A blast from the past.

Hi All,

Been a while again. I've had a very busy time since I last posted in February 2024. As I wrote then, I started coming out to my family and friends in 2018, and began my transition in 2020. I've since had top surgery, and this Tuesday, I will celebrate one year post-op from bottom surgery. Needless to say, this has kept me very busy.

Lately, I have been looking back through my writing to revisit my journey, and I recently re-read all of The Chronicles of Kelly Anderson. I thought about rewriting it and moving it forward to be more consistent with current times, but some of the basic premises just don't work anymore. Neither Jason nor his parents had any clue what transgender was at the beginning, which wouldn't be realistic in the 2020s.

What I have done instead is begin a brand new story, with the working title Kelly Anderson-Sanders: The Adult Years. It will take place in 2026, and with all of the political goings-on affecting our community, I finally feel like I have something to say again. That said, I left Kelly in not the greatest place and haven't touched the story since 2011. I don't intend to publish this new arc until I can put it out as a complete story, because I don't think it would be fair to the BCTS family.

However, Chapter 1 (which is already written) could be made to serve as an epilogue to The Life and Times of Kelly Anderson. It gives a full update on what happened with all of the characters (Kelly, Julie, Kathy, Sue, Meghan, Deb, Carol, Joan, Sam, and the rest) and offers what I hope is a satisfying finish to that original era.

Either way, I could really use a little help with motivation and ideas! I’m looking for 1 or 2 beta readers who would be willing to read drafts as I write them and offer feedback. When I was writing the original stories, I gained so much from the interactions with the wonderful community here on BCTS.

I understand I've been away for a long time and left things hanging, so I won't be offended if interest has faded. But I’m working on this because, just like in 2008 when I started writing as a "what if" self-therapy exercise, writing is helping me process everything again.

If you'd like to see Chapter 1 as a standalone epilogue, a short, cleansing bridge story similar to the Mark Twain piece between Jason's Story and The Life and Times of Kelly Anderson, let me know!