so a couple of days ago, we noticed a crack in the ceiling in our bathroom, that had water leaking out of it.

we called the building maintenance person, and after taking a look he said he'd need to get into the suite above us, and no one there was home, so he planned to try again today.

In the meantime, the crack has turned into a piece of the ceiling barely hanging on by one corner, and the water situation is worse.

Hopefully this get fixed before we have to evacuate the apartment.

hugs appreciated.

quite Spring-like atm, blossom on the trees, a splash of colour in the hedgerows and lo, what is that yellow thing in the sky?

I think that I have been a member at BCTS for 20 years, perhaps longer. Until the last several years, I felt like what happened here literally saved my life, and I thanked the site in kind. My stories never garnered much attention in readership, votes or comments. It hurt like hell to have that happen. I put my heart and soul into those stories. I will say that my writing provided a way to vent that I needed.

Hey guys, so quick update.

Regrettably they are not the edible kind, but at least it means progress - of a sort.

Tomorrow (22nd April) I go to London for a pre-operation consultation.

A few years ago, perhaps before Covic, I had been reading a story called something like "Pretend Princess", or "Fake Princess". Today, I remembered it and tried to use the BCTS search engine to find it so I could see if there were further chapters. The search engine indicated that it had "timed out", whatever that is. There had been a few chapters but it stopped, uncompleted. I can't remember the name of the author. I wonder what to do now?

Gwen

So next week, I'm going to be super busy being the taxi for my aunt, as well as having another attempt at getting a mold for my new dentures.

It means I'm going to have to make sure I squeeze in down time for myself whenever I can, so I may not be around much.

Written by Barbara Allan, "The White Wolf".
I thought I had read it years ago, but don't find evidence of it. I got part way through Ch. 1 but it hits too close to home. It seems to be a good story. The grammar is not perfect.

The story alludes to the idea of Native American Two Spirit, and their flavor of spiritualism. It explores the Native American philosophy about animals.

I'm trying to avoid involvement in gender switch writing or stories. Two or Three decades of that is more than too much.

well almost.

First, a warm welcome back to the talented Rylee Skye who has returned, continuing with Dear Ariel.

If you’re not familiar with the stories, I can’t recommend them highly enough. Rylee has a rare talent for covering what could easily be sordid and disturbing, with taste and grace. The story is intimate in scope, heartbreaking in circumstances, but uplifting in the characters’ growth beyond them. Its people are so profoundly human and so clearly drawn. The writing and editing are flawless.

I was thinking about old stories that I loved and was reminded of Maiden by Decree by Maggie Finson.

Does anyone know where that story now lives? I think it was not at BCTS when I first read it, but I cannot remember where it was or even if the site is still around. I doubt it is.

Also, is there a list of where to find the Caregiver stories? It was not a long run like Whately, but it was a nice Universe that I dearly loved.

Thanks in advance,
Cassie Ellen

Hi Everyone - I'm not sure if it was noticed, but I recently tore down my Patreon, stopped writing Rylee and pulled out of Scribblehub. While it might have seemed spontaneous, there were real world reasons. I won't go into it all because, well, it's a lot of stuff. To make an extremely long, complicated story very short, the consequences of my own actions reared their ugly head and I believed that the world would be better off without me. I left all of my Discord servers, erased my Patreon, and tried to eliminate every trace of myself before attempting suicide.

Reading another of Anne McCaffery's tales, Sassenach Pirate Planet where a senior female naval officer in a space fleet attends a dinner in what seems to be described as a Victorian era ball gown. As one might expect, the different space vessels use present day Naval designations Interesting. And they are using FTL propulsion. All this makes for fun fiction but is impossible by present day standards.

Little Adrian College in Adrian, Michigan — "Students at a small southeast Michigan college are preparing for graduation and navigating a controversy that erupted after the announcement of a high-profile commencement speaker.

There have been a few comments about various stories and authors in the last couple of weeks.
If you want a real treat read Bronwen Welsh's 'A Foreign Country'.

Elsbeth, one of my favorite authors on BCTS, abruptly disappeared 4 years ago today. I made a memorial post a year later. (See the last link below.) Here is what I posted. You will need to go to the original link to see the comments.

We miss you Elsbeth. I still read your stories several times a year.

----------------------------------------

I've met, well read the stories of and messaged with, many wonderful authors here at BCTS. One of them in particular had a large impact on me. Her name is Elsbeth.

so my dentist had to give me the bad news - I am going to need dentures, as my teeth are causing too many issues.

I cant help feeling like a failure. If I could have overcome my tendency to skip on my self care, its possible I could have avoided this.

ah, well.

I’m working on the third book in a series and wanted to know which picture looks the best.

Realized this weekend that it's been a year since the last 'Part' of The Light Between was posted. Time flies! Hmm, though some of those pesky airborne black dots may have been from the sack of too-long-ignored potatoes which were tossed out yesterday...

Well, I just had an odd conversation with Sharon.

She told me that while she cares for me, and always found being with me "fun", she loved me and still loves me like a buddy or a brother, and was never deeply in love with me. She then apologized for not being able to feel deeply in love with me.

