Over the last few months, in an effort to find my lost self, I’ve been going back and reading my published Karen Singer books again. I’ve done that a few times in the past, rereading them and doing a bit of editing and proof reading as I go, trying to fix all those nasty problems my bad eyesight can’t seem to see. That’s just what I’ve done this time too. In the process, I’ve fixed more typos in each book than even I can believe. I’ve also gotten rid of literally hundreds of those nasty ellipses (…) from each book that I’m way to fond of using. But don’t worry, I didn’t get rid of them all, there’s still a few hundred left in each book, but I can tell you that all the sentences I removed them from are now better sentences.
For me, books have to have a story – something happening. Conflict! Excitement! I don’t just write books about someone who wants to change their gender, there has to be something else happening around them. A bigger more exciting reason for the story. I’ve always loved suspense books so most of my books lean more in that direction. The idea for the story has to be something that grabs and holds my attention – before I begin writing it. Hopefully, that carries though when you, the reader, take a journey through my books as well.
When my last computer died recently, I lost everything I had
written about this – eight pages worth!
Since I had written most of it as I was reading each book, I’ll never
remember most of the things I had wanted to tell you about each one, but I’m
going to try and give you a rundown anyway of my thoughts and feelings, as well
as let you know my personal top three favorites.
In this post, I’m NOT going to include Baby Bobby or The
McComber Switch. Not only have I not
read them recently, but I don’t feel those books fall into the category that I
like to think of as my transgendered lives collection. Baby Bobby was an experiment on my part (a failed
one). The only reason it’s still out
there is that I sell about one copy each year and I pretty much make nothing at
all from it. In fact, I make very little
from any my books, and almost nothing at all lately since I guess everyone has
read them now and nobody is either buying them or reading the Kindle free
additions either. Oh well. I know I need to write something new, but
right now a worthy idea for a book doesn’t seem to be invading my mind.
So here are my thoughts on most of my published books – in
the order I published them (I think).
SPOILER ALERT!
For those of you who don’t want to read all of this, here
are my personal top three favorite stories.
I’m afraid you’ll have to keep reading to find out why. By the way, as I originally tried to figure
out what my top three books were, the list here changed quite often, which was something
I didn’t expect. Here’s my final
results.
1. Jenni with an i – all three books since it’s really one story.
2. Golden Greed
3. Satan’s Daughter
Second Life Second Chance
This was the first book I published and for many years my favorite story in the world. It’s just a nice story. Period! Nobody gets killed or even hurt in it. In my opinion, this was the perfect book for me to start my Karen Singer book publishing.
It’s a story about an eighty-six year old man who always
dreamed of what it would be like to be a girl.
But when he dies, he somehow wakes up in the body of a fifteen year old
boy on the opposite side of the country.
It’s a situation he’s not exactly happy about. To quote from the book: If I had to come back to life again, why
couldn’t it have been as a girl? I would
have been overjoyed at that. But I guess
someone somewhere didn’t think I got it right the first time, so here I was, a
boy again. What was the problem? In a family with a Mathew, Mark, and Luke,
there was no New Testament book with a girl’s name, so I had to be John? Or was this somebody’s idea of a joke? If it was, I certainly didn’t get it.
One thing about this story that I want to mention is the
short section I put in that’s true and actually did happen to me. In the story, the main character tells about
when he was very young, his mother sat him and his younger brother down and
asked if either of them would like her to dress them up as a girl for
Halloween. In the story, the main
character refused, and when it actually happened to me in real life, so did
I. Everything I told about it in the
story was real, and like the main character, I often wonder what might have
happened if I had chosen that other path.
One of my favorite
things in the story is the process the main character goes through to select a
new name. As confusing and cumbersome as
the process may have been, I can’t help but wonder if it just might have been
the perfect tool to whittle the selection down.
One other thought I’d like to mention about the book. How many transgendered people would be better
off if only they had a mother like the one in the book? One who was wise enough to help her child
move forward – by holding her back.
My story about an ex-marine with one of the worst cases of PTSD ever. The strange thing I did in this book was to make fate something a bit more real and tangible. No matter what, male or female, he can’t escape who or what he is – a hero.
This is a great book!
But it’s not in my top three favorites.
I guess it easily could have been, but then I can say that about all my
books. As good as this book is, and
despite how it sold and the number of reviews it got, other later books simply
eclipsed it for me. But don’t let that
guide your feelings about it. Decide for
yourself.
In this book, I moved from the non-action world of Second
Life into the world of action. The
reviews showed me that my readers seemed to like this, so all my books since
have fallen more into that category, with the possible exception of Satan’s
Daughter, but we’ll get to that one later.
Oh, and again, were not talking about my soap opera, The McComber
Switch. But anyway, with this book I
moved more into the world of suspense, and I’ve mostly stayed there ever since.
I’m not sure, but this may have been my biggest selling book
of all. It may have also gotten more
reviews than any of my books too. Reviews
that showed me how much everyone seemed to love the action in it. Those reviews helped to show me that I needed
to keep something happening in my books.
I started it with this book, and I never looked back.
