I want to apologize for not being here for a few days, but I have been in the hospital because of my leg. My lower left leg got infected and I had to go and have it seen about. Only now can I get onlne for a while before I have to deal with my legg.

I know I've been remiss in posting a new Amazon chapter, and nearly as bad on Ma'at.

All I can say is that Real-Life has been ridiculously busy for both immediate and extended family, and Changes (capital 'C' deliberate) seem to be under way for me, personally. (Not bad things, but the stress level is 25 on a scale of 1 to 10)

Sorry, can't do an episode tonight - too tired, just had a friend on the phone for an hour and am absolutely knackered. Discovered I can't save the universe and write at the same time. Hopefully normal service will be resumed tomorrow.

Apologies,

Angharad & >^^< (the one who kept me awake last night!)

I was just going to post this as a comment on the story, but I got worried that many of the very, very important people it was intended for would miss it, so I decided to put it over here too and increase the chances it would reach most of them.

I got this letter last night and am just passing it along to everyone.

>>Monday, August 25th (night)

You know, I'm writing this rant because I just read another story where the main character went straight.

Why am I writing this?

An Italian priest is to hold the world's first online beauty pageant for nuns.
Antonio Rungi says The Miss Sister Italy online contest will start on his blog in September.

I wear skirts most of the time, usually well below the knee, though I do have some rather trashy minis. I feel as if I am gradually finding my moral compass and am perhaps realizing that I should be getting away from such shameless displays of my "astonishingly hot legs!". Attached to them are this body that is very questionably "hot" or NOT HOT, as you wish.

I submitted a story to the 2008 Summer Romance competition. I don't know why. I have never entered a contest here before and I certainly did not expect to win. If I bought all the tickets in a chook raffle I think I could manage to lose. However, as the days rolled by I was surprised and delighted by the reception my story got,not spectacular but respectable (by my lights, anyway).

I saw this and was thinging this might have the seeds of a good story in it, but don't feel much like trying myself.

In the last few weeks I came to deal with a major issue in my life : my small amount of friends . As far as I can remember I only had 5-6 friends and one or two really good ones.The problem is that I always feel that in some ways I am never one of the group , even with my friends ( when were around other people) it seems to me like everybody is giving me the odd look.

This Friday Oprah's Show is on Families where one of the parents has been Transgendered since or after the marriage with kids that are teenagers now or older.

Well, wise or not, the article about my experience with the Muslims went on the stands today. I wish I had a husband to blame for allowing me to do this. "What will I do when they come for me"? Will I "fly like a butterfly and sting like a bee"? Am I "dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight"?

I gave serious thought to killing Evi Westcott off this time. Her diary just won't quit, there are more characters than War and Peace, and she hasn't even started college yet. All the friends could have come to her funeral and said what a swell girl she was. Anyway, I tried out some scenarios on my friends, one of them (the scenario, not the friend) shamelessly plagiarized from la Traviata, but no one was buying it. So here's Part VI of Balthasar's Extract. If you like it, drop me a note and tell me why.

Hugs, Daphne

Alright, I cannot take it anymore.

Sight II starts next week - providing I can drag myself away from the close of the Olympics and the Grand Prix

Sorry for leading you all up the garden path.

Can you stop beating me up now?

NB

I have written nothing this week and have no real excuse for not continuing Stevie's adventures.

I know I posted it too late, and for that I apologize. I originally intended a short fifteen hundred word complete, but like so much in my life that soon snowballed into something much more ambitious.

That being said, even with all its flaws I'm happy with my generically titled but I like to think creative story.

Hi folks.

I know this is a lame excuse, but I don't know whether I am going to be able to post this week as usual.

The thing is, I am drawn like a moth to the flame to the British cyclists in the Olympics--not to mention a fairly unbelievable run by Bolt and well, I just haven't had the time to get into the story.

Treated myself to a pedicure today. I was dressed in standard random male street clothes, sneakers, socks. Just picked a random nail salon, went in, asked about getting a pedicure, with polish, was greeted with a bit of a giggle, but directed to a pedicure station in the back of the shop. "Great," thought I, "at least I won't be on view from the street."

BBC's My Family sitcom has, I just recently discovered, an episode with a TS character/theme. In it, Ben, the leading male, has an old university friend coming to visit, who happens to be TS and has already transitioned, but not yet told him. This isn't the first LGBT-based episode for the program, and I was dreading watching the episode a bit, as the previous ones weren't entirely tasteful.

I was looking at the "My Stories" page and I noticed something odd. The latest chapter in the Stark series, Stark: The State of Grace, has less than a thousand hits overall. Compare that to every other chapter, with hit numbers between 2000 and 3000, and you have a bit of a mystery.

I've been writing and posting stories for over 8 years now. I started with FM, moved to Storysite and Sapphire's, then to here. I am proud and humble at the same time, to announce that, at Storysite, I have passed 225,000 hits on my stories. That's a lotta hits, folks, and I am psyched. Since there are no counters at FM, I have no clue how many have hit on my stories there.

