I have a heavy heart, my dear, dear friends...

I turn 52 next month. Today the wife and I went to Costco and bought some items including Snapper. When we got home, my wife opened the snapper and immediately said it was no good because it smelled bad. So after less than 10 minutes at home I head back to the store.

I happened to look through the notes I have stored on my computer, and came across some ideas I'd like to work on in future, but I'm kind of stuck as to how these stories should resolve themselves. Some are pretty thought-provoking and I'd have to be careful how I ended them. I fear that for some of them, a downbeat ending might be required, which likely would not go over well here. Some thoughts about where I might go with these ideas would be appreciated.

Thank you to everyone who commented on my previous blog. I feel a bit more enlightened now, but there are some misunderstandings which I must clear up for all our sakes, and some more material for discussion. Here goes...

Well besides the usual weekly post here

It seems those lovely people, the Taliban, have murdered three polio vaccination workers in Pakistan, who were running innoculation programmes. How these stupid morons can behave so wickedly to people who are trying to save their lives and those of their children, completely defeats me.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/18/polio-vaccinatio...

On a separate note, there will be no Bike tonight, too tired and dealing with a family problem, probably be back tomorrow.

Just to let you all know, I am still working on the next Kit and Kin. I am tinkering with it but going is slow. Part of the reason is that another story mugged me and is beating me terribly about the head and shoulders. Terpsi is clearly enjoying the idea of writing a love story about Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley that starts with a torture scene. It's not my fault. Terpsi is a freak.

Hey! For those following the SF FreeRIDEr's stories over on Shifti two more tales have been posted after a rather long wait. 'Walkabout' by Jet Fire, and 'Meetings Complete' by Robotech.

I turned 55 today.

Writing update

Had a nice conversation at work last night. Was talking to a woman who knows a bit of my history and mentioned struggling with finding guys attractive, and gave as an example one of the receivers at work who passed me the day before in a tight white t shirt and me doing a double take, and then freaking out about it.

She giggled, and said a guy dressed like that is asking to be looked at, and that got me giggling, and I felt much better about the whole thing.

A sad thing for me, just an hour or or two before the shooting started in CT, an 18 year old high school senior was arrested in my home town for plotting to trap the other students in the school auditorium and start shooting them, as many as he could. This was in the town I grew up in, the school I attended! He was caught because he was trying to get a couple of other teens to assist him, and at least one of them took his plan to the school officials. He also planned to set bombs at the entrances so he could blow up the police as they tried to enter the school.

One for the cycling fraternity on the site...

Criticism has a bad connotation to it, but it really doesn't have to be taken in a bad way. I will point it out using my own writing as an example.

Away for Christmas and New Year so out of contact. Due back mid-January.

This kind of thing makes me both sad and angry. Someone really ought to smack some sense into that Mary Ring bitch.

http://www.weberbooks.com/kindle/

Kindle — How to Publish, Promote & Profit
Author: Tom Heatherington

We all know that when it comes to criticism, one gal's meat is another's poison. But some authors positively encourage criticism.

I really do try to keep on top of my writing. You can ask those part of team WAM that I normally stick to my schedule. BUt I am too heart broken to even try tonight. How can I not weep for the loss of innocence today? I have always been emotional, always quick to shed a tear, but some things just break my hear more than I can bear.

I might sound like a broken record and frankly I don't give a damn anymore. I'm just really tired of writing and not getting any recognition for it. All I have is writing...there's nothing else. The fact that everyone only seems to care about one thing I write or one genre---whether it be The Center, the CRU or the DarkRealms---as soon as I try to do something different, I get nothing for it. I was super excited about writing The Underappreciated. It was new and fresh and I actually enjoyed writing again. Sadly the last few chapters I've posted have done nothing.

hi all saw another interesting license plate today it was POST OP wonder what that could mean lol

So, Monday evening I was studying a book with three other women. We found the material quite interesting and I felt a bit overwhelmed and slightly emotional about it.

Due to a hardware failure on another server, and the need to test hardware. One of our servers (Eva) which is the primary Star Stuff server, is going to be taken offline.

Hello there, Closeteers! **Sigh** here.

I made some changes to my "Cruiser Lake" story, and so I thought I'd explain how and why here.

