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Author Enemyoffun now in Hospital!!!

We were just informed by Enemyoffun's brother in Discord that Enemyoffun's appendix had burst and he is in the ICU. That is all we know of at the moment. Please pray for him.

Edit: He is possibly out of surgery. Still awaiting an update from his brother.

Looks like Matthew aka "Enemy" will be spending some time there over Christmas. I'll see about the gift shop tomorrow to send him a stuffed animal. BCTS doesn't forget its authors. :)

Sephrena

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We need site members to VOTE :*(

The time to vote is finally here!
Please click on the story links to read any entries that you haven't yet.

Okay, This SUCKS! The pollmaker thingy will NOT allow me to make a multiple choice vote WITHOUT a pay plan. The first one was free. I used that up in the last contest. YIKES!

Okay for this vote then, simply PM me with a header Christmas Contest and select your 10 favorite stories and PM me, Sephrena Miller.
Voting will occur from Sunday December 22, 2024 - Saturday December 28, 2024. The Winner's announcement will be posted on Sunday, December 29, 2024.

I am really irritated it requires a pay plan. I wanted free for everyone. Oh well :*(

Our current entries stands as follows:

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Current Contestants in Our Contests

Tonight is the last night of the Christmas Contest! You have until tonight, December 21, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Standard Time to post your entries! I will list all of the current participants in our contest, Here are the totals so far:

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New story up

It's been a busy couple of months. My muse hasn't dried up. But it's been hard to find time to sit down and bang out some words.

The idea for this story occurred to me a couple weeks ago on a visit to a couple friends.

So I've been kicking it around in my head for a while. But somehow when I sat down tonight, it just flowed.

I tried to keep it a bit minimalistic. But I hope some of you enjoy it.

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Attn: Admin. Trying my hand at an organizational page.

I'm trying my hand at an organizational page. I think I've got it. I've tried it out in preview and it works. I'm going to copy and past the body content to my word processor so that I can reproduce it.

I'm not sure where it will end up. I'm reluctant to just hit "Save" and hope that every thing is really ready. Can someone give me a hint as to what I can expect.

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This is just me, blowing off steam, and putting my thoughts in order…….

The last few days have not been great for me. My spouse managed to ruin my holidays - something she has always been very adept at over the nearly forty years we have been married. Yesterday, the mail arrived as I was walking past our front door. You see, in my neighborhood, the mail carrier walks from house to house delivering incoming mail and picking up outgoing mail.

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Christmas, God, and Emma Anne Tate………

Yeah, I know, which of these things is not like the others? LOL - believe it or not, they have a lot in common this evening.

I had just finished reading Emma’s latest posting this evening, part 6 of 8 of her story Who Makes Intercession, and was leaving a comment when my youngest son came in the house - he was eating dinner with us this evening. I finished typing my comment regarding Emma’s story, and got up to eat dinner.

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No spoons,

no cutlery of any kind. Not even any dishware. All I've got is an empty can of cat food, metaphorically. Now, not only am I cold all the time, I have a bloody cold. If I lay down, I have a hard time breathing - I have asthma - so I can't sleep very well. I can't wait for winter to be over. Shoot me now.

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A Rare Statistic (Hits and Kudos)

One relatively recent story of mine has over 100 kudos and under 1000 hits: How BttF Might Have Ended with 840 hits and 103 kudos -- the same number of digits for both.

Also, a fifth story hit 200 kudos: The Family Council.

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Looking For Emma - Missing Authors 411

Emma has gone missing since posting Pretend Princess Chapter 16 on December 1, 2024. She lives in Nigeria and shortly after that posted Nigeria had a Muslim insurgency that kidnapped a bunch of women again. I am worried for her. :(

Has anyone heard from her? her title here is cemma2035.

Sephrena

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Mid-month Bills - Funds Low

Funds are low. The loss of 2/3 of our ad revenue is still hurting.

Any financial help will be appreciated.