'My Body Is Wrong' an article in today's Guardian, about transgendered children.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/aug/14/children.young...

I hope the link works.

Angharad.

From US Magazine: One of the 14 girls who will compete on the new season of America's Next Top Model — which returns to The CW on September 3 — is transgender.

"My cards were dealt differently," Isis, a 22-year-old former receptionist, tells Us Weekly exclusively in its new issue, on newsstands now.

Full story:

This is too hard for me to figure out, giggle, even if I did take my shoes off! :)

But somewhere on here, I was reading about the lady and the IRS and in the bottom of the article it said that the there are between 1600 and 2000 SRS operations performed in the US every year. There are probably 10 times that done by US citizens outside the US, but I doubt that they counted those.

Voting on the Summer Romance Contest is delayed because the fucking voting software does not work. The old software worked, poorly but it worked, the new stuff does not and the old software is not available now.

I've spent two-and-one-half hours on this and I've got bupkiss. I'm going to bed.

Hugs,
Erin

But Birthdays have been a pretty miserable time most of my life. They've either been completely without any kind of celebratory anything, or else turned out badly. There was a single exception to this.

Now, while the first few birthdays I don't remember exactly, I have vague "snapshot" pictures in my brain of some things that I've had explained to me over the years. WARNING! Some of this stuff is pretty horrible, and may trigger people with any kind of sensitivity to child abuse, rape, etc.

Happy Birthday Edeyn! May you have a terrific day and great year!! Don't forget the cake and ice cream!

Happy Hugs!

grover

PS: If I'm wrong than have a great day anyways!!!! :)

This is one of main favourite stories. I thought I'd check its date to see if it would make the 1-, 2-, or 3- year list, unfortunately it misses out by a couple of months.

I recently picked up a two decade best of SF omnibus, of the stories I have read so far, none could match this work by Aardvark.

If you haven't come across it before then give it a try.

I just saw the headlines on Yahoo, and the fine print shows that Angharad's countrywoman has won a gold for the women's road race. Congrats to Ms. Cooke.

Like nearly everyone else here, I enjoy these stories, some more than others.

I encourage all of the authors to continue writting so I can continue reading.

One thing I would like to see is some way to track the status of the various series being written.

I haven't counted, but there must be dozens, if not hundreds of series on this site, most still in work.

Hydee hoo dear friends,

First of all, My apologies to everyone. The delay in getting this last post ready was
far too long. Suffice it to say, that real life has a way of dictating what we must do
over that which we merely feel a desire to do. I hope that for reason alone, that
something like this never happens again; and further, that I have not alienated any of

In a future chapter I will need love song ideas for Kelly where she can paraphrase the song, but I am woefully ignorant about such songs.

I've just come back from a long weekend in my home village, and my best intentions of writing the next few parts of OHOP went by the board very early on. I'm not sure why I couldn't write in my mother's house - a little guilt perhaps for the mother character in the serial, or possibly just another case of me compartmentalising my life... I write in Hampshire, I don't in Wales.

Interesting story from a business news source that occasionally publishes human interest or sociological trend stories. It's about a new government regulation in Thailand to outlaw elective castration for those under 18. Gay rights campaigners support the new restrictions, while the medical establishment opposes it, citing the rights of transsexuals to be who they are.

Last month, I went back and took a look at the first few chapters I posted on this story... Needless to say, I was less than happy with what I read. (How did you all say such kind things about it?) (Why did I look? I was thinking of revising it as more of a mainstream story. (I don't know that it's worth the effort though.)

I talked with my dad this weekend. Probably for the last time. I just don't think that I can deal with him anymore. Everytime I call him, he hassles me wanting grandchildren. He does not care who I marry, or even if I get married, he just wants grandkids and he wants them soon. Several times after he gets done pestering me about that, he will try to make a joke while questioning my sexuality.

The New York Times...

God bless them! With any luck, this is the wedge that eventually breaks open the minds of the keepers of the rigid "Binary model" of gender.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/opinion/03boylan.html?_r=1...

Just finished Geoff's "Lola" series. This hilights nicely a blind spot of mine. I'd probably never have gone back to search for this story had it not been mentioned in one of the comments on something.

People, there is a lot of good stuff here if you are willing to root around in the wine cellar. Try it, you won't be disappointed. :)

Gwendolyn Brown

I don't know if this is appropriate for blogging here, but I'm going to anyway.

If you use Wendy's you really have to watch how they charge you for what you order.

For example, let's say you ask for a double, they will automatically enter a double with cheese, asking you if you want cheese. If you say No they will add No Cheese as an attribute, and you will be charged $4.29.

In a series of astonishing developments, it appears as if I am going to be the first T woman to renew her Electrical License in the State of Oregon. It all began when...

PW, the ad server for the left column ads, is having some service interruptions. I've temporarily suspended their ads so if you had an ad in the left col, it will probably be back up soon.

Hugs,
Erin

There are several editors that have helped me with my story about Kelly. They've all been very patient with me and when they saw the size of the story, I guess that I amazed them because I'd never attempted anything so long.