Bob is very particular about Stardust and what he will accept. That he had no qualms with your story, Sue, speaks volumes.

BC is also a selective site due to the diligence of Erin and her happy trolls ... Um, you are happy trolls, right? I saw now signs that Erin or her *Happy TrollsTM* were offended by the story.

IMHO it was a tribute to your characters, that us? we? usen? weall? the? -- YES ! -- the readers felt so close to them that you got any negative or seemingly negative comments. We hate seeing good/innocent people hurt or we should be if society is to prosper.

You hinted in your blog when you unpublished that we would have seen the children in the experimental program somehow fight back, fight for restitution, justice to be who they want to be within the constrains of this terrible plague. They may be women now or soon will be but somehow they fight to retain the person they were in some manner. That she is obviously -- to me anyway -- telling her story to someone sometime after the fact says that in small or large measure she and her friends succeeded.

How that happens, what becomes of their lives and how it changes them, their families and society will be interesting to see. And here is always the contrast with other desperate nations. Are they really as bad as the kids were told, better or somewhere in between? The apparent drugging and manipulating of the former boys is it as bad as we fear or some ill considered but benevolently intended temporary measure, a bit like military boot camp, to break down their mental defenses so they can be remade as women? IE they, the government, really do believe this is *for their own good* to "help them adapt/cope with/ find satisfaction with their new lives and bodies.

Be it benevolent, mistaken or sinister only you know, Sue.

Bring it on! And we will read.

John in Wauwatosa