Percy

For the trans part, I was 9 years old, living in a small town in eastern Tennessee, when I began to fully understand how different I was. I was a total tomboy and my best friend was also a tomboy. I was at her house for a sleepover and her older sister started telling us about Renée Richards, who must have been in the news at the time. It was the most exciting, most revelatory thing I'd ever heard. I remember telling my friend, "When we grow up, the doctors can fix us." My friend and her sister were horrified. That's when I started to understand that my friend wasn't a tomboy in the same way I was. She never thought to herself "I should have been born a boy." Still, I remember laying on my back on the bottom bunk unable sleep, I was so happy. I was so excited thinking that everything would be OK when I got older. I could just go to a doctor and have an operation and that would be it. I'd be fixed. I'd be a boy, just like I should have been when I was born. For the gay part, I was around 13. By then my family had moved to an even smaller town in South Carolina. I was very sheltered. John Ritter's character on Three's Company was the first time I was exposed to the concept of what it meant to be gay. So then I started thinking. "This is weird. I should have been born a guy, but if I had been, I'd be gay." That scared me. I thought I was looking for ways to hate myself. Why couldn't I just be what I appeared to be - a straight girl? It would be my late 20s before I got my head around it all and basically came out to everyone I knew. A sex change is pretty obvious so you come out whether you want to or not.

Tough to make a choice. Right now, Vietnamese. But when I lived in Denver there was this incredible Chinese food restaurant that served "country" Chinese food. It was cuisine from more rural Chinese regions and it was incredible. Keeping the question.

Interesting snippet of the narrator's life as he approaches middle age. Good details and internal dialogue.

No. I don't match up with the personality my sign represents so it's hard to take seriously. What culture/nationality mosts interests you outside your own?

Have a refreshing Pepsi soda. QTIPS

Cruel people. Except when I'm driving to work in the morning and then I hate anyone cutting me off. Are you committed to recycling or does all waste go into the same trash bin?

Pats fan though I've been having bad luck with my teams in the post-season. Niners lost last week and the Broncos lost the week before.

This was a very enjoyable story. As others have stated, the descriptions are amazing. I felt like I was there. It reminded me of a time my brother and I got stuck at night while climbing with all the switchbacks and trying to get to the truck before night. Totally brought that experience back...without the alligators. I hope you write some more.

Very well done. Amazing that we got insight into the narrator's relationship with his son, mother and ex in just a few words. And a cliffhanger to boot.

Boulder, Colorado Were you named after anyone? If so, who?

Never wanted kids. Would you want a job where you worked outside most of the time?

Six Did you live in the same town through your childhood or move around?

ergo

The upstairs neighbors went at it constantly, and loudly, the first two years they were there. Haven't heard them so often the last three years. They're also business partners. Would you go into business with a significant other/romantic partner?

tetra

A banana What was the last thing you cooked from scratch (not just heated in a microwave)?

I can't dance. No rhythm. Can't even clap in sync with others. What's your primary source of news?

Boys investigate terrorists in everglades. RABCH

Myra yearned Baltimore's football failure. GSFUT

I dumped it on top. SBAEH

Great start to the story. I'll definitely be checking in on Ulysses' future.

Straight life alters carnal knowledge. TRISY

This is an interesting premise for a story. You do a good job bringing the reader in to Tanner’s thoughts and feelings. His love/hate relationship with mornings and absolute abhorrence of high school make him someone the reader can relate to. The dialogue between the characters and his internal dialogue has an easy flow. You give some good details, especially in Chapter 1, that help set the scene and bring the reader into the story. The description of the crowded hallways in school is a good example. I was confused as to the extent of Tanner’s memory loss and how long he’s been suffering from it. I understand that the story is building toward a big reveal about the memory loss, but some of Tanner’s thoughts seem contradictory. For example, early on we learn that he’s blocked out everything and only knows that he’s 17 because that’s what he’s been told. A little later he’s describing the daily routine with his mother and how he loves her. Does he remember this woman and the maternal bond? Was the event causing the memory loss long enough ago that they developed that mother-son relationship in the aftermath of the trauma? Later on, over dinner, he can’t remember what happened at a recent visit to his father’s but then goes on to share a lot of background on his parents’ relationship with the reader. So maybe he doesn’t remember recent events, but he does remember his early childhood? I kept trying to figure out how extensive the memory loss was and it took me out of the story. Keep going – you’ve got some good instincts with the characters, just don’t leave out the details for the reader.

College dorm room. What song makes you want to kick ass and take names every time you hear it?

Necromancy