Absinthe and Roulette both go home for Christmas vacation, but events draw them and their friends together.

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Chapter 1

I should have known that I was too old to try to pull that dead stump. I wasn’t the young buck any longer, although it would have been hard to describe me as a buck in my youth. It was about the time of the third pull that I felt something was wrong, with my left arm and chest suddenly painful and my strength going, I fell onto my back and looked at the scudding spring clouds.

After a man is stabbed in the back and dies, he wakes up in the Labyrinth with a new body, new power, and another chance.

This story takes place in the same universe as my story Invoker.

The Garden Party
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

“Maybe you should go down to the strip and find yourself somebody to do the job,” I suggested. “You know, just like Richard Gere did. Find yourself a Julia Roberts.”

“If I thought that would work, I might,” he said, the man who had just introduced himself as Jerome. “Now do you want the money or not? Will you do it or not?”

Chapter 23 October 31, 2025

Whit and Lucy were silent at the kitchen table eating waffles. This wasn’t their normal Friday morning routine, usually Whit got up early and ate a bowl of yogurt, took a walk, or watched youtube. Lucy slept in until she absolutely had to get up and start her shift caring for Anthony.

Lucy eventually broke the silence, “Mom texted me, she’s kind of pissed.”

Whit lowered his fork, “Yeah, well her Buddies of Jesus church brought that piece of shit to our town so I could care less how she feels.”

That was a lot of work, but it worked. There seemed to be a real world now that I lived in, with me the cartoonist Barbara and my husband Keith. As I had depicted myself, in my seventh life I made a living drawing The Watsons. But a lot had changed.

Lilly had found the last several days particularly hard, for multiple reasons, and today was no exception. She groaned again at what was another extremely disappointing orgasm that had passed through her body with little more than a tremor. Lilly was frustrated, deeply frustrated, and she wasn't sure what to do about it.

Chapter 9

Next morning, we were both awake early and I was resting my head on Randalls’ shoulder. It was quiet in the hotel, just the sound of the air movement from the conditioning. He squeezed me.

“I guess that we should remember these moments before the storm. You realise that today is the first day of the rest of your life. Up until now, you’ve been a good presenter and reporter, with some stand-out stories. Today, you’re a multiple Walkley winner, with one of them a gold. That’s something that others have taken decades to earn.”

I wake before the alarm. The room is grey. I lie there taking stock - the burn is still there, but noticeably less. The itch is mostly gone. But there's something in the boxer briefs again, the same thick dampness against the labia as when I woke in the night.

I get up carefully, not waking Emily.

I pull open the waistband and check the boxer briefs in the bathroom. A white discharge in the crotch - different from last night, no sour smell, something milder. I drop the underwear to the floor and turn on the shower.

Chapter 12: Seeds of Truth

"High Heels and Hot Tips" is a sequel to my Kindle novel "The Big Switch: The Dame Curse." In it, the tg detective, D.C. Callahan, in the body of his secretary Sheila Coffin, has to bodyguard for a stripper who the mob is hunting as a witness. Sheila goes undercover as a cocktail waitress in a posh strip club called "The Velvet Room." The danger is everywhere, but at least the girls are worth looking at.

I saw the contest announcement and thought this would be just right for it. It isn't a holiday but it is transgender and it is set on an island.

This is a version of the first chapter of a story I began long ago in the Carboniferous when I was just a frond. The story was intended to be perhaps 6-8 chapters but, you know, life happened. Here's how it all began.

Life on the Beach

by Penny Lane

I couldn’t have been more embarrassed when Mum came into my room that afternoon. I was on fours on my bed dressed in a bra, suspender belt and stockings and nothing else. Behind me was my best friend Peter, wearing nothing at all. A part of his body that could vary in size at maximum extension.

The Lucky One: Luck Be a Lady Chapter 3