Sorry folks, I've been having connection problems for some time. It seems to have given up the ghost entirely tonight, so obviously I won't be posting tonight. I hope for better news tomorrow but I'm not holding my breath.

I had an experiance at work last night that I want to share, but I'm struggling to find the right words.

So bear with me ...

It started with me struggling with my PTSD before work. I was already shaky and not doing well by the time I had to go to work, and the awful feeling continued to build as my shift went on. Finally, frustrated, I asked myself "Just what am I feeling?"

The answer came back "Grief. Grief for what was lost."

Finally, in desperation, I decided to simply let myself grieve for a bit for what was taken from me.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed, seriously, we could not do this without you.

We still have close to $1200 in bills to pay in the next week or so and about $400 in the bank. We had an unexpected bill for close to $700 show up and caught us short.

As usual the links to the Hatbox page and the Janglewood page can also be found in the right hand column under the picture of the kitty.

Hugs,
Erin

KUDOS to Zapper, if you have not read BODY GUARD you are truly missing another great story by Zapper
ACTION packed front to back .

I have a story to tell, and an encouragement to make to all those who read this little blog.

First, the story.

I haven't heard from Paula in a few days, but when last we talked, she expected to have Grover back home by yesterday, barring any unforseen complications.

I am SO relieved toknow that my dear friend, my sister, has come through this trying time and will be home with Paula where he can rest and recuperate. Thank you God.

Catherine Linda Michel

I am trying to find a story, and my brain is farting on the name. It involved a Batman-like superhero who could teleport in shadows who gets turned into a girl only to have it revealed he was always trans on the inside.

Loved it, loved the humor, the feels, but I cant remember the name, or the author, or if she will ever finish the story

anybody?

As many of you might know by now, an astounding and miraculous event has occurred in my country. It is the most important event to occur since 1937 in the 'young' history of where I live. The people of the Republic of Ireland have voted for an amendment to the constitution allowing people of the same sex to get married.

Perhaps I missed the notice, so what's going on with FM? I haven't been able to access the site in several days. All I get is a Content Encoding Error, something about the site using an invalid or unsupported form of compression. Can I please buy a clue here?!?!

I just finished reading LAND OF MY HEART BY Browen Welsh . I feel the need to post that if you have not read this story you need to give it a look .
The story starts with a young boy in Britain called "A Foreign Country" and the adventures there in to becoming a 50's Woman in the Australian out back .
VERY GOOD READ but you must start at the first story. KUDOS to Author .
Hugs to all Richie2

An interesting idea.

By now, I am sure that you all have heard this news. Marriage Equality has become the law of the land in my ancestral home by referendum. This is a worldwide first. Popular election accepts Marriage Equality. Yippee!

So the other day I was talking the GM of my McDonald's I am a shift manager at the McDonald's that I work in. I was pointing out that the toys that we have at this time are the most split that we have ever had. ((Skylanders//My little pet shop.)) They are the most that I have seen girls asking for the boy's toy and boy's asking for the girl's toy granted in some ways these toys are gender neutral though little pet shop is geared to girls boys little animals as well. And skylanders is for both boys and girls.

It's frequently a fantasy of transgender readers to imagine what it would be like to be inter-sexed or androgen insensitive or some other unusual genetic manifestation. On today's Guardian website is an account of a woman who suffers with Swyre Syndrome or XY gonadal dysgenesis which has caused her problems much of her life.

Well, its been an interesting week for trans people here in Edmonton, as the news has been full of stories about a young trans girl who was being denied the right to use the girl's washrooms at school. Since the school is run by the Catholic church, who aren't big fans of us, it seemed that they were going to force the girl's parents to take them to the Human Rights court, a process that would take years. But one of the trustees for the school district spoke out against the policy, and now the school has backed down, meaning the girl will be allowed to use the girl's washrooms.

