It's November 11 where I live so here's a reminder of what governments can do to kids who can't even vote.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGDhzVi1bqU

Okay, so I think I hallucinated yesterday.

For some reason I looked at my left hand palm side up, and I saw a bunch of fine scratches. Nothing new about finding scratches, I do that to myself all the time and don't remember when, but then, a couple of hours later I looked again . . .

No scratches. No signs there had ever been scratches there.

I don't quite know what to make of this, folks . . .

Well, I got some things done today, but at a cost.

I helped sweep out the grate, and went to try and get my meds. I got the one med, but the blister pack wont be ready until Friday. By the time I was coming home I was crying from knee pain.

Then I had to somehow get things under control so I could drive south and pick up Sam at work.

Ah, well.

I have had a super frustrating day.

Sharon originally asked us to come down at 9 AM so Sam could give her boss a direct deposit slip - only to call us just before we left to come down at 11 30 instead, then she called at 1030 and asked if we were on the way yet - it only takes us 20 min to get there.

then we get to Sam's work, and since its a pizza place nobody was there yet so we had to go to the mall so they could kill time until the manager would be there.

So, I do apologize for my silence as of late, but I have a good reason for that. In my previous blog I mentioned that I was working directed (mandatory) overtime and, well, I have been working fifty hour work weeks for the last three weeks straight. No word on whether or not I will be working it again this week so I cannot say whether you'll be seeing another serial part this coming Saturday or Sunday. So, I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

I do apologize and hope you have a deliciously devious night,

!
My seventh book is out on Amazon!
This is a collection of stories based on the expressive and performing arts.

Well sort of!

I've been trying to monitor my emotional state in terms of my bipolar issues, and I think I have discovered something.

I had assumed that my cycle followed a simple pattern - a slow curve up during my manic phase, followed by a slow curve down during my depression phase.

Apparently, its a bit more complicated than that.

During my current manic phase, I've had a couple of what I'm going to call "quick drops" - times when my mood suddenly went way down.

There was a beginning

Well perhaps not quite so emergency as it was.

"Other than the fact that we know that magic somehow exists, we don’t really know anything about it.”

It's a long time since I've felt such a strong urge to write but this latest series of The Joiners seems to make me want to write instead of doing other things. I should be studying not writing fiction while listening to Carpenter's CDs.

Just a quick fyi,

This is about a Canadian Christian Colony but it is not about their religion. They are called the Fort Pitt Hutterite Colony and they grow all sorts of grains on the Canadian prairie. When I write a story I try to make it sweet and romantic, with the characters having kind relationships, free from abuse.

I especially like the colorful, pretty dresses the women wear. I don't have direct experience with them. Sadly, I can not join their community. I hope that you enjoy this video.

Do trans women have more problems in the UK or USA?

Much of America seems a lot more religious than the UK. Our official religion is Church Of England, that usually means going for christening', weddings and funerals for most of us. C of E accept trans people now.

http://www.unadulteratedlove.net/blog/2021/7/20/weve-made-ou...

Sorry folks; I'm still sick. Going to the doctor this afternoon.

I did a lot of writing on _Angel of Earth_ the past couple of days, but it was mostly rough stuff, just getting basic ideas down.

Update: I hope none of you ever have to change a flat tire before going to the doctor. :-(

I failed (Passed?) the flu test, so it's not that. (Unlikely, since I've had this year's shot, but possible.) They also tested me for Covid-19, just in case. That result won't be in for a couple of days.

I was half asleep in my bedroom, sorta listening to some show or video my wife was watching in the living room. I had almost drifted off, when I heard a metallic clang. And then ... I was someplace dark and cramped. I sorta knew I wasn't actually there, but it still felt real. I think I'm mostly grounded again, but I'm still smelling paint every once in a while, and my heart starts racing. Got all the lights on, which is helping a bit. Still a bundle of nerves. Not sure if I'm gonna be sleeping any more tonight.

(Yes, I am one of those people who welcomes the Christmas season the day after Halloween)

“A Cracker Barrel Christmas” takes place in a small town in Western Tennessee and focuses on Nicole Armitage, the youngest of the family, and the one who is caught in the middle of all of the arguments the family has every Christmas. This year, her oldest—and self-proclaimed hero of the town—brother is bringing his family home for the holidays and Nikki dreads having to defend her life.