Most of my readers love my stories. But this story got one of my worst reviews
ever. See, I do pay attention to what
people tell me. The review was from
someone who didn’t like my description of the way the psychologists treated the
main character. All the other reviews
seemed to love the book. The therapy
method for dealing with PTSD in the book was at the time the main process that
was used in real life. In the book, I
purposely wrote the first psychologist the way I did, but the other two I
thought dealt with the main character quite well. My opinion anyway. Side note: while I was in the military, I got
sent to see a psychologist once. As far
as I could see, it was the most useless thing I’ve ever done. The guy barely acknowledged me. Fortunately, in the end, my problem turned
out to be a physical one, not psychological (which I knew before they sent me
to see him). Sometimes military medicine
can be so great. Other times it can be
totally dumb!
Cinder
My story about the street kid and the cop. I’ve always loved this book, and for a while I wondered if it would make my top three, but in the end, it didn’t. Sorry Cinder.
I absolutely love the way the kid and the cop gradually come
closer together. A real feeling of love
develops between them, even though they’re from totally opposite worlds with
opposite views about life. I mean, how many boys out there would love to
grow up someday to be a hooker on the streets of New York? I also love the way I wrote the kid to be so
smart and so stupid at the same time.
That’s what helps to make his personality so great. That and his totally unique outlook on
life.
Yes, I’ll admit it. I
can’t read this book without crying at the end.
But then I cry at the ending of most of my stories. I simply love it!
Victim Number Three
Yeah, this one didn’t make my final top three either, but I can tell you it was certainly there for a long time. In fact, for a while there I wondered if it might be my number one favorite. In the end, I decided on other stories instead.
This one is about a transgendered cop on the Atlanta police
force. One of the unthinkable things I
did in this story was to physically destroy the main character, right in the
beginning. He winds up having to help
solve a series of serial murders, of which he was supposed to be their third
victim, and he does it all while he should be home convalescing in bed. He’s not a detective, but it’s up to him to
ask the right questions to the right people – and get answers that don’t always
help and more often sound like they’re leading nowhere.
One of the things I love about this book is his relationship
with his kitten – a kitten he didn’t want.
In fact, he spends most of the book calling the kitten by different
derogatory names. But in the end, he
comes to love that cat. Here’s one of my
favorite little excerpts from the book where he’s talking to that kitten: “Well Snow. I don’t mind your silly black foot at
all. It doesn’t bother me one bit. In fact, it’s one of my favorite things about
you. It says, you’re different…like
me. It makes you much more
interesting. So what do you say? I’ll promise not to hate you or make fun of
you because of it, if you’ll promise not to hate me for being different
too. What say? Deal?”
I don’t know why, but I like that. I guess because there’s so much being said
there without saying it.
Yeah, this was another great book. In fact, I’m amazed that in the end it didn’t
even make it into my top three.
Satan’s Daughter
Number three! And I’m still wondering if maybe it shouldn’t have been number one.
This is my psychological drama. The book that the title and the book
description chased everyone away and kept them from reading it, even though
that’s not the kind of book it is at all.
Most of the book is nothing but conversations between the main
character, and two other people that happen on every succeeding Tuesday. In fact, at one point I was considering
titling this book, Tuesday Conversations.
This is the book that I consider to be so different, it
seems like it was written by some other author than me. But trust me, I wrote it. In fact, I was so inspired by it that I
churned it out in just three weeks. For
me, that’s incredibly fast. Side
note: I recently wrote another one in
just two weeks, but that one will be published under my real name. Still, this book was inspired.
This is the story of a very trouble person, whose mother
refuses to give up on him. He’ll never
forgive his family for what they did to him, and they’ll never forgive him for
what he did to them. But at one point in
the story, you’re forced to ask yourself, who’s the real monster?
One of the things that I’m amazed at in writing this, is
that I never gave away the final situation until it was time. That was difficult. So difficult that I’m fairly proud of myself
for accomplishing it. I guess it doesn’t
take much to make me happy.
Even before I read this one again, I wondered if it would be
my number one favorite. In fact, for
years now I’ve always thought of it that way.
But in the end, it didn’t wind up in the number one spot. Very few people have read this book, and for
me, it’s one of my best books – ever! As
much as it sounds like it, it’s not a book about blood and gore and guts and
killing. It’s about someone who can’t
forgive, and doesn’t believe in the concept of love. Oh, and about two very different people who
refuse to give up on him.
Maybe I should move this back to the number one spot. But then again, there was Jenni.
Oh, and yeah, I cry at the end of this one too.
Jenni with an i (the entire
overall series)
Yup! This is it. Number one! And the reason for it is something that took me by surprise. Once I got to a certain point, I couldn’t stop reading it. I was doing everything possible to stop doing other things and just keep reading this thing. I just didn’t want to put it down – and I knew what was going to happen in the book(s). You have no idea of the emotional storm that this story stirred up in me – another reason why it made it to number one.
As one of my reviewers pointed out and I readily admit, I
don’t know anything at all about legal procedures. Nothing!
But I did try to be as logical as possible about everything in the story. In the end, in my opinion, it still came out
great!
