but complain ye not!

In the past, I have posted some of the antics we have gone through during the covid menace and other times. Just thought I would stop in and divest myself for a few minutes. Just as a reference, my mate's has been poorly for a long time. We managed to hold together for that long time.

In the current political climate, it can feel dangerous to express an opinion, or even to read someone else's.

BC was intended to be a friendly place to read, write and discuss TG fiction and that will always be its principal mission.

But part of being friendly is feeling safe. Accordingly, I'm going to modify BCs stance on political discussion, a small bit. Such discussion has never been outright prohibited, just frowned on lest it turn into personal attacks and violations of the Three Rules.

That bug I had over Christmas and New Year took plenty of time to shift and sometimes I wonder if it's completely gone - using my nasal outbursts as evidence - that box of tissues will need replacing real soon!

However, life goes on. Thanks to Angharad's recent postings about facial epilators I treated myself. I would echo Angharad's comments, they are definitely worthwhile. After the past two weeks my top lip is already showing a positive difference. It helps my confidence!

I'm still writing and currently that's Tammy book 17.

Politics invading this space, but I felt this needed to be publicized.

https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/off-duty-twin-cities-...

And had The Alan Parsons Project playing on random shuffle. A very good friend of mine introduced me to Alan Parsons during my freshman year of college, way back in 1978. I fell in love with the group - Alan Parsons, Eric Wolfson, Ian Bairnson, and all of the wonderful work they put out. The music of The Alan Parsons Project was the soundtrack of my life for decades - good times and bad. It brought me up when I needed it, and it was there to keep me company in some of the lowest points of my life.

It’s out.

Fractured Rune is officially available today.
Queer epic fantasy.
A trans protagonist.
Angry gods, found family, big magic, bigger feelings.

I’m equal parts excited, terrified, and vibrating through the floor.

https://www.amazon.com/Fractured-Rune-Aeldstorm-Saga-Book-eb...

I have tried to write but it just is not there. Getting much more forgetful but I can still find my way home. It is doubtful that I can blame the present political madness.

Dementia??? Who knows.

Gwen Brown

has been this weeks weather!

It is still happening, though I may not be able to attend.

Had the weirdest dream last night.

I was at some kind of award's ceremony, with a film I made up for an award, but I was actually hoping a friend's film would also get honored.

To my delight, we both won.

don't ask me what it means, folks . . .

just kidding - it's only 49!

Can We (as in the human society) learn from history? Are We able — or willing — see how current events are eerily similar to events that happened over 250-260 years ago? Can We see the parallels of what happens in the present with what happened in the past, and crucially how the outcome of the past parallel could be a pretty good predictor for our own short term future?

in any shape or form. Indeed, i'd go as far as to say i'm an increasingly worried bunny

Well, as normal as things get around Bell acres!

What does it mean when a story appears in the "Free Stories" but not in "QuickCuts"?!?!?

With me having to help my mom, I haven't been around much, and probably wont be until her arm heals.

But if anybody needs me, just send me a message.

MC is a married cross-dresser. The wife tolerates the cross-dressing and works for a company that has other been bought by a British company or they recently hired a female British CEO. The CEO throws a company party in the style of the British fancy dress parties with a turn-about theme. wife tells MC his dream is about to come true that she would go someplace with him dressed.

lets hope 2026 is better for us all than 2025!

I swear, the city of Edmonton is bipolar. We went from 30 below to 5 above in less than 24 hours.

Can a city take medication? asking for all the drivers trying to navigate this place . . .

So. The character art on my website changed.

No, you’re not imagining it.
No, your browser did not glitch.
Yes, this was intentional.

Originally, the character art for The Aeldstorm Saga was commissioned. That was the right call at the time. I needed art, I wanted art, and commissioning artists is good and cool actually. The art did its job.

But then I ran headfirst into a very unsexy reality.

I did not own the copyright.

This should have been my first blog entry. I was so focused on posting my story I overlooked many of the protocols and customs of BCTS, so sorry about that. But now that I've gotten that ball rolling I thought I'd try and start over again:

I am rewriting a lot of this story and will edit the "lessons" (chapters) on the site as I do so.

This is the new back cover image.

Finally home from the hospital.

mom had a spiral fracture, so she now has a cast.

Or Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, or simply Happy Holidays!

I hope that everyone here has a wonderful day, and please remember that even in the worst of times there are people who care about you here. Even when life seems to be too much to bear, all you have to do is reach out a hand and ask for help.

