Cynus
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I posted a story under transgendered on Nifty. Keep in mind that I don't know anything about dresses, make-up or breast implants and I did not intend to go in that direction. In short the story is about femininity emerging naturally in a boy, living with his mother. The story isn't so much about the central character as much as it is about the reactions of the people around him over a period of time, which were mixed to say the least.
When the main character got to the crossroads of life in deciding about a transformation, that is where I ended it.
I got letters wanting me to continue it but I couldn't because I didn't understand enough to be sure that I was authentic. I wrote about what I did know anything more would be fraud. I offered the story up to whoever wanted to carry it on.
I hope this helps
Back when I was originally working on Ashes of Fate, which is the story in which I faced this problem, I wasn't worried so much about the transgender aspect as I was about keeping the pronouns consistent and logical to the reader. I've handled it with my best instincts whenever it came up, and I didn't receive any complaints about how it was done, so at least it wasn't appalling. :)
I've since done significantly more research into the subject in the hopes that I would portray Peter, my transgender doctor in Ashes of Fate, more convincingly. At the time I was writing it I had recently ended a relationship with my trans girlfriend,(for reasons completely unrelated to her gender identity) and I knew that she was going through a tremendous amount of pain and anxiety in regards to her dysphoria. I've since become an advocate for transgender issues, and hope to bring more awareness to the struggle they go through to be accepted.
At the time, I was concerned about pronouns. Now I'm concerned about people, and pronouns be damned. :) But I understand that it is a daunting thing to approach when you've never felt the way they have. I still have to ask questions of my trans friends every time I decide I'm going to write a new section that deals with one of my trans characters, just to make sure I'm portraying the emotions correctly, or as well as I possibly can.
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All I can say is, it's high time.
R
Glad you're in support. :)
I came across this video today. This guy would get along great with Silas.
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They were a little too frightened to do something like that. :)
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Like delicious pudding. :)
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1) I do not have a specific work that needs editing, but rather the need for someone that can work with me all the time. My previous editor has disappeared suddenly, and I'm currently floating with only my primary beta-reader to guide me.
2) I have worked with two editors in the past. The first had to stop because of health reasons, and I imagine that the second one disappeared for similar reasons. I love my editors and I try my best to respect their time and effort on my behalf. I am also human, and I make mistakes. I hope that anyone who responds will understand that and tell me if I've rubbed them the wrong way, and I will treat you the way you want to be treated.
3) I need proofreading and some plot help. I like it when my editors question my work and challenge me when they think I'm off the rails.
4) I suppose that I expect proofreading and plot help. My work is generally pretty smooth, but I want my stories to be the best they can be, and I'll listen to what you have to say.
5) I'm currently working on several novels and a couple of short stories. I'm constantly writing, but I will match whatever load an editor is willing to take on.
6) I work with Microsoft word.
7) I've worked with all sorts of different edits. Whether you do it in the margins or in the line, i don't mind.
Thank you for everyone who took the time to read this. Hopefully one of you will be able to help me out, but if not, thank you all the same.
Cynus -
I agree. I was so in love with that piece as well. Lives in Periphery promised to be as amazing as Laika.
EleCivil is one of the people who convinced me to first submit my work here, and I'm quite grateful to him for that. -
YAY!!! Laika is back on Dude's Picks From The Past! This is my favorite story at AwesomeDude, and I love it to pieces!
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Now that was an unexpected twist, this backstage visitor. It certainly confirmed what lowlifes Ian's and Silas's parents are, not to mention the local constabulary. And here I thought Utah was one of the 50 states.
R
Not as far as the Mormons are concerned. They're still waiting for the last days of the earth to come upon them so that they can reestablish their theocracy. They only have half of it right now . . .
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That's true, but she includes both transgender and cisgender people in that grouping of 'they', referring to herself as 'agender'. Maybe that's why?
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I've always been an advocate for teaching a "World Religions" class in school, but it should be taught from an anthropological perspective, rather than a theological one. It is important to know what religious people believe, because the world is full of them, and it is important to know how that belief shapes and influences culture. Willful ignorance about the state of the world is always a bad thing, whether it be the religious refusing to embrace science, or the non-religious refusing to understand the mindset of the religious. To know a thing is not to embrace a thing, and we are always better off with knowledge.
