...how much you sound like me at times. I've hesitated to post anything here for precisely the same reasons. As far as copying from TV shows, it happens--we absorb what we're exposed to, and we're exposed to a good deal more television than we care to admit. But bear in mind, TV writers too rely on a standard repertoire of plotlines and stock character types, particularly those who write sitcoms. If you don't believe me, look at TV Tropes online sometime.

It's what you do with those stock situations that matters, and you've managed to take them and make them something uniquely yours. I know of no other story, anywhere, quite like your God Bless The Child trilogy. Transgender themes are dealt with only rarely in mainstream fiction, and when they are, they're seldom handled with any degree of sensitivity or accuracy. (I'm thinking "Myra Breckinridge" in particular--and that was written by Gore Vidal, a respected, celebrated writer.) I consider your trilogy more mainstream than TG, since the TG element occupies the periphery of the storyline most of the time.

Here's one reason not to take the "You took that from television!" critique too seriously: I was once accused of that when I posted the outline of a story I'd planned to do onto a writers' e-mail list. He compared it to a famous Twlight Zone episode--one I'd never seen at the time! How can one plagiarize something one didn't know existed?

Yes, you're a lot like me, but there's one important difference. I've never gotten past my fear of embarrassment enough to actually publish anything. You have.