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Background in a nutshell ….
 
Back in September 2003, Jules, Maddy, Drew, Rhod, Ally and Bernie were in the last days of the Warsop visit by the American exchange students with each of the gang hosting an American student. Drew and his sister Jules, found themselves hosting sisters — Britney and Debbie Walters. The two sisters learned about Gaby from the ‘gang’ following their arrival in Warsop and it soon seemed as if both Walters girls had Drew in skirts almost as often as Maddy had, up to that point.

When the American kids left Warsop mid-September, it could be argued that the Walters’ girls really believed Drew was a boy, even though they claimed they knew it all along and that the whole thing was a joke on their part. Certainly, Miss Bell, one of the American escorts, had her doubts as to Drew’s gender. Right from the pre-visit photo Drew emailed to the Walters, they all believed Drew was a girl despite the fact he was wearing his school uniform in the photo.

But Drew’s life altering problems really began with a ‘time trial’ and a race, both held in the first week of September and another ‘time trial’, in the first week of October. In each instance, Drew immediately passed out after he completed his ride and dismounted from his bike. However, he was fine in the weekly ‘time trials’ held throughout September. This same behaviour manifested itself in October.

In mid-October, Dave finally got Drew into see Dr. Sanwari, their family’s doctor. This resulted in a battery of blood tests spread over both the initial and a follow-up visit. Given Drew’s physical development … characterized by his small stature, the visually apparent beginnings of ‘secondary female characteristics’ development and the preliminary blood tests with results that showed little testosterone in his system, the doctor anonymously sent samples of Drew’s blood to six eminent doctor’s in the UK. They were all considered the best in their fields and Dr. Sanwari hoped they would conduct their own tests and either confirm or refute his original testing.

During this time, Drew’s mother, Jenny had abruptly left her cycling team mates with her own problems. Having learned she was suffering from cervical cancer and with only months to live, she devised an ill-conceived plan to leave Dave and the kids, in order to distance herself from the family, sparing them the pain of dealing with her illness. Following a disastrous and emotional dinner with the family to see them one last time, Jenny’s resolved eventually broke down and she saw that her plan was foolish. She finally returned from Germany in the last days of 2003, to spend her last days with her family, at home ... in Warsop.

The "Notes of a Journey" trilogy follows Drew/Gaby on an often emotional, life-changing odyssey, covering a nine-year period beginning from just after New Year’s 2004 and continuing to mid-July, 2013.
 
 

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The appearance of the "Notes of a Journey" trilogy on BC marks the first time the three "Books" will be posted in ‘order’. For the next while … Karen J, on my behalf … will endeavour to regularly post the chapters that comprise the three Books of the "Notes of a Journey" trilogy. I hope you enjoy the read as much as I did creating it.

Revision Note:

Someone once said "authors are never satisfied with their work" and in my case, that's very true.

In 2015, all three Books of the Trilogy underwent some degree of a minor revision, in that grammatical errors were cleaned up, some dialog was 'tweeked', use of different fonts to convey thoughts, emotions, etc. were re-evaluated and the odd bit of new dialog added. As a result, some of the contents of the original comments may not make too much sense because of the aforementioned 'tweeking'. I tried to incorporate any and all changes as seamless as possible into the overall story without altering the storyline and it is my hope that these revisions will result in a more enjoyable reading experience for Gaby fans.

I do look in time-to-time, so any new comments are very welcome and I'll try to answer them all, whether in a reply or a PM.

.... PB, 2015
 
 
 
Book 1: "All things denied…" First appearance on Maddy Bell’s fanfic page, Feb. 2008.

Total length: 21 chapters

Book 2: "Rough Waters" Appeared on Maddy’s fanfic page in 2007.

Total length: 17 chapters

Book 3: "Reconciliation" Appeared on Maddy’s fanfic page in 2006.

Total length: 12 chapters
 

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I thank my editorial staff — Angharad, Jillian and Karen J. - for tolerating me this long and making my writing look far better than it is. I also wish to thank Maddy for creating this wonderful universe and allowing me to play in it…
 
PB