If body and gender identity don't match, life is hard on people of any age. Hunter hasn't felt whole since realizing in his teens that he isn't Holly. As a teen with no hope, Hunter lived male in his head, but turned his female body over to sex, pregnancy, miscarriage.
By the age of thirty-nine, Hunter has saved enough to have Gender Confirmation Surgery, leading to legal identity as a gay man. His voiced deepens, and male pattern baldness sets in. He's finally seen as a man. But without the final genital surgery, he still feels incomplete and lonely.
He's in a bar nursing a martini as a tragedy unfold on the TV when a chance encounter from his long-ago past frightens him. Will Chris be another disappointment or a chance for happiness?
Autorentext
Emery C. Walters was born Carol Forde, a name he soon knew didn't fit the boy he was inside. Transition was unknown back then, so he married and then bore and raised four children. When his youngest child, his gay son, left home, Emery told Carol that she had to step aside, and he fully transitioned from female to male in 2001.
Emery worked in county government and as a college writing tutor before retiring. He and his wife Robyn, herself raised mistakenly as a boy, live in Hawaii where they combine snorkeling, scuba diving, and volunteer work with activities to boost LGBT rights and awareness.
Interested in Ninjutsu, both land and underwater photography, and writing, Emery can usually be found writing, reading, or sailing on his imaginary pirate ship.
Emery's 2010 first published novel, Last Year's Leaves, is an intense story of recovery from abuse and loss, finding love, and coming out whole. The book is laced with his trademark humor. His recent publications include four other coming of age novels involving coming out and overcoming obstacles as well as two books of short stories. All are humorous and filled with hope. Drystan the Dire, Emery's Welsh pirate ancestor, shows up at times to help the heroes and annoy the villains. Emery currently has two more novels in the publishing pipeline.
Between them, the Walters have eight adult children, umpteen grandchildren, and one great grandchild, none of whom can do a thing about the genetic material handed down to them -- their gift to the future. So there.