Today I had a chunk of time at work, and made another pass through a sort-of long, three-part story I've been working on.

Work has been taking a bit too much of me lately, so I've been trying to be very consistent about carving a piece out of each day to write.

I'm working on a three-part story that was inspired by the current contest, and it's great fun to work on.

We had a lottery pool at work, to take a crack at the half-billion-dollar prize last night,
but oh well! We didn't win. Not even one of the lower-tier prizes.

Work has been a bit absorbing lately, but even so, I've been managing to put some time in each day
at writing. I decided to go back through everything I've written, to tweak it and fix places
that don't work as well as they should. I've gotten through most of my fairy tales, and have spent
many hours on "The Kinglet" -- which still seems to need a lot of help.

Vaccinated!

Now that I've finished The Madonna Of The Future, I feel like a free man. It's the last of what I considered my backlog from 2008.

The movie Jack and Jill has gotten the Razzie Award for worst film of 2011.

In the article I linked to, it's described as a "crossdressing film" -- which it's not -- but I think we need a negative-sounding word for when a man dresses as a woman because he's trying to be funny.

Well, it's kind of funny, but just now, when I feel like I've finally got my swing back again as a writer, life is stepping up and taking my time and energy.

I've been writing for a long time, and I'm not saying that I'm great at it... I think I'm pretty good for a sandlot player, but definitely not in the big leagues.

However, there are a few things I've learned, and one biggie is the difference between situations and stories.

I've been part of this community for a little over four years, but I don't think I've ever said much about who I am or where I fall in the spectrum of transgendered people.

Inspired by Angharad's Christmas story, I went for a walk/run this morning. It took me an hour to do three miles, most of the time walking. But I had a blast. I love running.

This is my own index to all the stories I've posted here.

It's separate from my Author Page so I can control it myself.

[ Editors: Please do not move or change this page. ]

Next Time, A Map!

Whenever you finish a long piece, it's a good idea to write a kind of postscript, at least for yourself, about how it went.

Nested Stories

I had to get it out of my system.

What Courtney Knew

First of all, I did a bad job with the names. I've thought about going back to fix it, but by now it seems a bit late.

Usually I have a chart with all the characters listed, but for some reason I missed the fact that almost every character's name starts with an M: Marcie, Maisie, Misty/Mary, Margaret/Maisie... even Miriam! And I bet I missed one or two.

And why were there *two* Maisie's? Maisie Beale, the little girl, and Maisie Sabatino, now known as Mrs. Wix?

This is what's ahead for me, as far as I can see:

1. I'm working on the next Marcie Donner story. It's a bit outlandish and highly improbable, and at this point I think will be more of a mystery than the others. The plot's not all worked out yet, but I'm nearly done with the initial research. In it, Aunt Jane and Marcie go to Europe, and Marcie disappears. Spooky, eh?

About a week ago I finished reading the science-fiction novel Trouble On Triton by Samuel Delany. I hadn't heard of it before, and only read it because I had the idea that it was about a man who turns into a woman.

Well. I wouldn't characterize the book *that* way. It doesn happen, but in the very last pages of the book.

Has anyone else read it?