I am deeply saddened to say that I have been advised that Doctor Bart van de Ven, an internationally recognised maxillofacial surgeon specialising in facial feminisation surgery has very recently and suddenly passed away. Whilst many people may not be familiar with Doctor Bart, he was well known here in Europe and had set up the 2pass clinic in the Netherlands.
In Tammy's latest episode the contentious issue of tea has raised it's ugly head.
This is something we Brits, quite rightly, try not to expose to the world. However the vitriol has been raised to a level in the comments that needs some explanation to our non UK members.
Preparing a cuppa in the UK has historical and regional terminologies, antecedents and traditions that rivals the Japanese Cha-no-yu ceremony.
A number of you have very kindly been worried after 'Cassandra' - Chapter 20 failed to materialise a timely manner.
First of all please don't worry, I'm fine and the story is definitely not being deserted. It's just that real life got in the way.
Here's the story. I'm currently retraining as a high school teacher (US) / teacher - KS 3 - 5 (UK). My year long college course to be certified as a teacher started on Tuesday and the last two weeks have been manic keeping me busy with 10 hour plus days.
I'm terribly sorry to everyone, but I will not be posting Chapter 19 of Cassandra tomorrow (Monday). This does NOT mean the story will be abandoned. I'm planning to have it ready by Friday
Some of you might have noticed I added in a dummied up newspaper article and included it in the latest chapter of Cassandra (Chapter 8).
It took me a bit of time to work out how to do it, so I thought some of you might wish to tuck this little 'how to' away should you wish to do the same in one of your stories.
It's been ten years since I posted my very first attempt at fiction here at BCTS (or indeed anywhere). For those of you who have been around that long it was 'The Healing Dagger', a short story of about 18,000 words set in the aftermath of a global pandemic. I try not to go back and read it now. Far too embarrassing!
Most of you are probably bored by the regular advertisements for 'The Frozen Balance' on BCTS.
Sorry about that (but not much - you will see why below).
~o~O~o~
What you might not know is that I assigned all the proceeds from 'The Frozen Balance' to Doppler Press (aka Erin and team) and the sales that Doppler Press have generated in the first month have:
We had some fun discussing a few favourite epic fantasy genre stories and I discovered some great suggestions I hadn't come across before. As a result I thought it might be interesting to try the same for Science Fiction genre stories. In my definition of Sci Fi I am excluding 'superhero' powers.
You may have noticed that Erin has recently published my very first novel here, 'The Frozen Balance', on Kindle.
This is a part of my efforts to help keep this wonderful site going. If you read it please do comment, post a review or PM me. All feedback to help my writing develop is a kind and welcome gift.
A year or so ago I read a brilliant story... and I can't remember it. Could anyone help me remember where it is please?
A young boy is a talented artist attending a catholic school. His family however are not very supportive of his talent.
He enters a statewide talent contest having forged his parents approval and gets through the preliminary round. The only problem is his covert
alter ego is a girl.
Her winning art series is based on the 'manners of death'
If you could help it would be very much appreciated. Thank you
For those of us who enjoy epic fantasy (LOTR, Game of Thrones, etc.) might I suggest if you haven't read the ongoing "Sixteen feet of steel" episodes you are missing an absolute treat (all 285,000 words to date).
Bailey is prolific and talented author and extremely worthwhile reading.
Early on monday evening an attacker attempted to burn down the Centre métropolitain de chirurgie in Montreal; the only place in Canada you can get GRS. It is also the practice of Dr Pierre Brassard, one of the top GRS surgeons practicing anywhere.
We have been busy with RL, mainstream publishing projects and a host of other things.
However we will shortly be releasing our latest book here on BCTS.
The English Courtesan
The lives of two people, separated by centuries, are slowly drawn together as the mystery surrounding a portrait some believe is an undiscovered work by a Renaissance master is unraveled.
I was trawling through my hard drive this evening (yes… I know… utterly boring… until I reread what I had written).
Just over four years ago I started my journey to acceptance and transition. Rereading what I wrote then made me think… it might be useful to someone on the path. So here it is.
Whether it's Bruce Jenner or the Chevalier d'Eon matters not. Journalists will swarm like bees to honey ( I was going to type 'flies to..' but decided it wasn't polite).
I posted my very first novel "The Frozen Balance" here on BCTS, starting in 2009.
Recently Erin has been immensely kind and added the updated version that I submitted for the Amazon annual competition to the Hatbox. It's exclusively available there for the next six months (at least) as I wanted to offer something back to the site that started me on my journey and for the many friends, including the sister of my heart, who have so generously helped me along the way.
This week we have seen another UK farm isolated following an outbreak of avian flu in birds.
Then I remembered I'd done a story (not very well I might add) about what might happen.
Given how many of us here from the UK have an issue with the misogynist prating of the likes of Richard Littlejohn you might enjoy taking a test to see how much the Daily Mail hates YOU personally
When I saw this article on the BBC website about some of the more desperate attempts by Jamaican criminals to avoid arrest three thoughts went through my mind:
Some of you may have followed the recent issues in the UK following a vitriolic anti TG piece by Julie Burchill, a noted left wing feminist activist and media personality.
Checks can be made out & sent to:
Joyce Melton
1001 Third St.
Space 80
Calimesa, CA 92320
USA
Note: $6000 is the operating, maintenance and upgrade budget. Amounts received in excess of the $6000 will be applied to long term debt accrued over the last 19 years.