I am neither a believer nor a non-believer. I accept only what I have observed, and at times I have observed things that I cannot yet explain. But I hold onto that yet, hoping that one day I'll come to understand all that which I do not yet understand. I think that is a healthier mindset than the religious one I was raised with, which did not allow me to question God or the leaders of my church.On what Nigel said about non-believers knowing more than believers about the Bible and the teachings of Christ:
My path out of Christianity began while I was serving as a missionary in South Korea. I met an ex-minister who had spent twenty years in front of a pulpit, extolling the glories of God. However, he had also studied his Bible diligently, and as the years progressed the more and more dissatisfied he became with his ministry. He began to see the contradictions, the ways that the doctrine did not make sense with the way the world worked. Eventually he left and became an atheist, but he was always dedicated to educating people about the Bible, because he wanted people to think for themselves. . . He was the reason I studied as much as I did, and he was the reason I began to question everything that I was reading. Many of my friends did the same thing. Some of them left the church as I did, others stayed, but we were all better off for questioning the beliefs, because in the questioning we were able to better know what we were actually professing to believe.
There's no reason not to teach religion in school, but it should be taught from an unbiased perspective. Dogma has no place in school, only the eternal questioning of the scientific method, that our knowledge as a species will continue to grow and expand. -
Can I suggest the dedication be at the end of the story? Somehow seems more fitting and given the tale itself, gives nothing away. One of the best dedications I've read too, an awful lot of folk could learn from this as it's a prime example of describing somebody's work and the feeling one holds for them in a few words whilst losing nothing.
I'm not a fan of flowery language...
Thank you, Nick. I really appreciate the sentiment. I think being at the end would be quite fitting. Thank you for the suggestion.
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I learned this morning that a friend of mine passed away last Saturday. I have decided to dedicate this story to him, and have elected to provide the dedication here since it is not currently part of the story.
This story, while written before his unexpected death, is dedicated now to David Pye. He was an advocate for equality, a champion of human rights, and a man I was lucky enough to call friend. While I did not know David for long, or even as well as I would have liked, there are few people I have met who I could honestly say I could find no fault in them. May whatever truth you held to guide you along your path. Rest well. Be well. Amen. -
I met a man from Ghana about a month ago and had an opportunity to learn a small bit about his culture at the time. I've been wanting to write a story set there ever since, and now I know where to look for inspiration.
I'll read the story first, and then I'll contact Nanak and see if he's willing to lend me some insight. :) I'm really excited for this, thanks for telling us about it. -
I was just thinking . . . does the concept of Child Protective Services even exist in Utah?
R
I thought about this post from you, Rutabaga, when I was digging through some of my old bookmarks.
There's a program in Northern Utah called the OUTreach Resource Center who specialize in helping LGBT youth.
http://www.outreachresourcecenters.org/
Since our beginning in 2005, Outreach Resource Centers has been focused on helping youth. A decade ago, the wonderful people of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ogden took notice of the incredible amount of rejected and often homeless LGBTQ youth and they took action. It was this action that grew into Ogden OUTreach. Since then, Ogden Outreach has expanded to become the Outreach Resource Centers and we now operate drop-in centers from Logan to Clearfield.
We provide programs and services to more than 500 youth each year, addressing the needs of underserved youth at three levels:
Prevention (Community Forums and Ally Trainings):
At the community level, we offer ally and advocate training to groups who work with and support youth, and hold events to educate the public. The safe schools initiatives we participate in also act as prevention.
Intervention (Resource Centers):
At the intervention level, our drop-in centers offer a variety of services to not only meet the basic needs of youth, but to increase their self-efficacy, and provide them with knowledge and skills needed to become self-sufficient, healthy LGBTQ and allied adults.
Crisis response (Safe and Sound):
Crisis response for underserved youth in Utah who are homeless, suicidal, or have been victimized, have lacked until now because of legal barriers, and lack of resources. These barriers are being addressed now in ways they have not previously, and our ability to help youth in crisis is growing. After a careful evaluation of the Safe and Sound Host Home Program, we have decided to make key changes to the housing services model. This change reflects both our desire to reach more youth in need and recent changes in Utah law regarding sheltering youth overnight. Through collaboration with the Utah Domestic Violence Coalition and several other local partners, OUTreach is working toward creating a 24-hour line for youth who are suicidal or experiencing housing or family crisis, and a system for transporting youth to safe sanctuaries. In addition, due to recent legal changes that we helped push, it is now possible to establish youth shelters in Utah.