The following is Grover's Adventures in Hospital Land thus far:

Tuesday, May 19:
Grover finished walking the dog at around 10:30 AM, and had some shoulder pain. Thinking it was just muscle pain due to weather changes, he took some Tylenol. However, the pain did not go away after 30 minutes and his fingertips started feeling numb.

A TMC advertisement mentioned ten(10) movies to show to someone who didn't know old movies. It didn't mention any specific movie. So I made my own list:

From the Guardian a story about how one parish convinced a diocese to put a proposal to the General Synod of the Church of England about renaming ceremonies for transgender Christians. While I'm unlikely to consider it as an unbeliever, I welcome what looks like the slightest movement of progress for those who do, and I wish Blackburn Diocese good luck with their motion.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/may/21/proposal-for-...

Grover's wife, Paula, just called to update me on his condition. He seems in good spirits although weak and, of course, being bored in the hospital and unable to access the internet since the hospital appaarently will not allow contact with Top Shelf.

She told me how much all your good wishes/prayers/good vibes mean to them both. She said that you can contact them through their facebook pages. I will, of course, continue to be a go-between, keeping you all informed on Grover's surgery and progress back to health.

So, I was listening to a podcast from the new NPR series, "Invisibilia" and on one episode they describe a condition which causes a the sufferer to mentally switch genders at whim. They even interview a Trans person who initially suffers from it and they are repulsed by the body in the mirror after a shower to the point of nausea, because it did not match who they are mentally at that time.

They actually start to transition to make themselves more androgynous, only to find their switch stops flipping and they seem 'Locked' into their new gender and finish the transition.

I havent heard anybody mention it, so I wanted to let people know that JennaFl has passed away according to Facebook.

My condolances and prayers go out to her family and friends

what writing like this was for me.

Crap! Sit down at the laptop and a couple of hours later 5 or 6 thousand words come out!

It's cool and all, and it is the way the first 10 chapters came into being, but damn it's tiring.

But that has my draft of Chapter 16 done. Now to go back and edit it all.

But, glad to see my muse has returned for a while.

Well, it finally happened. My worst nightmare. As I have proudly proclaimed for a while. I'm quite confident in being out and about in my neighborhood and around town.

Tuesday, week before last, I was sent to get birdseed (and some other things) at Bi-mart after work. This time, I opted to stop by the house and change into appropriate clothing and not appear there in my overly masculine work uniform.

Sweet flying spaghetti monster, I thought I'd never have to deal with this again. Especially not from one of our own.

As I was making my way home from my monthly transgender support group meeting, I ended up behind someone obviously transgender herself--someone vaguely familiar.

It turns out she lives in the same apartment complex I do. After years of being the only transgender tenant, apparently I have company.

PLEASE CALL ME! I need to know if you're okay.

Cathy

It;s been a few days since I posted a new chapter for either of my ladies. I'm afraid I've hit a block with Gains that needs a rethink but I had no desire to write over the weekend. Hopefully a new Testing Times will hit the news stand on Tuesday (that's today if you're East of the Meridian)

Since I am posting Worth Fighting For, I figured that enough time has gone by that a repost of Unreachable might be a good idea to remind everyone where Desiree has come from. So, for the duration (and as long as no one alerts Amazon) I will make Unreachable and Reaching Home available to everyone (without posting chapter by chapter). I hope people will enjoy and I still wouldn't mind if people posted reviews on Amazon for me (I'd like to hit 100 reviews).

So, while you still can (most likely a month), enjoy one of my better received works.

In New York:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/15/new-york-transgende...

&

Hawaii:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/05/hawaii-transgender-...

Soon it will be easier in all areas.

shalimar

Well, we have finally got pictures on our walls, so my mom is happy.

Many trans people would be a little upset at seeing pictures of themselves pre-transition everywhere, but honestly, I find I don't mind all that much.

The boy I was raised as is a part of me, my history in boy world helps shape the woman I'm becoming, so why should I be ashamed of him?