Thanks to everyone who has sent money. We really depend on you, more than you know. :)

Thanks for any amount you can send. All contributions are very welcome. Thanks a great deal to all who have previously contributed here or paid for a membership at Patreon or Hatbox.


Many thanks!

Hugs,
Erin, Piper, Jamie, Cat, Rasufelle and the rest of the crew

Below are versions of the PayPal links.

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Resolutions: Recommended, FFS and Revolution

I'd like to recall attention back to my story from January Resolution Revolution It is set now and is eerily familiar in that a fascist power has it out for Transgendered Americans. The one thing it did not get right was that a quantum singularity appeared near enough the Sol system to give transpeople super-powers. I like to think that even when I feel powerless in real life that I can live a bit through a fictional life where all things are possible.

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Transgender Day of Remembrance 2024


Transgender Day of Remembrance 2024

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Again this year I celebrated the Transgender Day of Remembrance at the adult fishing pool at Tingley Beach. But this year I had support from some of my transgender friends and my church. Despite some communication problems, we had ten people (!) this year. I expanded the vigil program slightly.

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formatting problems

Every time I post a story here I have to go though and fix the line spacing. I will get sentences like this:

This sentence must be to long for the website because
it does this.
and the the next sentence is below like this.

I write in libre office and then copy and paste. Also, while I'm asking, how do I center something like the inscription in The Lynching Tree. It was centered in my draft but moved to the margin when copied.

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My Next Book on Amazon

I am looking to have Doppler Press publish yet another anthology of my short stories on Amazon / Kindle.
Firstly a word about Doppler - Profits from this enterprise are applied to keeping BCTS going, so please support this publishing house and their authors, many of whom are part of this community.
But what I am looking for is somebody to help with my next book as my latest foreword writer.

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Please Act and Dress Appropriately

Stopped as the wheels don't seem to want to roll unless there is a high priced liquid in the tank. A horse would be more expensive. Guess I'll stick with the old jalopy until I can train the goats to pull a cart. Life is so expensive any more.

Lady pulled into the pump behind me. I was at the back of my get mobile and she was at the front of hers. It was kind of a mutual greeting when she looked me up and down. "Are you a rodeo queen?"

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New book

I have a new book out on Kindle which is a first for me, as it is non-fiction. The subject matter may interest some on here,, though, as it is about cycle touring. I have taken my logs from three tours and edited them to better fit the narrative, so it will come across as very 'jerky', but that is a feature.

The three tours are:
Around Western Australia
From Hoek in Holland up to the edge of the Norwegian border with Sweden
From Munich along the Danube to Budapest and then around Hungary

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Checked in with my heart doctor yesterday

... and my blood pressure, ekg, and arteries were doing great. I have been dropped from 92% clogged down to 90%. That still isn't good but shows that my heart medicines are barely keeping me going. I suppose that is good. The bad news is that the drugs that I am on cannot nibble away at the hardened plaque inside my arteries. That's a bummer.

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I'm not a happy camper

I'm really struggling this winter, it seems I'm back to being severely affected by the cold. Last winter wasn't bad, but this year I am cold all the time again. I have a bad thyroid, which I'm on medication for, and it makes it very hard for me to stay warm. I feel very weak, and have no energy. I have to apologize to anyone who has been wondering what happened to the story that I posted a teaser for, but I've not been able to do much writing. I promise, I haven't abandoned the project. I live in Southern California, so I feel silly complaining about the cold, but there it is.

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Distracted

I'm still working on my epic alien story, which I've been trying to do a final editing pass through lately, but I keep being distracted by other stories. There's another one that's ready to post now, but I'm going to give you all time to read all the epic Christmas contest entries before posting it.

Besides that, there's Dog Days and a couple other short stories that are near being ready to post. The problem is all the other stories distracting me.

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Toni (With An i) – Allison Zero – Ms Woolly – what’s happening?

Hello, everyone!

