Thanks! Maybe it's just that I have enough experience now that I'm on my fourth manuscript to realize that I'll never get anywhere by continuing to march stubbornly down the wrong road.

I have a 5,000 word portion of my manuscript that is giving me problems with transitions. It is a list of seven market failures that lead to wasted energy. It now has decent transtions between sections in one sense, in that opening of each section after the first either compares itself or contrasts itself to the section preceding. But while that at least leads the reader from section to section, it does not make for snappy section openings. Earlier versions were snappier, but were pretty abrupt, and not really transitions. Anyone care to look this over, and make suggestions? I mainly need recommendations for section beginnings, so you won't need to read the whole thing - just the beginning and end of each of seven sections.

My profile is good if you feel like you can help me out. Thanks.

The bells and whistles challenge is now closed.

This week's challenge is transformation.

This was requested by Deena, who said:

Our next theme for membra disjecta is "selkies or transformation," meaning one or the other or both, but different kinds of transformation than vampires and werewolves for sure.

I was wondering if you could make that the theme for one of the weeks on GWW so I could mine it for flash fiction again.

In spite of myself, I feel like the first princess that ever had to finish life as a big ugly frog. Maybe I kept wishing on stars past the time that a reasonable person would have turned to God or science, but I couldn't decide, so I'm just here, catching the flies nobody else wants.It's not a bad life, but somehow it stopped being mine. It seems like I just turned my back and it slipped from my hands.

Good one, erika.

Being of Two Minds

It's been three years since the doctor started her on antidepressants. There were ready smiles and tentative feelings of happiness. They evaporated under the frantic search for that one last thing she could buy to make her happy. All it bought her was debt.

It's been two years since her doctor found the right medicine: the one that lifted her heart and quieted her mind. At last, she's starting to feel whole, that there is a complete and healthy woman inside her. She feels solvent.

Today, her insurance informed her that treatment for mental illness is excluded from her plan.

Transformation

“…and he became a beast. A monster.”

“And what else did you see?”

“There was nothing else.”

“Nothing else? Did he not vomit up fingers? Did he not shed his skin and leave it on the stoop? Was he not discovered in a pile of shed hair, covered in another’s blood?”

“He was covered in blood, yes, though whose it was I cannot say. He stank of it. But no shed skin, no hair, no fingers.”

“But he did change.”

“Oh, yes.”

“Into a monster, you said.”

“Oh, yes.”

“He transformed.”

“Oh, yes.

But not on the outside.”

MM, actual shivers. Hair on my nape stood up. Brrr.

Sail, that's tragic and lovely and true and also an indictment of the present health insurance situation in this country.

Changeling - or - Chapter 16: Borrowing (Excerpted from An Illustrated Primer on Identity)

Begin with three or four pieces of information - a photograph that captures your target in the background will be sufficient, as long as it isn't too blurry. Note the date and location. Note the clothing, or lack thereof. Do a deep search. Extend from there.

Remember where the subject was instead of where you were at that time. If they were kissing, or eating, or shouting, all the better. Hold that thought as you swallow the chip.* Think it down. Sleep.

You'll have 24-48 hours. Report back as soon as possible, once you remember that you aren't where you are supposed to be.

• While the bitterness of the chip is off-putting to some, be aware that several decades ago, making do with invisible identity cultivation was the only resource available. Today's methodologies are much more rewarding to those willing to work hard. The company takes no responsibility for any loss of limb, life, or actual born-identity during the timespan of the chip's ingestion.

Sox, that is really cool! Do you write scifi/fantasy novels? If not, you should.