This short novel (43,800 words) is in the same setting as my earlier novelette “Butterflies are the Gentlest.” They take place simultaneously, but there are no characters in common; I reckon you could read them in either order. I’m calling the setting itself “the Valentine Divergence”; if anyone else wants to write stories in this
setting, feel free.
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Tue, 2012/08/21 - 5:34pm
I'm looking for beta readers to critique the sequel to Wine Can't Be Pressed Into Grapes. Copyediting would be nice, but what I mainly need is for someone to look at it with fresh eyes and see if there are any plot holes, whether anything is unclear or (unintentionally) ambiguous, whether the various plot threads hang together in a cohesive whole, whether the ending is satisfying, and so forth. It's 204,000 words,
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Wed, 2012/07/11 - 10:23am
“Most of you already know Jeffrey Sergeyev,”
Ms. Turner said in a loud voice. “She will be using the girls'
facilities from now on, as I explained Friday. Please be courteous to
her.”
“Ignore the bit where she called me ‘she’ and
‘her’,” I said to the girls nearest me.
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Mon, 2012/07/02 - 8:57am
“I know there would be problems with you using the
girls’ bathrooms or showers,” Dad said, “but —
after today, there might be just as bad problems showering with the
other boys.”
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Thu, 2012/06/28 - 10:26am
“I can’t,” Arnie said. “Keith and Tara
Saunders invited me to a party at their house. I asked if you could
come, but they said it’s centaurs only,” he went on,
looking vaguely embarrassed.
“Have fun,” I said. I felt weird about that, and wondered if things like
that were going to happen often, and if so, if this was the beginning of
the end of our friendship.
Updated 2012/7/12 re: very small and very large neospecies
Before I start talking about the world in which my stories
“Butterflies are the Gentlest” and “A House
Divided” are set (warning: this will contain spoilers for those
stories), let me clear up a couple of possible misunderstandings.
This isn’t exactly a “story bible” like the writers
of Star Trek episodes or tie-in books have to religiously adhere to,
or a set of “rules” like those that ElrodW wrote for his
MAU setting.
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Mon, 2012/06/25 - 9:55am
“I don’t like this,” Mom said. “I
don’t see how you can keep it up, and the longer you manage to
pretend, the more people are going to be hurt and offended when they
find out you lied to them.”
I was starting to worry that she might be right, but I wasn’t going to
back out unless she and Dad forced my hand by telling people.
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Fri, 2012/06/22 - 10:32am
Dad snuggled in next to Mom on the sofa; she put aside the skirt she
was working on and they hugged and kissed, but I thought I saw a
little bit of hesitation, and it hurt. I knew too many kids at school
whose parents were divorced, or looked like they might get a divorce
any time now, and I was happy to think that my parents looked like the
sticking-together kind. But when I saw her hesitate a little before
letting him hug her and kiss her, it worried me. Could they still
stay together after changing in such drastic and different ways? And
if not, what would happen to me?
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Mon, 2012/06/18 - 7:22pm
We used the men’s room — I felt vaguely guilty about that,
but I was too embarrassed to use the ladies' room, and we both still
looked male, as long as we had clothes on.
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Sat, 2012/01/21 - 6:21pm
Some of us were glad to have a few dozen more male bodies
in the mix, so we could be of our preferred sex more often;
but by then I think most of us were starting to get used
to femininity — if we did not enjoy it, at least we had
stopped complaining about it.
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Tue, 2012/01/10 - 11:59am
“Spar! Come on in,” I said. We had all thought my cousin
Spartacus was immune to the changing, since he hadn’t
caught it when other children did on several occasions
when it was going around the village. But it was obvious
now that she wasn’t.
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Mon, 2011/12/26 - 10:14pm
Then they were on a vast field, with scattered bodies and parts of bodies
lying everywhere, and ravens and vultures fluttering from one choice
morsel to another. Only one human figure was moving on that field;
Kazmina ran towards him.
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Sat, 2011/12/10 - 2:32pm
“I do need you,” she said, beginning to tremble. “I
said — I said I didn't want to change back, and I don't, but I
want even more to be with you, to make you happy. If the only way I
can do that is to change —”
“Shh,” he said. “No, you don't have to change for
me.”
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Thu, 2011/12/01 - 6:30pm
She undressed in the dark and
stashed her clothes and shoes on the shelves, then looked inward at her
structure, deciding what form she wanted for this purpose. She started
making changes, reducing her size and altering her structure. Twitching
her whiskers and sniffing gingerly at the door, she slipped quietly into
the corridor and scurried down it towards the front parlor.