I'm not sure what to do with this. I forgave her, but beyond that, I'm kind of stumped.

My nineteenth book has just hit the virtual shelves. It is, of course, the compilation of NYE competition stories from this site, with a few tweaks--surprisingly few, in fact.

My roommate is an aspiring voice actress and is looking to break into the audio book reading industry I was wondering if anyone would be interested, willing or able to help out with advice or a small job here or there please reach out

Many will remember that authors Bryony Marsh and Chris Archer gave away copies of this ebook some while ago, I read it at the time and enjoyed it. I have just re-read it and i really did enjoy it, it captures the emotions of the characters very well and I think the difficulties of young-love story , with all its complications when you include some gender complications as well, and for a change Kate, the older sister of our hero, Danny, is a real brick and very protective and supportive of her younger sibling.

I love winter. I do. I actually love every season. I prefer it, though, when they stay in their lanes. Watching the poor daffodils wilt under an onslaught of sleet put me distinctly out of sorts this morning. Honestly, though, I’m sure it would depress anyone. It would depress circus clowns and hyenas and the people who get paid to record laugh tracks. I’m sure it would even depress Curly, the obnoxiously cheerful protagonist from the play Oklahoma.

There seems to be a disconnect between various parts of the site. There have been no new comments registered for nearly 3 hours and 'Home' shows an entirely different hit and kudos count to 'My Stories'. Even logging in seems to make no difference.

As a writer hoping for that big break, one of the characters in my stories is often what I wish to be. Less often, I will dress up like a cos-play character while writing but less often venture out in public. I have my own collection of role playing clothing. For me, cross dressing would mean wearing pants, perhaps cowboy boots and grumbling in as deep a voice as I can manage. I'd have to call myself Ahab.

Do real authors do such antics when composing their stories. I wonder.

Ahabidah

I was told that entered this world about this time of day (As I write this) 73 years ago.

YOUR ATTENTION:
We the inhabitants of the higher dimensional continua have become increasingly annoyed at the manner in which what you call "other dimensions" are being portrayed in your world. We are by nature tolerant and easy-going, but we've just about had enough!

These scurrilous falsehoods started with the comic books of your 1950's...
Wherein---typically---some person in a ridiculous outfit, a super-hero, would find himself being levitated, conveyed by unexplained forces through a garish "realm of mind bending strangeness"...

I am so sick of the stupidity being spouted by Donald Trump and his cult of morons - it just gets worse and worse.

Their latest claim is that the Transgender community purposely scheduled Transgender Day of Visibility on the same day as Easter in order to mock Christians. That is total bullshit, and what’s more it is intended solely to stir up hate against the LGBT community.

Randi Gets Kissed!

As another week nears its end, how about another edition of:

Can someone who read the longer version of _Unwanted Child_ in the anthology "Murder at the Shapeshifter's Ball" let me know what they thought of it?

I not only put more things I wanted in the longer version, I put some of the things from readers' comments about the shorter version.

In the Scottish courts they are actually debating this, Women for Scotland, partly funded by JKRowling, are trying to overturn the 2004 law of someone with a gender recognition certificate ( such as me) shouldn't have the same status as biological females. Read the article and see how at least one judge sticks to her principles, I admire and respect her.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/28/transgender-...

I’m trying to get back into the swing of my daily writing…it’s been a slow endeavor due to my health these days but I will make the effort to do more.

In case any readers have wondered what “Papa and Mama” Joel look like:

There is something fundamentally wrong with me when I can't take a compliment from a Facebook game.

sighs.

I was shocked, saddened and disturbed by the death of Nex Benedict in Owasso, Oklahoma in February 2024. As it happened, I was making a trip to Tulsa to visit my sister. If I had known of it, I might have attended one of the vigils at Owasso or down in Tulsa. We drove by the turn-off to Owasso a couple times but didn't try to visit there.

We did drive down to Guthrie Green in the Tulsa Arts District where one vigil was held. And we visited the Woody Guthrie Center right across the street.

is well and truly here!

This is Amy, Piper’s wife. I just wanted to thank everyone for the donations as well as their patience. As previously stated, the gas bill has been paid off and the new goal of $2400 will cover the rest of what is needed for electric.

I along with Piper, and our Ninja cannot thank y’all enough for the support!

Any one heard a update on daring Diane cheerleader14
Charlize

A week has passed so I got more credits from DeviantArt and set out to use them, and this week's resulted are... mixed. Not in that I dislike the images, but it's weird for reasons I'll get into in a bit. First, the art:

Hello, it Rebecca Anna Coleman here! Many of you know me as that girl who writes stories that feature anime like characters and often have anime like plots. Most know me as that one girl who always seems to set her stories in Mississippi. But many of you don't know that I've also an the solo acolyte of my local Episcopal Parish, Trinity Episcopal Church.

Weather outside's been keeping me drowsy, but that's no excuse not to do another round of...

I first learned this about molecules in fifth grade: a molecule is the smallest amount of a material that has the properties of that material. The textbook ended a discussion on oxygen telling us, "Oxygen atoms travel in pairs. Two oxygen atoms form an oxygen molecule. The oxygen molecule is the smallest amount that has the properties of oxygen."