I’ve not been around in a while so I’d like to think some are wondering, “What’s happening with Ms Woolly and her stories?” (Some are wondering about the stories, at best, let’s be honest... :P )

I’m fairly sure I mentioned earlier this year I was in the process of getting a place of my own and had to pause my writing. I now do have a place of my own, which is amazing. What’s less amazing is this place which initially appeared to just be in need of a new kitchen and a coat of paint actually demanded an entire renovation. Oh no!

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NoMoji (Please Don't Use Emoji)

So this error pops up for people every once in a while, and I always forget to make a post about it. I often forget it's even a thing and spend hours trying to diagnose posting issues when it happens, only to remember, "Oh yeah, that's a thing."

The version of Drupal and the Database system we are currently using can't understand EMOJI! The charset doesn't allow for it.

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update

Just to give you all an update, I paid half of the ticket I got for my expired tags and lack of a pink card, as well as getting both updated. To help me remember in the future, I arranged to get an email reminder about a month before my stuff expires next year.

I also got both my laundry and Sharon and Sams laundry done, so I am slowly catching up on the things I couldnt do until I got the car stuff taken care of.

While this is an expensive lesson, I am still upright, still able to drive, and best of all, I am still loved.

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Check them out! Two Free Novels for Download!

Lynn Oliver is a new author here on BC, and she has put up two of her novels for free download as PDFs!

I haven't read them yet myself but they seem worth checking out. You can find them at Lynn Oliver

If you read them, come back here to leave a comment and some kudos! Lynn will appreciate that, I'm sure!

Hugs,
Erin

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Not been around much this year

Hi good people here, late last year I was very involved here and did a lot of story work and read many fine works from you all.

Then I had an accident, I tripped on the pavement and went headfirst into a stone gate pillar.

It meant a trip to A&E for thirty stitches to my head and a repair to a damaged small artery, I have a scar line starting just above my eyebrows going vertically to the top of my skull.

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Cannot Find a Story

I recently read and enjoyed a story written from the point of view of Princess Ozma of Oz. It was the first posting of to be of several about Princess Ozma, her transformation from the boy Tip, and the struggles caused by that transformation. I believe it was from "The Land of OZ" written by L. Frank Baum more than 100 years ago. It was the first Oz book I knew. It was a sequel to "Dorothy and the Wizard of OZ" from which the movie was made. I read most of them eventually. My mother read it to me when I was about five or six.

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Fictionmania Back Up

Just to let people know that Fictionmania has successfully changed servers and is back and running, albeit with my recent postings there, gone.
It was interesting that when WebDeb advised us it was down there was a couple of comments about FM like - "nothing but soft core porn, most of the time" and "more sexually oriented material, for they who prefer more erotic fare". There was also the chilling statement - "PROJECT 2025 won't see any difference - if it's transgender, it's PORN; and a danger to the Fatherland".
Here is my comment in response:

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Halfway!

Poking at the Light project in Scrivener for Hope's Light this morning, I realized that with Friday's chapter the first half of the book has now been posted. Being in seven 'Parts' in terms of its structure, this means we're halfway through Part Four...and rapidly heading towards the tipping point where things steamroll towards the finale!

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back to square one

Every time I think I have made progress; I manage to screw up and put myself back at square one.

Yesterday's bit of self-sabotage came in the form of a police car stopping me and letting me know I had not renewed my license plates in July. To make things worse, my car insurance company no longer sends out paper versions of my coverage, and because I had never taken the time to go to the library and print out the information, all I had in the car was expired versions.

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Woe is me.

Pardon my interruption as I don't visit this site all that often. Since FictionMania is down due to moving to another server, I returned to visit to fill a void. It's funny how we can under-appreciate these sites we visit until they're gone. I applaud all authors who make the effort to entertain us but FM is my first port of call. The original and the best. I guess I'm just suffering from withdrawal symptoms. Haste ye back Fiction Mania!