I really don't know what's wrong with me. I wish I knew, really I did. It's the fact that I know who I am, I know what I am, but still I hide it from the world and even from myself.

i've uploaded the next Gaby chapter cept i can't see it and BC crashed whilst i was doing it! To further complicate things i'm bouncing around on a coach so it might want some further work!

ttfn

Fo the last couple of days, I have noticed the top half of the page is in a smaller than normal font, and the lower half is about 4 times that size and in bold, and some of the stories are popping up liike that, at least in my browser, which still unfortunately a windoze product. Is it on my end?

The other night I did something I've done dozens of times over the years. I went, after a bit of hunting about and deciding, to download a program file from CNet.com. Always cool no viruses blah blah.

I titled this blog under travel because there is no title listed as 'Incidents' Anyway ...

I was going to write this in a way where it appeared everyone had the same view I did, but since I don't know how everyone feels about the situation, I will just write on my view of the situation.

The first and probably only cold snap has hit South Texas. So we get our winter this year, according to extended forecasts this should last into the first part of January, but I'm skeptical. Time to go shopping for a winter wardrobe (I wish). Now I know you Yankees are poo pooing our winter, but when eight months out of the year temperatures are 95 ° and above you get excited when the cold comes. I will be enjoying my walks in the fresh morning air for awhile. So this Texas gal says bundle up little dogies and keep warm if you can, find someone to cuddle up with. Freezing smiles, Jenn.

My sister, Ellen, died earlier today. She was 59.

shalimar

Happy Chanukah to all my friends here at BCTS.

Rami

Well, my car wouldnt start last night, and I probably didnt handle it well. I got a ride home from a friend, being unable to find the number for my road-side service company, and afraid that a tow truck would take forever in this kind of weather.

I focused on going home, figuring my best chance of thinking straight would be after getting a nights sleep, but I should have realized my mom would panic and wake me up and freak out when she realized the car wasnt home.

They are by me:

http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/31075/mommy-s-magic-sw...

http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/3843/unusual-visitor

Also soon one from Rami.

shalimar

I think this link is worth reading. It's not funny or anything, but it is one that should be widely spread, as it affects all of us. Be sure and have some tissues handy. Michael was not a faggot

I just wonder if other authors do this, and I find myself doing it often from time to time. When I get to procrastinating or lose my drive to write during the night, I go back and read comments from old stories. Also, since I got into the habit of leaving author notes at the end of my postings, sometimes I go back and read those too.

My second story, The Duchess of Arad, was very well received, and that made me very happy! Like many obsessive-compulsive people, I have quirks, and one of those quirks is data, patterns, and figuring out the WHY in things.

I noticed an odd trend in the story stats for Duchess. Chapters 9 and 11 were bypassed quite a bit. I wondered why. It could not be that people hated those chapters, because once you click, love it or hate it, the click was registered as a "hit" regardless.

I hope the news is wrong; however, the nurse who allowed those joking morons to get into Kate's hospital room via the phone has committed suicide. They should be prosecuted to the fullest extent the law allows. Who's laughing now?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/07/kate-middleton-nurs...

I always hate doing this but Hatbox funds have not met November goals and it's already December and bills are coming due. I easily paid out more than $1000 dollars in November to keep the sites associated with BC up and running so I'm a bit short for all of my other bills this month.

If you can, please chip in using the Hatbox link in the right column, or email me if you want to send me money by PayPal or Post Office.

Thanks,
Erin

I give this heads up. Just like some I do go through depression. Today is one of them. Excuse me if I use this as a sounding board.

Today's our anniversary
I wish it never came

I was a minor lobbyist at the San Francisco Convention in 2009 or 2010.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-beyer/the-end-of-transgen...

It strikes me that I'm not the only one with this problem. I frequently get very busy an don't have time to do the reading that I would like to. When I do go back to the list, the stories that I had wanted to read are no longer on the front page and I have forgotten about them.

Would it be possible to have something like Amazon's wish list, so that one could tag stories to be read, and easily come back to them later? Could it even optionally pop up when one logged on?

Just a thought.

Liz

Just a heartfelt thanks to all of you who have bought one (or more) of my books. I have just sold my 11,000th Kindle version through Amazon. I have sold a few more through Smashwords and some paperbacks, but without a doubt, Kindle sell better.

Sales have slowed to a trickle through November and December (from 30 a day to about 10 a day) so I have to get busy on the next one of many in the pipe line.

I have to admire her courage, to play not only as a trans woman, but to play at her age.

http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_22132492/transsexu...

Holly

Why is it that some people feel that telling someone that is over weight they look to have lost some when they have no idea if they have is a complement? (okay reading that sentence lost even me, I'm probably doing something grammatically incorrect.)