Chapter titles are based on songs by Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

otherwise known as Mum's birthday!

Life Decided Otherwise

As the previous installment was a day late, posting this next one an entire day early! Woot! Part 7 of 8 is up in which more things are revealed and things are set up for the ride to the finish...

Thanks to everyone who's been reading, and especially to all who comment or message! I'm looking forward to getting the last bit of book done and posted, and then comes the fun of re-reading the whole thing and laying out the rest of the story arc for the next few books.

Hope all who read enjoy!!

- Erisian

Interesting article, it seems that the US is moving to make it easier to be who we are.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/the-first-u-s-passport...

So I'm looking for a story I read on here 4 years ago or so. It starts off with a middle aged man going through a shopping District. Suddenly a large monster rampage through the shopping District and out into the street while everyone runs away he follows to watch. Then a teenage girl attacks the monster and kills it but is incapacitated and bleeding. The man runs to the girl thinking to help but she shouts for him to stop but he ignores it. So he tries to help getting her blood on him just as the army arrived in hazmat suits.

I was a little disappointed that so few responded to my request to compare the two stories I posted on the weekend and tell me which was the early one and which the more recent.
I still feel that I am very new to this fiction writing gig, although I am always writing for work and some of my colleagues accuse me of fiction.
I am just curious as to whether I am getting any better or falling away under the burden of prolificacy.
Maryanne

I have a Medicare Physical next week where they test my Cognition. I am really frightened, and may cancel it.

Gwen

Yep, unless i've got my calculations wrong, this weekend the clocks change in Europe for potentially the last time, returning the UK to GMT.

My next Kindle release will be 'Deathtrap', incorporating the Aftermath story. It is being fully revised with new, previously unseen, content. Of course, Alecia is on board for that. Currently that is expected in late November but ... sometimes things happen sooner!

Meanwhile there are two brand new Tammyverse stories in production with one just about finished. Unfortunately they can't be posted here yet but there will be fresh, unseen, Tammy on this site before Christmas! Posting is likely to continue into 2022, after which there will be a break.

Writing is an odd business. I mean really.

Well ... looks like my group therapy will be ending this week. I'm really gonna miss the people I met there. Even though I wound up being put in the wrong group (I found out a couple weeks ago the group I was in wasn't for dealing with trauma), I still learned some good stuff. Even though I wish I could stay with the group longer, I know all things come to an end, and I'm grateful for the time I was able to spend with the people there. :)

Claude Cahun was featured in a recent Google doodle:
https://www.google.com/doodles/claude-cahuns-127th-birthday

"French author and surrealist photographer Claude Cahun—best-known for their purposefully unsettling yet playful self-portrait photography that challenged the gender and sexuality norms of the early 20th century..."
...
"Cahun’s work has influenced gender bending celebrities, the modern LGBTQ+ community, and conversations on identity and expression to this day."

MC witnesses a murder when returning from posting a letter/greetings card (while en femme)

A police detective visits MC's apartment on her own, she notices some inconsistencies in both the witness statement and in the presentation of the MC's apartment.

they become friends and later lovers

The police detective later is seriously injured.

I discovered a gem hidden on my hard drive the other day. "This Quintessence of Dust"

I'm starting to think I shouldn't drive anymore.

I had 2 scary moments driving today. I was in a turning lane that had a red light while the straight ahead light was green. And somehow both times all I saw was the green light and took the turn anyway.

sighs . . .

I haven't posted a new picture of a dormouse for a while, this was one that escaped while one of my colleagues was checking a nesting tube and took refuge in a tree. The photo was taken with my phone and I have tried to enlarge it.

X the Last Woman

I was thinking of writing a reverse version of Y the Last Man. In the series and the book (graphic novel) the women are pretty screwed , Most of the world's infrastructure is still kept running by men. In a prophetic line about truck drivers the new president says that the country was run on trucks delivering things. She says only 5% of truck drivers are women. (there is a shortage of truck drivers currently in a few countries since covid) A dam breaks and floods towns as there is no one to fix it. Power is off etc.