Side note! I recently
wrote another book that I had originally planned on being another Jenni
mystery, called What Child is This. But
in the end, I backed Jenni totally out of the book and that somehow that made
the entire story far better. The book
does borrow heavily on the other Jenni characters, and I even combined them
with a few that I had in another of the books I published under my own
name. No, this one won’t be released as
a Karen Singer book. Sorry. This turned out to be the most powerful story
I’ve ever written, and there’s no reason at all why I shouldn’t publish it
under my real name. Eventually.
So I guess I should now say a few words about each of the
three books that make up Jenni with an i.
The Jenni series is a very complex story, and sometimes seems to be a story, within a story, within a story. There’s a lot going on, and it all starts here. Jenni has to solve the murder of her grandfather, and the consequences of her doing that follow her all the way through the rest of the books and right up to the very end of the series.
This is where I defined my Jenni character. In some ways, maybe it was wrong for me to
make her one of those lucky trans girls that can pass easily with just a bit of
padding and makeup, but that turned out to be a major factor in the entire
series, so I guess it wasn’t a mistake after all.
In this book, Jenni’s life is small. For a trans girl, maybe bordering on normal –
if there’s any such thing. But this is
where she finds out that the world is a much bigger, much more complicated
place. And this is where that big
complicated world starts to fall down on her.
The book by itself is good. You
don’t have to read any of the others, but in at the end, I purposely led you
right into the beginning of the next book, hopefully in a way that you’ll want
to keep reading.
Daddy Came Calling
Book two. Seeming absurdity on top of absurdity. The impossible on top of the unthinkable. The screws start turning and never stop. This book is the one that got me to the point where I realized I couldn’t stop reading. I never thought that the Jenni series would be my number one favorite, but this book brought me fully to the realization that it not only belonged in my top three, this overall story was number one.
Just like in the first book, the beginning of this book has
another mystery that Jenni has to solve.
And like the mystery in book one, this one too will have affects that
carry though all the way to the end of the series. But that darn complicated overall story line
keeps rearing its ugly head and leading Jenni from one thing to the next, and
each one just gets worse and seemingly more absurd.
Maybe most of you won’t think so, but for me, this was all
fun. And of course, like I did at the
end of book one, this one also leads right into the beginning of book
three. You’ve got to keep going!
Curl Up and Die
Book three. This is where a lot of the weird stuff gets explained, but I’m afraid that most of those answers don’t come until the end (of course).
Unlike the other two books, this one doesn’t start with
another mystery that has to be solved.
But then this book simply picks up a few hours later after the last book
left off. I could have made it all one
book, but I had to stop and break the story somewhere. This was a good place to begin the race to
the end.
This book is simply injustice on top of injustice, to the
point where you want to scream! But all
that injustice finally leads to the best justice I could think of. For me, it was a very satisfying ending. No, maybe I don’t really cry at the end of
this one, but it’s a good ending anyway.
Perfect in fact!
Golden Greed
Number two!!!
This was the last book I published. After the Jenni series, this one brought me
right back down to earth again. Jenni
was a character that could easily pass as a woman. The main character in this one can’t. This book is far more real than the Jenni
series, and that reality is one of the things I love the most about it. In fact, for a while there I wondered if this
one shouldn’t be my number one favorite.
In the end, I decided that the Jenni series should remain on top, only
because of the emotions that Jenni evoked in me and the fact that I couldn’t
put it down.
This one is about a trans person who is at that in-between
stage of his transition to becoming a woman.
He’s to the point where he’s starting to not look right as a man, but he
also simply doesn’t look right as a woman either. In-between.
He has a very real worry about losing his job because of
what he’s doing with his life. He’s also
a father with a soccer playing daughter.
A daughter who loves and reveres her father greatly, no matter who he
decides to be. And trust the daughter to
ask the really tough questions, like: “Daddy,
are you ashamed?” At one point in
the book, the daughter also give us this immortal line: “Daddy…,” she said with some exasperation. “If I close my eyes and don’t look at you,
you almost look like a real woman.”
How can a line like that not bring you right back down to earth?
This is the one and only published book that I’ve
written that has a sex scene in it. I
don’t write sex scenes in these kind of stories, but I did in this one, only
because what happened during that sex scene was important to the rest of the
story. It only happened once, and it was
early in the book. Somewhere around
chapter four. I promise, the rest of the
book is safe.
Did I mention something about reality in this book? This book is about finding a cache of gold
bars and what people would do to get their hands on them. But how much reality is there when one of the
main concepts of the book is a possible curse?
But it’s up to you to decide if the curse is real or not. At one point, the main character has to
decide if the gold is cursed, or just his life.
I loved this book. I
loved everything about it. From the
psychological things the main character has to go through, to the action, and
especially his relationship with his daughter.
Everything! It could have easily
been my number one favorite, but in the end, it got beat out by Jenni. Still, number two can’t be bad!
So there you have it.
My take on most of my books and which ones are my personal top
three. Once again, that order is:
2. Golden Greed
3. Satan’s Daughter
Karen
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