A story somewhat like this was intended to be an entry in the Summer Island competition but my attempts to make it a TG story wouldn’t work, so here is the love story it was probably always meant to be.

Chapter 10 – The cook

When I reached the office Guy was already there, engaged on his new case. I was not unduly surprised to find that he had anticipated the course of action I’d planned for mine.

After the slightly chaotic end to Dido’s evidence and the subsequent adjournment for the day, a packed court resumed the following Monday, with the Judge announcing,

Torn from his own world and stuffed into the body of a villainess, facing the end of a doomed route he himself wrote, "Amelia" must navigate a world she really should know - too bad she was never great at worldbuilding.

Stuck in a world she (maybe) created, Amelia quickly finds that reality has filled in the details she failed to describe. The characters who were so flat when she wrote them now have nuance, and motives. The kingdom she wrote into existence is experiencing internal strife she never even thought about. And let's not even get into the complexities of the magic system, or the demon that forced her into this situation to begin with...

Oh, and then there's the fact that she's about to be arrested and executed... but surely she can come up with a way to write herself out of that, right?

...Right?

Chapter 10

The week was full on. We had Jerry take us to the appointments every day. We dressed in our special clothes, which usually lasted until after the interview and were then changed for outfits that their photographer had been supplied with. I started out every day as Zoe, but many of the pictures were me looking like someone else. Several wanted me to look like other current models, but we drew the line on that as being unethical.

Chapter 3 The Date
Marie

Warm golden light spilled through the green plaid curtains as Marie slowly opened her eyes. She tried to turn but was tangled up in sheets. She felt James bite her toes before jumping off the bed and scampering down the stairs. The woman next to her stirred and images from the preceding night carouseled through Marie's mind.

"Good morning, June," she whispered. The body next to her stirred and then rolled over a bit.

Chapter 7 – Under the radar

When I spoke into the telephone, my lackadaisical “Abacus Investigations. How can I help?” provoked a rebuke.

“Will you even want to? I can tell your heart isn’t in it. Try again!”

I was too dispirited to think of a riposte. “It hasn’t been a good day” I complained.

“I disagree.” Guy sounded jubilant. “My investigation here is all wrapped up except for one or two loose ends. I ought to be back by tomorrow evening.”

In the dream, within her dreamworld, I tried to see how far into Victoria’s past I see. And it was what wasn’t there that stood out. There were memories, and more memories of Victoria’s than I could ever remember exploring before. I could actually follow my Victoria back a bit further now in her mind, before I could remember ever having dreamed of being Victoria, though not all the way back to when I first invented Nancy before we had even started school. But this Victoria, the one who I grew up being in dreams, was not, no way, no how, the same as alt-Victoria that I brought into the world the other day. Even if she had some of the same personality traits, it was clear that she followed a different path.

Chapter 6 – Breaking ground

It was with some small sense of unease that I entered the Simpson mansion the next day. I knew that what I had to report would be unwelcome to my client’s ears and I was proved correct in that surmise. As soon as I told her, Gloria’s expression changed from the sunny smile that had welcomed me to a forbidding frown.

“What do you mean the licence number is untraceable?” she stormed. “This is hopeless. All your efforts have so far come to naught, except, no doubt, to leave me with a large bill.”

Winter had not been pleasant. I had expected the hot Summer, then the warm Autumn, not the miserable, wet, stormy, Winter. The Azores High had decided to move South dragging down the Jet Stream and giving us the succession of winds and weather fronts from the West that is normally experienced in the climatically challenged islands anchored off the Northwest corner of Europe. Up there we know how to deal with it; our houses are better, roads are designed to carry water away quickly from the surface, our shops even carry a better range of Winter clothing.

"I want you to wear a skirt," he said.

Not This Guy -5-
by Suzan Donamas

Chapter Six — Together

The room was exactly as they'd left it, and entirely different.

Chapter 5 – Let’s dance

Torn from his own world and stuffed into the body of a villainess, facing the end of a doomed route he himself wrote, "Amelia" must navigate a world she really should know - too bad she was never great at worldbuilding.

Stuck in a world she (maybe) created, Amelia quickly finds that reality has filled in the details she failed to describe. The characters who were so flat when she wrote them now have nuance, and motives. The kingdom she wrote into existence is experiencing internal strife she never even thought about. And let's not even get into the complexities of the magic system, or the demon that forced her into this situation to begin with...

Oh, and then there's the fact that she's about to be arrested and executed... but surely she can come up with a way to write herself out of that, right?

...Right?

Chapter 4 – My first case

All too soon, the anticipated charms of my promised new lifestyle became tarnished. When, after several days more had passed, I found myself in Guy’s place of business for the first time, it would have been putting it mildly to say I was disappointed by the surroundings. I hadn’t expected the Ritz, but the building was ancient and its condition could best have been summed up as dilapidated. The furniture in the office itself evidently dated from another era, one long-bygone.

The Judge called the court to order after the short break.
“Mr Fox, you may begin your cross-examination of this witness.”

“Thank you, My Lord.”

Chapter 3 – The ex-agent

Chapter Five — The Truth

"—so I really would just find somewhere to sit down for a minute," Cecily was saying, kind and oblivious, and Gwen made herself smile at her, made herself say something — thank you, I'm fine, you're very sweet — while every nerve in her body strained across the room toward Samuel and the change she could not stop.

"Excuse me," she managed. "I have to—" and she didn't finish, she just went, leaving Cecily blinking after her, because there was no version of the next sixty seconds she could survive standing still.

Authors Note: First chapters are hard, I often can't determine if I like a book enough to continue it until I'm a quarter of the way through. The first chapter of Yesterday, Today, wasn't exactly a hit, based on some of the feedback I received. Which I really appreciate by the way. Right now everything I'm writing comes from slightly exaggerated and dramatized memories from my real life. I know some of you didn't like the gratuitous cursing. My best friend in high school couldn't speak around us without prefacing every phrase with a fuck'n.

The Ranch

A novel by Erin G

Chapter 1 - Prelude

I awoke, in bed, on Thursday, July 27, as Victoria, beside and intimate with what I expected would be Jody’s body. But when I tried to get Jody up, I couldn’t feel him at all in my mind. There was only Victoria. When I looked at the body in the bed beside me, I saw he was blond. Who was he? I roused my bedmate and got a better look at him.