Masseuse Masseur
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I sent her a series of text messages, but I got no replies. In the end I just sent her a few words telling her that I was coming around to her place after work and she could let me know if that wasn’t suitable. I just had my pain back and she was the only person who seemed to know how to fix it.

In a St. Louis hotel ballroom, the camera flashed as the news photographer snapped a picture of Annie LaPorte at the dais receiving her Halfelven Community Service Award. Most of the audience clapped politely, though a certain percentage actually cheered. The award was honoring her for a project she had initiated to improve conditions in the neighborhood where she worked. It had brought many diverse people together, and ended up being more than the sum of its parts… it had turned into a huge success.

Katz was halfway through her exercise routine when her roommate Alicia came walking over to her. She loved how sexy Alicia’s body looked. She wished she had a body like hers but had to work to maintain her body. The hormones she was taking made her hungry, and she had to be careful.

Katz stops and looks at Alicia. “What’s up, sis?”

“I’m heading to that new vegan restaurant that just opened up. Do you want to join me?” Alicia knew Katz worked hard to keep her body trim and curvy.

“Sure, I was just finishing up my routine.” Katz wipes the sweat from her forehead.

Hunkered down for a winter storm, conditions change for two sisters when their brother and a friend become unexpected guests

Snowed In
By Marissa Lynn

"Oof, it's a mess out there."

"That's what the weather guy was saying a few minutes ago," Jenna said as her sister Olivia, ice crystals starting to cling to the parts of her hair sticking out from under her red beanie, came in with the first of the bags.

Sometimes you have no idea what's gonna happen when you're asked to do...

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This story was inspired by the contest. Since I’m a judge, this story is not qualified to participate.

Charles is now at Jane's Winsome Girls' School for Wayward Boys. He has volunteered to become one of Jane's girls to help Jane not only clear his name but to help Francis. He has a lot to learn about being a girl in a short amount of time, as Toby Camber is arriving at the school in a weeks time. Something else occurs that Charles wasn't expecting, he learns something else about himself while being Charlotte.

“… Cymru, yng Nghaerdydd; thank you for listening to Noson Werin, presented by myself, Siw Williams, with this evening’s guest the multi-instrumentalist Chrissy Morgan, who will be performing next Wednesday in St David’s Hall, Cardiff. This has been a Tidewave production for BBC Wales in Cardiff”

I waited till the ‘on air’ light was out, and confirmation from our producer, before I turned back to Chrissy, who was now encumbered with several instrument cases.

“How do you think that went?”

When a young trans girl promises to herself that she'll come out to her friends for the new year, an angel appears before her, promising to help her. Unfortunately, it seems that her friends are transphobic. Thankfully, a new queer cafe is opening up, and may give her a chance to make friends.

Living the Novel
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Dave doesn’t have friends, he has acquaintances. He sees the same people in the same pub every day, always betting on the horses. And for all the friends he doesn’t have he does have secrets, he’s unemployed, he likes men, and... well... he’s been on female hormones for over two years.

With Cheltenham, the biggest jumps racing festival of the year coming up, a string of bad luck means Dave might miss out on the week of gambling. That is until Chelsea—the only female gambler in the bar—makes an offer; a simple, honest offer, and one from her heart. No, she doesn’t want Dave in a dress, she doesn’t know his secret. It’s something far more direct than that.

A once off, self contained short story.

That summer I met my first love. I fell head over heels in love with Philippa. She fell in love with me. As they say, We had fun, we had joy we had seasons in the sun. That really was a lovely summer. We spent every moment we could together. Our hearts thumped. We had picknicks together, we went riding together, we went to concerts together, we popped over to Paris and the Riviera together. And then we were just together. I think just being together with someone I loved was what mattered most to me.

My relationship with my parents was not strained at all. We were perfectly civil to each other whenever we met. That summer my father had custody of me. My friends, or rather acquaintances, called me Pinball since my parents regarded me as the trophy in their fight against each other. Whenever the parent in charge was splashed on the front pages of the tabloids due to some scandal, which happened with depressing regularity, the other swooped in to grab the prize, Why? apart from the win, I never could figure out.

