BCTS is probably the most important constant in my life.
Some might consider that hyperbole... but in so many ways, it's 100 percent true.
Without the community this site has provided, the outlet for both creativity and pain, the *outreach* it has allowed me... I wouldn't be here today.
Without the wonderful people here, who are so incredibly generous in so many ways, and the love and support they have given me, that I have done my best to return in kind, but know I can never truly match... I wouldn't be here today.
So, just wanted to let anyone who might be curious know I'm still around.
I haven't posted anything in a while... but that doesn't mean I haven't been working on stuff!
Believe it or not, I've got several stories in the works, a book on the way through Doppler when I come up in rotation, and I'm working on a few projects with a rather illustrious partner that y'all will eventually see the fruits of too!
Because sometimes your brain won't let you sleep, and instead insists on another round of beating the dead horse that is your shitty emotional state.
What does your trans-ness mean to you?
For all of us, it seems to be something different. For some it's about freedom, from societal expectations or toxic masculinity. For some it's about expression. For others, it's something as simple as a fetish, or as complete as a feeling of cosmic wrongness needing made right.
For anyone who follows the BCTS Patreon, Erin's been posting chapters of a story I was writing -- Double Date Dare -- over there for quite a while. There was a hiatus for a bit, but I recently finished the story, and re-wrote it for publication through Doppler.
Except there's a problem.
See, since I started posting chapters of the story, *another* trans fic author -- of erotica, no less -- has used my beloved story title for a book of their own.
I am friends with Erin. Quite good friends, I would like to think. So, when I'm talking to a friend of mine and they're a bit miffed because of response to a story they're writing, naturally I want to see what's going on.
Sometimes there are weeks where I'm writing-writing-writing for days on end, it's all I wanna do.
Sometimes I'll go for months without writing anything at all. Much like with my art and music, if I'm not feeling it then sometimes it's impossible to get myself to do it no matter how much I want to complete project X or project Y.
Well, right now the stars are aligning, and I'm less than 5K words away from finishing a book!
I could wait until my parents are gone and take a bottle of painkillers or muscle relaxers from their room. By the time they got home it would be done.
I could break into my dad's gun cabinet. Glass doors are only a deterrent when the person getting in is worried about damaging them, and what would I care, given the end goal?
I could simply walk out to his shop. A rope from the rafters, or his chain wench, or any of the various knives, power tools, and so on, depending on how much I wanted to make myself suffer.
First off, to anyone who's getting a little annoyed at all the Roses blogs, I understand. We are, as a group, collectively VERY excited about the project we've been working on, and the effort for some has been tremendous. So, bear with us for a couple more days, please, and I promise, you won't regret it.
Lately I've been working on a group project with a few of our other authors/authoresses here, and one of them has been asking me about something I used to do....
See, many many moons ago, I posted multiple forum entries containing a year's worth of story challenges at a time: one for each week, one for each month. This person has expressed that they found these challenges a lot of fun, and would love to see me produce something like that again.
So, here's my question: would anyone ELSE like to see a new edition of my Ultimate Writer's Challenge?
I have shared here both times that I've posted my book 'Enamored' to online stores: first, on Smashwords, then on Kindle.
I've gotten a few sales of it, but both times I've asked for reviews as well, and that's been a lot harder to score so far. In fact, on Kindle -- arguably the higher profile of the two options -- I've gotten precisely two star ratings, and ONE review. One of those two ratings was a two-star with no explanation, knocking my book as a whole down to a 3 1/2 star total.
So lately I've been finding a lot of transgender YouTubers getting recommended to me (more and more the more of them I actually check out, though that's unsurprising.)
You know what's tough? Self care. Self care is super, super tough.
But when it goes right, it's a great thing.
I've been letting my self-care slide a lot the last few years. I've gotten somewhat better about it in the last year and a half, since I sort-of left the work force and started focusing on work-from-home pursuits, but I've still languished in the land of 'I'll get to it later' on some things for far too long.
So I've been thinkin' about writing a lot lately, and a few recent stories have spurned a bit of an odd series of thoughts in my noggin'.
A lot of trans fic, whether intentionally or unintentionally, tends towards fantasy to some degree or science fiction. That's not to say ALL stories do, but even when it's very light -- whether it be the miraculous power of subliminals to change you utterly or a brand-new magic pill that does the same -- a lot of trans stories delight in utilizing fantastical gadgets or wonder drugs to do the dirty work.
Okay, so here's the deal: I have a story idea. Err, more of a story *framework.* And I need help executing it.
The premise is as follows:
A TG convention is being held, and a group of women who have never met each other before are thrust together by a rather unique circumstance: they are all named Rose. What follows is a Canterbury Tales-esque series of short stories as the women get to know each other, telling their tales of how they came to be one of the dozen Roses.
I spent most of today at the hospital in Capital City (a 2 1/2 hour drive away) and will be doing the same tomorrow. Wednesday is Thanksgiving prep, and Thursday thanksgiving itself. Saturday my cousins have Plans for me.
To put none too fine a point on it, this is going to be a Busy Week, and I just don't have the time or headspace to do Ready Reads right now.
See, there's a problem. After culling out repeat authors, stories that were FAR too short, and stories that were suggested but inappropriate due to requiring outside reading to understand, I was left with a grand total of four -- count 'em, FOUR -- suggested stories.
After (almost) a week of suggestions and feedback, it's officially time for the first-ever post of . . .
READY READS
In this, our inaugural posting, we are tackling the weird and wacky world of adults in a theme simply called "Grown Ups."
All of the stories featured below have point of view characters or protagonists aged 19 or older, and as is the premise for Ready Reads, every story is complete on BCTS!
So, without further adieu, let's get into our reader-submitted suggestions!
If you like my stories "Romeo and Roomiette" and "Little by Little," then this is the pack for you! Enjoy both on your favorite reading device for the low, low price of only 1.99 USD.
Heya everyone! I just wanted to share with y'all that I've got a brand-new book available on the interwebs! It's called "Grue's Frightful Tales Volume 1," and is a collection of short horror fiction!
It's good! It's cheap! It's creepy, but no more scary than the ghost stories when you were a kid! It's seasonally appropriate! It may or may not mean the difference between me being able to pay my bills in November! BUY NOW!
I have a desktop again! And a job! And the two are related!
Okay, so as I've shared here before I've been trying to make something akin to a work from home situation work for me for a while. I've been trying to find indie devs interested in some of my music work, and I've had a couple of jobs lined up, but the death of my computer a couple of months ago almost killed that opportunity for me.
No point in counting chickens before they hatch, but past experience with interviews has been good for me so I have high hopes for this one. If things go well I may be employed again before the month is out, and in a job that (hopefully) will be easier on me than my last one, if admittedly still a stressful one. Still, it's a desk job, with part of my interview being a typing test which, hopefully, I can pass with flying colors :P
If I can land this job I already have a plan in place.
The motherboard, it seems is better toasted than we had thought. While it boots to BIOS fine upon pulling my CMOS battery there was a nasty burn ring on it, and trying to boot a few different Linux distros from USB returned issues every time, with the system trying to boot in only to start throwing errors and then crashing.
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.
Woohoo! Yep, almost a whole *year* after I made it available on Smashwords I have finally gotten around to adding
