A Birthday Ask

Dear Friends,

Chapter 23, Part 2 wrapped up “First Quarter Century,” the first section of My Life as a Turtle: How I Made it to Geezer by Lying, Hiding, and Denying.

I honestly didn’t know if I’d have the perseverance—or guts—to come clean about it all. Thank you for sticking with me so far. I sincerely hope my story has made at least one person feel less alone in their differentness. Maybe enlightened a soul here or there about transgender truths, emotional/psychological child-abuse, or non-able-bodied realities. Possibly rippled a chuckle through the heavy-handedness we call life in the 21^st century.

The next (as yet unnamed) section blends The Partridge Family with Anne Hathaway’s segment of Modern Love and the core of Young Sheldon as I learn about bi-polar disorder, travel across the US and Canada doing a husband-wife act, and cope with a two-year-old who can gleefully outthink me.

All the while still butting my head against my internal gender wall, finding new workarounds for physical challenges, and refereeing my husband’s needs-and-demands in his wrestling match with my mother’s expectations-and-control while my own conflicting impulses-and-desires stand on the sidelines, as if a spectator in my own life.

But I have an ask.

In celebration of my natal day at the end of this month, I’d love it if 70 readers would let me know they grok with what I’m doing and want to keep getting new Turtle chapters as I write them. It’d be the most bestest 70^th birthday gift ever!

I’m not begging for paid subscribers. Just click the “like” button, leave a comment or note here at csharris.Substack.com, or email me directly at harrisstein68@gmail.com.

Just let me know you want me to keep going.

I’ll return the favor with your choice of:

• HUMPTY DUMPTY: AFTER THE FALL, the delightful, never released non-children’s picture book based on a concept by Dr. Joseph Moskowitz (decd.), with gorgeous illustrations by Mary Patton, and story by, well, me

• HIRED BODIES, the novel about Bobby (aka Eric, aka Ricky), Greg, Howard, and Jeff, in which I came out without realizing what the heck I was doing

• THIS BUSINESS OF BOOKS: A Complete Overview of the Book Industry from Concept through Sales, 5^th Edition, my “standard of the industry” title that spread to almost every country in the world  

Writing books is, after all, what I do. I did eventually grow up to be a real boy (who-looks-like-a-girl). To become The Ghostwriting Expert, so named by a grateful student. To ghost hundreds of titles—some award-winning, many bestselling, a few peer-reviewed in academic presses, and nearly (admittedly non-all)  satisfying their authors. And I established the first-and-still-only comprehensive (and award-winning) ghostwriter-training program in the world.

Despite it all, I done good, as my Nana would say.

So excuse me for being pedantic, but if Joe Moskowitz could call himself “the original comeback kid,” I can dub myself “the poster child for human bulldozers.” I’ve helped as many people as I possibly could by keeping my head down and ramrodding through all the constantly cropping-up crap of my life.

Which means so can you.

It’ll be non-easy. Non-quick. But I know you can do it—I believe in you. Why? Because, frankly, because  after thirty-five years of launching author and ghostwriter careers, I know people. And if you’re perusing these words, you have what it takes to get where you want to go.

The ones who don’t stopped reading long ago.

Claudia Suzanne, aka CSHarris