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Hurrah for Stacey. She's as much a philosopher as Brady.
R
I'm pretty fond of her myself. :)
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As usual I got ahead of myself in my thinking without explaining my train of thought. The reason I wondered about Child Protective Services in Utah is that here we have a family that has abused and then thrown out two sons (Silas and Ian). If either of them had sought help from a Utah CPS agency I have to wonder whether they would have gotten any.
Which led to another train of thought (and a fairly obvious one) -- if and when the Colorado CPS official shows up to inquire about Chelsea, how long will it be before Silas is scrutinized for whether he is in a proper home situation? If Officer Higgins shows up and reports on the story that Silas told her, that will quickly prove to be false. Hopefully Ian and Jenny would step in and say that he is with them. What Silas really needs to do is to become officially emancipated.
R
Because of the situation as it stands in chapter 10 I wanted to delay responding to the second paragraph. Of course now we know exactly how Silas and Ian worked out his situation.
As to the point your raised . . . I know there isn't as much support here in Utah for children kicked out for that reason. It's as if half the culture seems to support doing that, and that makes a social worker's job very difficult. I doubt that most people would report it if they knew that it happened. Statistics alone seem to indicate otherwise.
What I really love about this story is seeing Cynus writing in a totally different way to what he has done in his previous work. Much as I have liked his other work I think I prefer this more.
I'm trying to keep it up. Hopefully this means I've learned a few more things. Being here at AwesomeDude has taught me a great deal in just a year and a half of committed writing. I'm glad you're enjoying the story. :)
Seems like (at the moment) Brady is doing a lot more thinking about Silas than vice versa. I think we're all hoping that will change.
R
Silas has quite a bit to think about at the moment, but I'm sure he'll get around to it. :)
It seems apparent that for all the walls that Silas has built up around himself, and all his external self-sufficiency, it is not necessary to scratch the surface very much at all to find a very fragile and vulnerable soul underneath. I think Silas instinctively recognizes this, which leads him to avoid situations that threaten the frozen state in which he has placed himself.
Believing (with justification) that his parents reject him, and also believing (apparently incorrectly) that Ian had rejected him, would be a colossal emotional burden to carry for two years starting at the young age of 14. By bottling up his emotions he has not grieved the loss of his parents. I think Brady is absolutely correct that Silas needs time to thaw, to reconnect with his emotions, and to develop a genuine capacity to feel where now he experiences only numbness. It promises to be a challenging journey.
R
I think that your observation is an extremely accurate one. Silas comes off as a very strong person, but that's all a front to protect his cracked and broken spirit from further damage. Brady, who is so in tune with everything(almost), just saw that from the beginning.
The good thing is that Silas has a lot of people looking out for him that are gentle with his vulnerabilities.
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Despite the fact that C. S. Lewis considered homosexuality a sin, I find him to have been a rather enlightened Christian for the time that he was alive. This blog article takes from some of C. S. Lewis' words on homosexuality and I found it quite enlightening.
http://spiritualfriendship.org/2013/08/23/c-s-lewis-on-homosexuality-and-disgust/ -
The last of the plaintiff couples in the Utah Supreme Court case for marriage equality is getting married today. I know both of the grooms, and I'm incredibly happy for them. Congratulations to Moudi and Derek! Thanks for fighting the good fight!
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And Adelaide saves the day.
Is there a special place in Hell for the Pastor Simms of the world?
R
You'd imagine that they'd create a separate hell altogether for people like Pastor Simms. Normal sinners, as bad as the are, shouldn't have to put up with that level of awful.
I was just thinking . . . does the concept of Child Protective Services even exist in Utah?
R
Barely. But this is Colorado, so it's not quite the same thing.
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I have to admit I'm as puzzled as Chelsea about Silas's reluctance to have contact with Ian
He's had two years of conditioning to think that no one loves him. He's scared, and scared to admit that he's scared. :)
On another note, here's how Adelaide would be if she were an inside dog.
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I really enjoyed this story so far but have a worrying feeling that there is going to be something very unexpected round the corner.
Hopefully that something unexpected hasn't turned you away. :) More unexpected to come on Wednesday.
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This is about the universal "coming out" and not just coming out of the closet.
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Unbelievable
in News & Views
Posted
Sometimes people make very little sense.