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Apologies

To any who may read my latest posting "An Unexpected Christmas Gift (Omnibus Edition)". I found the "Create Content" heading very unco-operative in editing the story, mostly in spacing to make it readable. Being frustrated I decided to post anyway and will continue to edit in "My Stories" which seems to be far more forgiving to a computer Klutz like me, so please bear with me for a couple of days.

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Slight changes to the Christmas Contest

Okay, I have had to change things around, just a little. (1) I am extending the Entry submission dates through December 21, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Standard Time! (2) Voting will occur from Sunday December 22, 2024 - Saturday December 28, 2024. (3) The Winner's announcement will be posted on Sunday, December 29, 2024.

This is a much more realistic timetable for everyone involved including myself. It makes more sense to me!

So please use this time for your entries and voting will be here before you know it!

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Hobbes get a new best friend.

Looking at Facebook and ran across this. I'm plagiarizing it in total. Note that the story has Calvin giving Hobbes to his grandson Francis and then look at the picture.


"Calvin? Calvin, sweetheart?"

In the darkness Calvin heard the sound of Susie, his wife of fifty-three years. Calvin struggled to open his eyes. God, he was so tired and it took so much strength. Slowly, light replaced the darkness, and soon vision followed. At the foot of his bed stood his wife. Calvin wet his dry lips and spoke hoarsely, "Did... did you.... find him?"

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To readers of my continuation of "My Summer in Pantyhose"

I appreciate the Kudos. What I'm wondering is just how well did I do in picking up the storyline and the writing style that Jeremy Chandler used.

It was a stretching of my writing skills to run multiple story arcs at the same time. I had particular trouble keeping multiple time lines running parallel. That and I haven't written in third person in years.

So what do you think; did I accomplish my goal of making a seamless transition of authors and did I do a credible job of taking the story where it needs to go?

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First time as Holly at my mother-in-law's

I've been out to my wife, kids and grandkids for a few years now, but my wife's extended family didn't know about my real self - until today. We went to my mother-in-law's for Thanksgiving, as she will probably not be around any more next year. It will be a blessing; she has dementia and is getting very near 100 years old. After talking with my niece, who lives with her and has known about me for a couple of years now, we felt that it would be OK to be me. With my wife's blessing, I went there as myself.

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I was priveleged to read a new addition to a story this morning…….

Fake It Till You Make It, and the main character, Holly, expressed how thankful she was on her first Thanksgiving as her real self. It made me cry, and it made me think of all the things I have to be thankful for.

I truly have much to be thankful for, as I expect most of us do if we think about it for a moment.

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The end?

This post is more to give myself some closure before I move on to other avenues.

I want to publicly acknowledge that I am no saint, I burned my bridges one by one over the years.

Some things that happened that essentially made me public enemy #1 on BCTS I’ve never forgiven myself for being involved with.

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Is not caring the answer?

One of my problems is that I care about things.

And the problem with caring about things is that eventually I had to come to understand how powerless I am to actually effect the things I care about.

which means there is almost nothing I can do but let my heart break when the things I care about are in danger.

Now, a sensible person would probably realize this is stupid, and would stop caring, so I could stop hurting.

Except I cant really do that, without sacrificing most of myself.

So, I guess I am doomed to hurt and hurt and hurt ...

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Snow!

So yesterday and the day before, it pretty much snowed here all day, and it was what you would call a mixed blessing.

One the one hand, the city looks beautiful, white everywhere, and after a pretty grim summer that is a good thing.

On the other hand, drivers here seem to forget how to drive in snow, so car accidents have been plentiful.

Ah well, into every life a little snow must fall, right?