Just my thinking, what's yours?

Well, everything is set. My poem will appear in the newspaper which will be available a week from today.

(does a happy dance... )

Hello all:

I've been a reader on this site for several years now. I love the mental vacation it provides. I comment frequently about stories I read and prefer. I'm a simple working girl who lives my life as I see fit and the world be damned, this includes most of my family who have tossed me aside as if I'm dead.

Who is this Jenn C person who thinks she might be a poet and author?

I just got a phone call from my church. They would like to use my "Dear God" poem in a newspaper they hand out around downtown Edmonton, or possibly something original, if I can do it in the next couple of days.

Needless to say, I'm honored ...

UFB

http://www.greenvillegazette.com/michelle-duggar-claims-all-...

SMDH

I am afraid I need an editor. I haven't heard from mine in almost 2 months. I really hope he is alright, the editing is secondary. He is or was a member here.

Doppler Press has had some nice success to start off. Heather O'Malley's 300 Rains, Lana Lee's Suit Yourself and Sue Brown's Soccer Girl have all hit best seller status. Katie Leone just published Worth Fighting For and that is doing okay for us too. But there are things that the Big Closet community can do to really help not only increase our visibility on Amazon, but drive traffic (more readers for all our authors and perhaps a few new authors to post stories to boot) to the site.

Carl Sagan

Worth Fighting For by Katie Leone, the highly anticipated sequel to Unreachable is out. I am sorry about the delay, but I am sure you won't be disappointed.

There have been some interesting things happening in the news in the last while, and is occasionally the case, I like to take some time to think about them before saying something. But I'm ready now, so here goes ...

Hey there...

I just wanted to let you all know that I am going to be pulling Transitioning Home as soon as Joyce can get to it. I plan on reworking some things based on my research and then seeing if I can do the thing with the publish. But, since you all might get surprised by it simply vanishing I felt that letting you all know that was going to happen would be a kindness.

So it's done. As of today, the unedited version of the book I've been working on is finished and sent to doppler. It's rough, but initial feedback was promising.

Now I'm staring at vagrants, as well as staring at another story idea not yet seen. We shall see what happens.

The Ice Saints (Die Eisheiligen in German) are saints named for 4th and 5th century martyrs and so on.

This year the Ice Saints' Days start today, according to German-speaking countries. Other countries modify the 'rule'!

This year:

11th May - Mamertus
12th May - Servatius
13th May - Pankratius
14th May - Bonifatius
15th May - Kalte Sophia

Why is this important?
Well, according to farmer's observations over hundreds of years, these days are the last fling of winter, after which no more frosts and no more snow.

Why am I surprised? Probably because I'm incredibly naïve and don't understand why anyone would want to do it. It's dangerous and pointless. What's the point of bragging rights, which apparently alpha males enjoy, if you cheated to get them? Some people seem to think it's worth it, I'm saddened especially as it's rife in youth cycling. Whoever is responsible should be jailed for a very long time - it's tantamount to child abuse and these are the people we want to develop in fitness, technique and ethics. Winning is not all.

For several years I received a stream of Gabyverse fanfiction which for the most part seemed to be received very well and enjoyed by many. Apart from specials by Angharad for the Gabycon's (this years event is the first weekend of July), this has dried up so that the arrival this week of a new interlude was quite unexpected.

I just want to say that I'm encouraged and discouraged both by recent discussions of unpubbing stories, kudos, criticism and the like.

I've demoted two blogs concerned with those subjects off the front page, not because they were unimportant but because I felt that they were both beginning to attract comments that some people could feel were unfriendly.

In general, people are trying to say things they think are encouraging or helpful but I've been doing this for fifteen years and I have a sense of when something is being said that can too easily be misinterpreted. So....

Got some serious stride done for the contest story and a whole bunch of other things and did like 20,000 words in like three days.

I’ve reached a new milestone – YEAH