Friends

by Karin Bishop

Friends contains two separate stories—Forceful tells of a young woman helping her best friend discover herself. There is a history between the two of them, but only one remembers. Sometimes the past has to be forced out of the darkness to light the future. Are You Sure? jumps in time over the course of a transgender woman’s life. On the brink of a momentous event, she thinks back to the formative events that made her the woman she is. Trigger There are physical attacks in both stories.

Genres: Transgender

256 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 24, 2018

About the author

I started writing as a child, and won my first national writing award in sixth grade. I edited and wrote for my high school and college creative writing magazines, but then life got in the way and didn’t write fiction for years—I wrote for hire. Magazine articles (in music and travel), advertising copy, corporate newsletters and software manuals paid the bills. I have always been interested in the discovery of a person’s true nature and sexual identity, and began exploring different literary genres and structures to tell those important stories.

Reviews

[Anne Mouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two good stories

I particularly enjoyed the first story of a girl who'd hidden he true self as a safety measure and needed her best friend to bring her back. The second shorter story was fun, though for me suffered slightly by jumping back and forward in history. There was some sadness in both stories that cut through any sweetness.

[Deborah Ballard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two heartwarming stories in one book.

Karin is one of my favorite authors. She has a wonderful way of sharing the transgender experience, including the pain before transition, the joys of being free to be authentic, and the complexities of transition in a warm compassionate way.

These stories focus on the role of those first special friends who see the true person and empower them to be authentic.