I’m working my way through the Boy & Girl Saga with a view to (re)publishing all three books: Boy & Girl, In Search of Lost Girls and We Girls Show the Way, the first two in a revised edition, the third, a brand new story of Kate and Peter. Here’s a brief extract from In Search of Lost Girls where Peter, dressed as a girl, and Andrew, who’s reverted to dressing as a boy, are heading for St. Leodegar cathedral in Luzern where they are to perform during a choir festival…
Extract
(…) “You know it can’t go on,” Andrew added, giving Peter a nudge to get his attention. “You’re going to have to make up your mind.”
Peter ran his hand down his dress smoothing it as he halted to study the eight-sided tower that rose out of the water next to the bridge. He didn’t want to answer. An argument was in the making and he didn’t want to fight. Intuition told him this might be the last time they’d be together.
“It’s part of me,” he finally said, dodging a group of tourists who were pointing at the tower. “Removing that side of me would be like cutting off my nose. And cutting off people’s noses is all this society is good for,” he said, thinking of Alan Turing, a mathematician his English teacher had told him about.
“Someone forced you to dress up and, whether you liked it or not, dressing up was bound with sex.” He lowered his voice. “No one forced me and dressing up has never been about sex. It’s just how I am. I’m in between. I am both and neither.” His decidedness surprised him. The situation had never seemed so clear. “Why should I have to be otherwise? Where is the crime in that?” He broke off, realising that his voice had risen and some of the tourists had turned to stare. (…)
More about the Boy & Girl Saga
Boy & Girl – Twelve-year-old Peter secretly dresses as a girl. Imagine his delight when he finds himself in the head of a girl. Yet, despite his wild hopes, that girl is not him. She’s Kaitling, the daughter of a mage in a beleaguered world. Peter has his own problems when a vicious new girl at school threatens to reveal his girly ways. Becoming friends, Kaitlin and Peter join forces to do battle with those who oppose them.
In Search of Lost Girls – Dressed as a girl, Peter sets out in search of his soul-mate Kate who has been ripped from his arms and kidnapped. In his quest, he is hounded by fanatics bent on eliminating those who mess with gender. Meanwhile, Kate has been dumped in a nightmarish girls’ orphanage where she emerges as a decisive figure in the rescue of her fellow orphans. Will the two ever be together again?
We Girls – Retain his androgynous ambiguity or say goodbye to his girlish self, such is the existential choice that besets Peter. Circumstances, however, force both him and Kate to take up other challenges. By straddling the line between child and adult, between carefree creativity and weighty responsibility, between play and work, they find imaginative ways to confront far-reaching problems on which adults persistently turn a blind eye.
Colourful People – What happens when a boy who dresses as a girl, but has no wish to transition, is confronted with a boisterous crowd of transgender youth in a desperate search for a safe haven? The fierce will to be themselves despite the determined opposition of society is common to both the Lost Girls and the Colourful People. Not surprising then that they join forces and advance together. (Currently being written)