There is no count on stories on Big Closet by I think "Vengeance" was my 250th story posted here.
I need to be careful as over on that other site I have been attacked for blowing my own trumpet and flooding that site with my captioned image things.
But over here (with two exceptions being "AGD" and "All Grown Out" for reasons explained there) all my stories posted on Big Closet are full short stories, or maybe even somethings that qualify as a novelette.

with the week so far!

While straightening up a few things in my room, I came across a telegram of condolences about my father’s death from the then premier of Quebec Robert Bourassa.

I’ve got some conflicting feelings happening now.

Hey everyone,

So, as some of you may have seen on my Patreon page, late last week I started on something new to help me sleep at night and keep the nightmares at bay. The good news is it's been mostly working pretty well. I'm getting sleep and I haven't had too many bad nightmares and unlike the anti-anxiety drugs I was given a while back I can wake up if I need to.

Lots happened this last week. My two favorite uncles were named Tom. My dad's brother Tom, died about 6 or 7 years ago, and I miss him a lot. This last week, my dad's brother-in-law, also named Tom, died after a long time of struggling with his back and other things.

My dad also lost another sister, who I don't remember ever meeting, but then Dad found out he has a blockage in the back of his heart and will need it removed. sigh.

So I had a very painful day doing the taxi thing yesterday,

I actually had to call things short, as my knees and my hip were hurting so bad even painkiller couldn't touch it.

Not only that, because we spent about six hours without being able to stop for food, my sugar levels were screaming at me,

Sharon and Sam understood, but I still feel bad for letting them down.

Slight delay in getting Part 6 of Light And Shadow posted. After discussions with my awesome proof-reader it was realized that the division of the Parts needed adjustment to pull in one more chapter to better round out 6's complement. Hopefully they will get to that chapter tomorrow and I can post the now-extended Part 6 up by the evening.

Long ago, back in July, I started uploading a new story, Vacation, to bigclosetR.us. After lots of fine constructive criticism from the readers, I finished a 13,000-word novella for you.

I enjoyed working with the fine readers here at bigcloset.us and was determined to complete a novel based on the story. I dug myself in and created a 46,000-word story that we called Lowell's Vacation. (Our editor, Tom Peashey, suggested that Vacation was too overused as a title)

I can happily say that it's now for sale on Amazon for your reading pleasure. Thanks, Leslie

This is apparently just a bad week. Last night, the hard drive with my nearly finished next book along with a few other works in process went belly up. At first I thought the computer itself was toast. It would never come out of POST. This morning, I just left it on and eventually it did come up. Without that one drive. I'm hoping the physical disc is undamaged and it's just the circuitry that has failed. I'll have to look at data recovery options.

A hard drive may sound like a silly thing to cry about, but there's a lot of work on that disc.

Melanie

https://www.mountstuart.com/house

I came across this by accident. This place is so beyond the scale of what I could imagine I’m blown away at how over the top impressive this is. You would be a fool not to see a ton of history in any part of this place let alone the long list of earls whose house this has been and their achievements.

Just a touch.

Here's a link to a thoughtful and sensible piece from Zoe Williams in the Guardian (where else?).

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/14/langua...

Hi there, Big Closet family. Jamie here, long time no chat. I've been extremely ill the last few weeks... months... something like that, and haven't been able to help out the rest of our team like I want to, so we've had to outsource some of my responsibilities and others have just been added to the huge pile.

We are in that tight spot where all of our bills are due, I needed help paying for a medicine my insurance refuses to cover, Piper's house has all their birthdays, I could probably go on for hours.

Got on the bus today to go out and pay a bill, and got off on the wrong stop and walked what seemed like miles the wrong direction. I was completely knackered by the time everything was straightened out. I was sitting there almost dozing and looked toward the back of the Bus. On the first of the elevated seats past the back door sat the most astonishing sight! I was looking at the most pretty 'person' I've seen in a long time. Dykish haircut, combed like a boy, with 50s hair cream, parted down one side. The eyes were lovely but not overdone. Makeup was understated.