Author's Note: My muse took me to a heavier place here, but it's a story of survival and, ultimately, hope.

One Last Hail Mary
By Marissa Lynn

Even with nobody sitting next to him, it was impossible for Mark Tyler to twist his body into a position to sleep.

Sam had played rugby ever since starting secondary school. They enjoyed it so much they decided to keep it up even after graduating and moving on to college. They figured it was a great way to keep in shape and also to support their local Sports Club which had come close to shutting down for a lack of finance. Thankfully grant aid was found from a charity that demanded that everything at the Club was inclusive. Nobody should be denied access to sport on the grounds of ethnicity, religion, sex, or social standing, they said.

Catching Up
By Marissa Lynn

"Come on Mitch, stop squirming."

"I can't believe I let you talk me into this."

"Oh stop whining, Mitch. You can't be having that bad of a time. And remember it's for the views, right?" Cassie asked as she applied the eyeliner along his left lower lash line.

"Besides, it's what we do for our art and sometimes, we suffer for our art, right? It's for the Dynamic Four, after all," Todd said

Author’s note - After finishing the updated story of Laurence I was finding it very difficult to lay the story down. I knew that if I continued, then it would get dark and I knew that I couldn’t avoid that. As readers you may appreciate my dilemma or say it would have been better to leave it as it was?

This is written as a separate short story so readers can avoid the ending that appears here. I needed to write it, but you don’t need to read it although I hope some of you do.

This is a story about a trans snooker player.

As I bent over, lining my cue with the white ball, my mind was in turmoil. What should I do? The cue felt like an extension of my arm. It was a Peradon. I remember back to the hell my mother kicked up when my father brought it home. He showed me and we stared in awe at it. It was as if he had shown me Excaliber itself.

Isn’t Life Strange?
A Vignette
By Maryanne Peters

I was on holiday with my husband Mike and his two boys by his first marriage, and we were visiting a brewery in Colorado. They served what looked like a great lunch, so we sat down for a meal, to be washed down with one of their craft beers. I have to confess that I still prefer beer to wine, even after all these years post transition.

I'd also like to thank Melanie in helping me get this posted!

As was usual, she was lonely, especially on this day, as it was Christmas Eve. She got up and went to the kitchen, poured herself a cup of coffee, and instead of creamer, she poured a bit of eggnog in with the brew. She considered something stronger, but even though only she would know, she wasn’t yet of the legal drinking age, and it wasn’t like she had any alcohol on hand.

She put the nog back in her fridge, then returned to her recliner.

She lived in an apartment that wasn’t lavish by any means. She needed to save as much money as she could, so whatever was left each month after basic necessities was put into a savings account. Once it was large enough, it would fund her needed surgery.

As she sipped the coffee, she thought about the events that had brought her to the present. Her mother had played around a lot in high school and she kept it up as she went to college. She had been the stereotypical proud cheerleader, who felt no one but the football team was worth her time.

Usually.

It was colder than he had expected, the sleet steadily hardening into snow, but Ken had endured worse. There was a hedgerow running between two of the fields which he thought might work for the night, and part of it looked to be hazel, or at least something with similar leaves, which the shrub had clung to despite the nastiness of the late Autumn and Winter. It had all looked so simple when he was little, the Boy Scout books almost rhapsodising about hatchets and straight staffs as a ridge pole, but walking around with an axe these days would get him lifted by the plod in no time.

Author's note: Here it is, my first story here, originally started as a New Year's Contest entry, but as the story played out, I felt I'd be truncating it too much to get it to 5,000 words. Thanks for the encouragement and inspiration, getting me to move from reader to writer!

'Til You Make It
By Marissa Lynn

September 17
"Dammit! I can feel it right there, but, crap. Something's not right. I'm not right."