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Tue, 2011/11/22 - 2:31pm
“Come,” she said playfully, “I have no romantic illusions about my own
brother — I know perfectly well she loves you a hundred times better
than you deserve. If it were any other woman, I would try to discourage
her by telling her embarrassing stories about you, but Launuru already
knows them all, so I'll just have to accept your good fortune.”
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Fri, 2011/11/18 - 7:25pm
Launuru hated herself for her cowardice as soon as she'd run away, but was
too ashamed to go back. It was too late to fix things; she'd gambled her
relationship with Verentsu, hoping to turn friendship into love, but now
she'd made such a mess that there was probably no way they could go back
to being friends.
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Fri, 2011/11/04 - 2:08pm
“What's your custom here in Niluri?” Kazmina asked. “Is a woman normally
allowed to ask a man to marry her? It's hard to judge from Tsavila or
you what women are normally expected to act like here; even in Setuaznu,
enchantresses are allowed more privileges than mundane women, and as
for you...”
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Wed, 2011/10/19 - 1:39pm
Hadn't Tsavila said that he should be kind to her,
for she'd suffered enough already? If she was compelled to act this
part against her will, further probing could do no good; he had already
learned enough to be sure she was no Vetuatsenu. Various moments of
their conversations the day before came back to him: she had repeatedly
changed the subject when someone brought up recent events in Netuatsenu,
or asked more than a few questions about her family.
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Tue, 2011/10/11 - 12:27pm
“You're probably not related to
her, either.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I don't know who my mother was. She was a wizard, and probably
not from Setuaznu or Niluri or anywhere in between, but my father never
talks about her.”
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Tue, 2011/09/27 - 5:58pm
“Maybe he did as the servant said, maybe not. Either way, I fear he did
meet with some misfortune, for the last I heard his family had not heard
from him either. But wine can't be pressed into grapes. I met Itsulanu
when I was angry and sad, and he comforted me. Now in less than three
days he is to be my husband, and that makes me happier than I can say.
I wish my sometime lover may be happy wherever he is; I forgive him.”
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Wed, 2011/09/21 - 8:40am
“Love is a thing holy to Kalotse,
and...” Just then she heard a wailing, which got momentarily
louder; one of the servants came in holding a fussy, just-woken
Miretsi. “A thing with unexpected consequences,” she
concluded.
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Wed, 2011/09/14 - 10:15am
Launuru said little in the carriage on the way back to the wizard's house.
She was thinking about her reaction when Kazmina had suggested that she
change back into the man she'd been when she hired the room. It had
been as appalling to her just now as the idea of becoming a woman had
been when Kazmina suggested it two days ago. If that were so, how could
she ask Tsavila to marry her, promising to become a man again soon?
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Tue, 2011/08/30 - 6:31pm
“I will have to make a
pilgrimage to one shrine or another, first to the nearest and then to
those of the greater saints, and as far as the Holy Sepulchre if
necessary.”
“That will be difficult for a woman traveling alone,” he said.
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Tue, 2011/08/30 - 6:22pm
She was dirty
and sweaty from working in the garden, but not much less beautiful for
that. But it seemed odd that he did not recognize her; the wizard
hired his human servants from among the peasants within a few miles of
Harold’s farm, and Rodric knew everyone living in that region.
When she raised her eyes from the bush and saw him, she called out,
“Help me!”
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Sun, 2011/08/28 - 7:23am
I started to post this as a comment on a specific story, then decided it makes more sense as an observation about tg fiction in general than a criticism on a specific story, because the problem I noticed (if it is a problem) is pretty common.
Namely, an awful lot of characters in tg fiction, when they find out about another character being transsexual or gay or both, have one of two extreme reactions -- total, instant acceptance, with displays of affection (if the author wants us to sypathize with the character) or extreme bigotry, very vocal and possibly violent (if the author wants us not to sympathize).
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Wed, 2011/08/24 - 11:29am
“Kazmina,” she said, gently shaking the wizard, “you've got to change me
back now... Or tell me what's going on.”
Kazmina wasn't fully awake. “What's wrong?” she mumbled, propping up
on her left arm.
“This doesn't feel wrong, that's what's wrong! I'm forgetting what I'm
supposed to be, just like when we were geese. By the time we go to see
Psavian, I'm afraid I'll
have forgotten why I came back to find Tsavila!”
Submitted by trismegistus_shandy on Sun, 2011/08/14 - 8:08am
“I'll be
lucky if my father even attends. He doesn't have much time for those
of us who didn't inherit his power. But my brothers and my cousins on
my mother's side will be there, they're fun to be with, and some of our
neighbors I know well... and my sister. You'll like her; she's pretty.”
The man had evidently been traveling on foot for a long time. His clothes
were rags that barely covered his nakedness, and his cheekbones, ribs,
and hips stood out against flesh from which all the fat and too much of
the muscle had been burned off some time ago.
