Tales of the Seasons: Jessica's Story
by Brandy Dewinter, with infinite help from Tigger
Foreword
Some time ago Joel Lawrence wrote a story about a woman who teaches bad
boys to become good men - by first turning them into well-mannered young
women. That story was called "Seasons of Change." The woman was Jane
Thompson, and the rest, as they say, was history. Unfortunately, it was not
primarily the history of Joel Lawrence's writing. He seems to have disappeared
from the cyberworld. "Seasons of Change" was incomplete (by his own
admission), and certainly the setting was not fully explored. It was not only a
shame to have no more to enjoy from Joel Lawrence's talent, but also a sort of
nagging itch because the story needed to be finished.
Along came Tigger. Since no one within the community knew how to reach
Joel Lawrence, Tigger wrote not one, but two endings to Joel Lawrence's original
story, each interesting and as excellently written as the original. Then he wrote
more stories in that setting, developing and expanding the characters well beyond
Joel Lawrence's original creation. Other writers have explored that setting, too,
creating a mini-universe of "Tales of the Seasons". As is often the case with
different writers, the stories are sometimes in conflict with each other and there is
no single, integrated timeline into which all the tales neatly fit. Still, the core
elements of the setting, Jane Thompson and her 'petticoat discipline' methods, are
common.
The original "Seasons of Change" story is about the internal struggles of
Michael, the protagonist, as much as it is about the physical elements of dressing
and acting as a girl. In fact, the core premise of the story is that an undesirable
behavior needs to be changed. Feminization is a means to that end, not an end in
itself. If the protagonist does not learn to 'behave' in a civilized way, then the
skills in cosmetics or walking in heels have no value. As such, the stories in this
setting needed to focus on that internal growth, and there is an expectation that
eventually the student will revert to an 'ordinary' masculine role.
Some time after Tigger wrote his first ending to "Seasons of Change", he and
I began a correspondence on a variety of topics. In the course of that, he flattered
me by allowing me to read advanced versions of some of his stories, and even
solicited comments and advice on them. My opinions are like grains of sand on a
beach; there are a lot of them, they tend to gum up fine machinery, and they're
not worth much. Nonetheless, he received them by the ton, and even sometimes
found a nugget or two of insight within the grit (or so he claimed).
In the course of that, we were discussing the motivation of one of his
characters (yet another boy trapped in Aunt Jane's lacey spiderweb). The style
set forth by Joel Lawrence in the original, and followed by the others who wrote
in the setting, is third person. That is a very useful point of view in several ways.
It allows the writer, in authorial voice, to explain things that would not be clear to
the protagonist. A young, teen-age boy suddenly inserted into the feminine
world of Seasons Manor would not know a lot of things about that environment,
and the environment itself is deliberately confusing to him as Jane Thompson
manipulates him into seeing the benefits of civilized behavior. To define the
purpose and structure to the program, the writer needs to be able to access Jane's
point of view as well as speak in authorial voice. However, by now, fans of that
setting know most of the essential elements, and a new story could build on that
background. I started imagining what it would be like from 'the inside', from the
student's perspective; specifically, a first person account of an angry, chip-on-his-
shoulder kid (in my story, Jesse Shepherd) who gets sent to Jane's. It would be
different, and at the very least, it would be a challenge.
A further challenge, at least for me, would be to write of a teen-age character.
I know it's not apparent from 'my pictures' (not photographs at all, of course, just
fantasy sketches), but it's been just a while since I was a teen-ager. Further, as I
was always a model student and dutiful child, I have no personal insight into
troubled teens. (Trust me. Would I lie?) Not only would overt elements like
dialog need to reflect a less sophisticated, more colloquial style, but in the first
person point of view, even thoughts and reactions would need to show that same
level of youthful . . . (ahem) energy. Not being smart enough to resist challenges
like those, I started thinking through my fingers a little.
Tigger was continuing to develop his own story ("Season of Terror") in
parallel, and while the two projects were in some ways mutually supportive
(sharing some characters), my story would not have come into being without his
help and insight - sometimes even at the cost of his own story progression. In
fact, at a point when I had not written even a third of my story, he provided a
segment that became the focus for all the remainder.
The result was Jessica's story. It's as much Tigger's creation as mine, and we
both hope you enjoy it.
Brandy Dewinter - February 2002
(
geocities.com/b_dewinter)