To those of you who have been displeased with the turn of events in If It Was Your Husband; I apologize and ask that you bear with me as a writer. I’m trying to grow my craft. IIWYH is a departure from my usual fair in that it is edgy, not the usual fluff that I tend to write. I can see that I’m still unskilled in putting that kind of story together. This is my first attempt at a story so long that it demands to be posted as a serial.

I’ve had two or three readers comment along the same lines in that Carrie is not a loving wife and that Alex has become submissive. The commenters make a good case for their view. What it seems to me they are focusing on are Carries actions. What I intended for the focus to be was Alex’s reaction and internal struggle as he comes to the realization that it’s not just and experiment, but hidden deep within him is a cross-dresser and the experiment has surfaced it. Due to something drilled into him at about 8 or 9 years of age he had buried it so deep he didn’t even know it was there. However, I failed to put the emphasis there.

IIFWYH was a difficult story to write. As a writer, I struggle to find a new approach to TG fiction so that it doesn’t seem to be rehashing the same old trope and the same old solution. The premise of IIFWYH seemed to fit the bill. What I didn’t realize was the enormity of the tale to bring it to fruition. My normal storyline runs somewhere between 17 and 20K words. This one comes in at over 40K

To those who have made negative comments about the story, I want you to know that I take your criticism seriously. It disturbs me that my story disturbs you. My goal in writing and sharing my work is to bring others enjoyment. The last thing I want is to cause anyone to be uncomfortable with what I write.

That said, IIFWYH is complete. I won’t post any story, or part of that story, that hasn’t been completed. In my mind, worse than writing a bad story, is leaving a good story unfinished or any story unfinished.

While I take your thoughts seriously, at this time I don’t have the energy to rewrite any portion of the story. With the last post it’s less than half way through. To make changes would wreak havoc with the flow of the rest of the story.

If you are truly distressed by the story at this point and quit reading, I’ll understand. I’ve done that myself. A good example is “Tuck.” When Tuck began having romantic liaisons with the male of the species, I quit reading. Not my cup of tea.

If you are so invested with the story that you can’t bear to quit reading please know that things in the next section lighten up considerably. Alex voices his displeasure at the way Carrie handled things with Ann when she suggests the he let his hair grow and that he go to her hairdresser to have her keep it in shape while he does. He accuses her of doing the same with the hairdresser that she did with Ann.

“What? Are you suggesting we tell someone else about our experiment? …Or did you already talk to your hairdresser?”

They discuss just what Carrie will tell the hairdresser. Carrie agrees to tell her that Alex wants to recapture his lost youth and that Carrie insists that the long hair be kept neat and tidy and ask her to oversee him growing it out. Carrie keeps her word and the hairdresser knows nothing about the experiment or Mike and Lisa.

Alex begins to get a handle on his feeling regarding cross-dressing. And while Carrie is still Carrie and fails to think things through she does tone down her pushing him forward. That is partly due to Alex consistently dressing androgynously without prompting. But Carrie doesn’t know that Alex is experimenting beyond her plan and hiding it just as most cross-dressers hide their activities.

At long last, Mike does come into the picture and Alex has a talk with him about the situation and lets him in on what’s going on.