get those anxieties out in writing helps each and every writer to deal with those pains and anxieties.

So, yesterday afternoon I got a letter in the mail from the Department of Homeland Security.

It read:

Welcome To The United States Of America

This is to notify you that your application for permanent residence has been approved. It is with great pleasure that we welcome you to the permanent resident status in the United States.

Needless to say, I am very happy.

A long discussion with my brother about various longform fictions brought up some ideas I thought to share.

Story structure is key to almost all commercial and popular fiction, movies and television. What I'm talking about is what you might call the information flow of the story if you were an engineer (which both my brother and I have been). The segments below could be episodes or chapters or groups of episodes or chapters. In something as short as a novelette, they could be very short indeed.

From time to time Big Closet writers become upset by comments -- or even lack of comments.

I just read about Angharad’s decision to cease writing for BC. She has been worn down by what she considers to be negative remarks. What’s negative and what isn’t, is her decision . . . as is how she reacts.

She has proven her character through her diligence to her craft. BC would be a much different place without her involvement. I hope she reconsiders and keeps writing for BC.