by P R Ellis
In this story Jasmine at last goes through her Gender Confirmation Surgery. They say you should write about what you know but while I consider myself to be genderfluid, I am not transsexual and have not and do not intend to go through that operation. I have therefore relied on accounts by transwomen of their experiences, in particular those of Jules Jacques as described in her book, Trans A Memoir (pub. Verso ISBN 978-1-78478-164-4). I admire the determination of all transwomen, and transmen, to achieve the physical attributes of their gender identity. There are many other people, the world over, who question the gender stereotypes in the societies in which they grew up and live. Whether they feel confident to proclaim their identities or feel they have to put on a mask to protect themselves, this book and the other Jasmine Frame stories are a symbol of solidarity.
There are a variety of characters in this story, some who engage in practices that some readers may consider weird. While I try to make the characters as plausible as possible they are all figments of my imagination and none are based on real people. Similarly, although the locations are based on places in the Newbury area you won’t find an establishment like Molly’s in the town that Thirsbury is modelled on (at least I don’t think so).
Finally, thank you, dear reader for getting this far. If you enjoyed this book please write a review or tell your friends. If you haven’t read any other Jasmine Frame stories, details about the novels and novellas follow.
P R Ellis
Jasmine Frame Novels
Available in paperback and e-book
Painted Ladies
A Jasmine Frame Story
Published 2013
Jasmine Frame was scared of knives when she was a policeman. Now she finds herself on the trail of a knife killer, but it’s not just her skin that is in danger. Her identity as a woman is under threat.
Bodies By Design
The 2nd Jasmine Frame Novel
Published 2015
Three months after the events of Painted Ladies, Jasmine responds to a call for help and finds herself involved in a murder case by the special request of DCI Sloane. But who or what was the victim? What was the motive? Jasmine’s investigation leads into the murkier regions of the transgender scene. Meanwhile, she is about to take an irreversible step to lose her masculinity. What are the parallels between her situation and that of the murder victim?
The Brides’ Club Murder
The 3rd Jasmine Frame novel
Published 2017
A country house hotel. A death. Ten suspects. Jasmine Frame has a weekend to identify the killer before the attendees of the Butterfly Ball disperse. She must pretend to enjoy the strange activities of the Wedding Belles, but, with her gender reassignment still some way off she is uncomfortable confined with a party of transvestites. Nevertheless, she relishes a mystery. What drove a member of the group to kill and are they prepared to kill again?
Praise for the Jasmine Frame novels
Painted Ladies
“…Jasmine is a very engaging character, well written and believable. Her emotions and feelings are central to the book and, I hope, will shed light on a situation that cannot be easy to accept and live with in face of everyday prejudice. However, this is a crime novel and stands on its own as such. I found it a page-turner and really enjoyed reading it…”
Susan White, Eurocrime
“…Painted Ladiesis the first literary examination, that we have seen, of the trans community in the role of both detective and victim, a rare and exquisite treat…”
Jake Basford, So So Gay Magazine
Bodies By Design
“I had enjoyed Painted Ladies and was pleased to find that Bodies by Design was if anything even better. Like PL, BBD shows the great range of types of sexual/gender identity – not exhaustively.”
Sue King
The Brides’ Club Murder
“This is the third outing for Jasmine Frame, and the character development is progressing well, as we follow Jasmine on her personal transition journey. This is interrupted by a suspicious death at a local hotel, hosting the gathering of the Wedding Belles and, this year, a real wedding. Jasmine is forced to go undercover for the conference in an attempt to identify the killer.
It’s an enjoyable read, in the style of Agatha Christie, as Jasmine explores the means, motives and opportunities of each of the Wedding Belles. I felt this novel was a little more 'cosier' than the previous two.
While this book works as a standalone novel, to fully understand Jasmine’s personal journey I would recommend reading the first two novels in the series first.”
Simon Whaley
Jasmine Frame Novellas and Anthologies
(e-book only)
Discovering Jasmine
Published 2015
James Frame is 17 and struggling with his desire to be Jasmine. When sister, Holly, discovers Jasmine she suggests a venture into the outside world. Jasmine meets a transwoman facing severe hate and finds herself drawn to protect her.
Murder in Doubt
Published 2016
James Frame is starting at university and experimenting with revealing Jasmine to his new friends including a young woman called Angela. When a new acquaintances, a transwoman, is found dead Jasmine is certain it is murder and sets out to prove it.
Trained By Murder
Published 2018
Four stories, four locations, four deaths and four dilemmas give Jasmine Frame a training in the art of detection. As James she is embarking on a career in the police force and a marriage to Angela, while wondering what part Jasmine will play in her life. She strives to keep Jasmine secret from her colleagues but the urge to be female is ever-present. The examples and experiences of the transmen, transwomen and crossdressers that she meets influence her decisions. She has choices and decisions to make and crimes to solve.