I've picked up a virus which is primarily working its way from my boxes of tissues! I had a dinner invite for Xmas Day but cancelled as no way I want to infect anyone. I was supposed to be out Xmas Eve and had chosen my outfit but that didn't happen either. Oh well!
The same happened 2 years ago, and many times in the past, so I should be used to it!

Shiraz

I'd appreciate some help finding a story. Unfortunately, I can remember very little about it. When it starts the MC's sister is moving away to start college. She leaves in a vehicle with her parents, following in a (truck?) As they are traveling through (Atlanta?), they are involved in an accident. The MC is following them on APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System). They appear to remain in the same position for an extended period of time.

This is as much as I can dredge up from my memory. I would greatly appreciate it if anyone could help me find the author/name of the story.

Of the International Dateline I wish everyone Happy Holidays. That's not being politically correct but recognising that there are other holidays being celebrated that are not Christmas but have similar significance to those celebrating them.

All of humanity should have a time of peace and joy and put aside their enmities, even if only for a couple of weeks.

Using comments or PMs to attack someone personally on this platform can lead to outright banning from the site. If someone writes a story you don't like, that is not a license to attack them on moral grounds.

If you receive such a bullying message, please bring it to my attention. If you have sent such a missive, consider this a warning. We have very few rules here, and the main one is still, "Keep it friendly."

Hugs,
Erin

Sorry to be self indulgent, but just a quick memorial to my favourite guitarist, who sadly passed away today.
Chris Rea was born in Middleborough, now called Teeside, but at the time, Noth Riding of Yorkshire.
His beautiful guitar playing and gravelly voice were the soundtrack of my adolescence, from the poppy "Fool if you think it's over" to the sublime "Auberge", and, of course, he also wrote the classic "Driving Home for Christmas".
I've seen him play at least ten times, and on every occasion, he came over as a nice guy.
Lucy xx

How do i put a group of stories into a sub-section. All my '500 word' 'borrow and grow if you want' stories need to be separated - how do i do this?? thanks
AP

Yep, today, in this part of the world, it has been the shortest daylight of the year, as we pass the Winter Solstice

A year back I was having problems with BCTS giving me errors. I contacted Erin, she suggested I flush the "cache" in my computer. Never giving too much thought to what Windows did with information on my web visits other than taking care of "history" and "cookies", cache wasn't on my radar. Looking it up there is a ton of one's history loaded there. Removing it won't crash one's computer but may cause loading often visited sites imperceptively slower. Flushing cache will also remove one of the places viruses may data extrapolate and use to infest the computer.

If you want to embark on a successful journey, you have to prepare appropriately. These six questions should help assess if you are prepared to embark on the stage of the gender transition that moves into the realm of non-reversible changes.

I'm trying to write a story where the answer to mermaids luring men to their death is to create a ship crewed entirely by women - including trans women.

Wish me luck

If your fingers sometimes shake, as mine do, check your ignore list. “Read more” is near “ignore user.”

I was watching "I go insane" by Lindsey Buckingham and suddenly, I saw what Stevie Nix probably saw in him.

He's got this smoldering intensity I could see causing a girl to swoon.

There was a time when me seeing a man as attractive would have caused me to panic, but now, its just ... eh.

For months, I have looked at a pile of items I needed to take to Goodwill, and found a reason not to deal with them.

Well, today, I found a reason to get rid of them - I am expecting a new bed on Friday.

I feel pretty good about accomplishing this, honestly.

Pretentious "I'm a writer!" blog post. Sorry, not sorry ;)

So, "As a writer" (See, I told you! lol) I draw inspiration from everywhere, my own experiences, others' experiences, other works of fiction and non fiction, and sometimes - okay, a lot of the time - I'm just making it up as I go along just like the rest of us. But I have never experienced this before, where something I wrote actually perfectly mirrors someone's real lived experience, right down to using the exact same words to describe it, AFTER I had already written it.

I've got cold chills.

After sending a message to Suzi in relation to my vignette posted last week, I wondered if blog readers might be interested in what I wrote on the Message Board over on Fictionmania in relation to what a writer proposed would be shorter fiction of 7500 words - a body swap story (MFC main female character becomes male and MMC female)? This is what I wrote:

but sadly, all too soon i had to return from my jaunt!

I wrote this story some time ago. Until now it was only available as an eBook from online retailers.

It was inspired by a very real protest in 2017. It was chronicled by instinctmagazine.com in their story titled: “Boys in Skirts Beat the Heat—and the System” and featured this photo.

New story up, I hope you all will like it!

https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/108905/best-shoe-sale...