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small body of water or a small stream?

small body of water or a small stream?

neither, Brook(e) while it does mean small body of water or small stream

In this case it is the new name of a main character of a story i cant remember the name or the author of, and most importantly much plot

MC changes school, to boarding school, can't remember if this is because change from middle to high school

can't remember if Brook is MC's name and mistake in gender is assumed as someone spelled Brook with an e

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BCTS 25th Anniversary Mini-Contest

Okay, this is a last minute spring. For the 25th anniversary contest, you have until Friday, November 22, 2024 at 3pm Pacific Standard Time to turn in a fictional story entry showing your beliefs in a story of what BigCloset TopShelf means to you personally. Has it saved your life? How so? And showcase those beliefs into a beautifully written story for us. Story length has to be of at least 5,000 words. The single prize is $75. That's it!

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Time to binge read "My Summer in Pantyhose" by Jeremy Chandler.

I've finished writing what I'm calling a "Prologue of My Continuation of My Summer in Pantyhose." It's a chapter by chapter summary of the 24 chapters posted by Jeremy Chandler. The intended purpose is to allow those who've read the original to refresh their memories as to what gone on up to this point.

If you haven't read the original, this probably isn't for you. Binge read "My Summer in Pantyhose" instead.

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how do I protect myself?

Ever since I realized that I can hurt myself during my manic phase and not know it, I have trying to think of ways I can counter this.

Right now, the only idea I have is to try and take a moment every so often and visually check for any new bruises, cuts, or scratches, as well as any signs of joint issues.

Not going to be easy, since one of the main signs of my manic phase is the difficulty of focusing, but I have to try.

All encouragement, hugs, and any suggestions, appreciated.

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A Backup or Writing

There are several choices for a backup for all our hard efforts at writing.The hundreds of hours gone when a computer or only the HD crashes are hours one can't replace. Floppies and then disks, and now jump drives but if a computer gets corrupted even if it's an MS update. It happened and it wanted to rewrite all my files. It's been months since I removed my jump drive not letting it get close to the computer as I looked for my Win 10 disk to reinstall a fresh un updated win. Blocked Edge and Win updates from touching my computer again but the damage had been done.

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Debate regarding gender violence in Germany

The German Green Party has proposed the creation of “women only” train cars for the underground network in the capital city of Berlin, due to the huge increase of sexual assaults and rapes in the last ten years. This proposal has caused a huge backlash from most other sectors of the German society.

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I know I have tried...

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There are only 20 days left in December and a few from here before the contest closes on December 20th, 2024. I have been tossing out past Christmas stories daily in the hopes it might inspire some thought for an entry. I have begged for entries, shown potential entries and entries from the past with the BigCloset Retro Classic Christmas Specials.

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Future Shock

many years ago, a man named Alvin Toffler wrote a book where he argued that the rate of technological change was going so fast, people could no longer adapt, and were suffering a form of culture shock, or as he put it Future Shock.

Since the book came out, the rate of technological change has only increased, and the effects have only gotten worse.

I believe this is one reason for the increase in popularity of movements that wish to slow, stop, or even reverse some of those changes.

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I Don't Like You

I Don't Like You is now available on Amazon:

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Meet Joanna, a courageous girl navigating the complex landscape of high school relationships. When her path collides with her former bully, old wounds resurface, forcing Joanna to deal with her pent-up anger while supporting her friend, Frank. The two must unravel the mysteries of love, friendship, and encouragement. “I Don’t Like You” is a compelling tale of self-discovery, forgiveness, and unexpected connections in this heartfelt story that explores the transformative power of compassion and acceptance.

Thank you to all of the readers on this site.

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Question: Nearly ready to post my continuation of Jeremy Chandlers tale.

I'm nearly ready to post my continuation of Jeremy Chandler's "My Summer in Pantyhose." I've continued it to the 2nd week in September. While it obviously leaves the reader wanting more, the title limits the tale to the "summer," so it ends with just a glimpse of what may be to come.

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Here's Jake!

I spent some time with AI, and found that it really has a problem doing the little things. Jake has two different colored eyes, and it took me forever to get that done how I wanted. I went through, quite literally, hundreds and hundreds of images before I found my Jake. https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/104259/mister-sister-... Jake face final.jpeg

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