Well, it's all out there. I wan't kidding when I said it was like sending a kid off to college. I've lived with this story for quite a while and continued to learn more about the characters, who, quite frankly, I really like.

At first, this was called Be Careful What You Wish For, but one night I heard the Unfinished Symphony on the radio and said, "Yes!" That's what this really is. And it was, wasn't it?

There seems to be a pattern in my writing: a strong woman, a man who has to transition, and a another man, a gay man, who helps.

I think if you combine the two women, you essentially get me. In my life, I've had to be strong, but there's also a little girl in me who wants to be taken care of.

Why in the world I create gay men (this is the third) who are more or less a rock in support of the little girl is beyond me. Maybe it's just that I believe gay men are treated badly in our TG literature - they're often the instrument of humiliation for our little girls - or - I don't know. That's just the way things turn out.

This time I did have a very compassionate straight man,the one who took Rebecca to the gallery opening where he encountered Sara and was very kind to her, but I don't really undestand why I write men the way I do. Again, perhaps it's because they are treated so badly in most TG stories.

And what did you think about the ending? From the outset I had decided it would be left open. My heart wants to write happy endings, just check out the rest of my stories if you doubt that, but as I noted, this story was inspired by a video I saw of a woman who had transitioned and her former wife. The new girl was nearly euphoric, but the wife was clearly in pain. I couldn't write that, but I could leave things unresolved, which seemed totally correct in this case.

And then there was the whole femdom thing that dominated comments at the outset. I really didn't want to broadcast how the story was going to go, and Rebecca was clearly the stronger personality of the two, but I didn't realize, nor did any of my four editors, good writers all of them, that I was setting up a tale that would so resemble a femdom classic. I really don't know what to do about that.

Anyway, thanks to all of you who stuck with the whole story, it seems that about half the folks who opened the first chapter read all the way through, which is high praise. I wanted to create something different, something sort of real, something fun, but not a fairy tale, I think I did. Hope you enjoyed the journey.

And thanks again to Jill MI, Dimelza Cassidy, Matti Berliot (Dee West) and Ellen Hayes. They all added things that made this a story worth reading.

Kelly Ann