ORDER FORM
To order copies of the paperback editions of the Jasmine Frame novels, fill-in the order form (downloadable as a pdf from ellifont.wordpress.com/jasmine-frame-publications/
Title
Cost (inc p&p)
Number required
Total cost
Painted Ladies
£8.99
£
Bodies By Design
£9.99
£
The Brides’ Club Murder
£9.99
£
Molly’s Boudoir
£9.99
£
Total
£
Send your order to [email protected]
Or post to:
Ellifont, Flat 20 Llangattock Court, Dixton Road, Monmouth NP25 3PX
Payment can be made by cheque payable to P R Ellis
Or by PayPal to the account attached to
[email protected]
Volume 1 of Evil Above the Stars
Seventh Child
Peter R. Ellis
September Weekes is accustomed to facing teasing and bullying because of her white hair, tubby figure and silly name, but the discovery of a clear, smooth stone at her home casts her into a struggle between good and evil that will present her with sterner challenges.
The stone takes her to Gwlad, the Land, where the people hail her as the Cludydd o Maengolauseren, the bearer of the starstone, with the power to defend them against the evil known as the Malevolence. September meets the people’s leader, the Mordeyrn Aurddolen, and the bearers of the seven metals linked to the seven ‘planets’. Each metal gives the bearer specialised powers to resist the manifestations of the Malevolence, formed from the four elements of earth, air, fire and water, such as the comets known as Draig tân, fire dragons.
She returns to her home, but is drawn back to the Land a fortnight later to find that two years have passed and the villagers have experienced more destructive attacks by manifestations. September must now help defend Gwlad against the Malevolence.
Seventh Child is the first volume in the thrilling fantasy series, Ev
il Above the Stars, by Peter R. Ellis, that appeals to readers, of all ages, of fantasy or science fiction, especially fans of JRR Tolkien and Stephen Donaldson. If old theories are correct until a new idea comes along, does the universe change with our perception of it? Were the ideas embodied in alchemy ever right? What realities were the basis of Celtic mythology?
ISBN: 9781908168702 (epub, kindle)
ISBN: 9781908168603 (256pp paperback)
Visit bit.ly/EvilAbove
* * *
Volume 2 of Evil Above the Stars
The Power of Seven
Peter R. Ellis
September Weekes found a smooth stone which took her to Gwlad, the Land, where the people hailed her as the Cludydd o Maengolauseren, the bearer of the starstone, with the power to defend them against the evil known as the Malevolence. Now, having reached Arsyllfa she is re-united with the Mordeyrn Aurddolen with whom, together with the other senior metal bearers that make up the Council of Gwlad, she must plan the defence of the Land.
The time of the next Conjunction will soon be at hand. The planets, the Sun and the Moon will all be together in the sky. At that point the protection of the heavenly bodies will be at its weakest and Gwlad will be more dependent than ever on September. But now it seems that she must defeat Malice, the guiding force behind the Malevolence, if she is to save the Land and all its people. Will she be strong enough; and, if not, to whom can she turn for help?
The Power of Seven is the second volume in the thrilling fantasy series, Evil Above the Stars, by Peter R. Ellis, that appeals to readers, of all ages, of fantasy or science fiction, especially fans of JRR Tolkien and Stephen Donaldson. If old theories are correct until a new idea comes along, does the universe change with our perception of it? Were the ideas embodied in alchemy ever right? What realities were the basis of Celtic mythology?
ISBN: 9781908168719 (epub, kindle)
ISBN: 9781908168610 (288pp paperback)
Visit bit.ly/EvilAbove
* * *
Volume 3 of Evil Above the Stars
Unity of Seven
Peter R. Ellis
September is back home and it is still the night of her birthday, despite her having spent over three months in Gwlad battling the Malevolence at the seventh conjunction of the planets. She no longer has the Maengolauseren nor the powers it gave her. It is back to facing the bullies at school and her struggles with her weight and studies, but she worries about how well the people of Gwlad have recovered from the terror of the Malevolence. She is also unsure what happened to Malice/Mairwen as the Cemegwr said that Toddfa penbaladr, the universal solvent, would join the twins together. Is Malice inside her? Could she turn to evil?
She must discover a way to return to the universe of Gwlad and the answer seems to lie in her family history. The five Cludydds before September and her mother were her ancestors. The clues take her on a journey in time and space which reveals that while in great danger she is also the key to the survival of all the universes. September must overcome her own fears, accept an extraordinary future and, once again, face the evil above the stars.
Unity of Seven is the third volume in the thrilling fantasy series, Evil Above the Stars, by Peter R. Ellis, that appeals to readers, of all ages, of fantasy or science fiction, especially fans of JRR Tolkien and Stephen Donaldson. If old theories are correct until a new idea comes along, does the universe change with our perception of it? Were the ideas embodied in alchemy ever right? What realities were the basis of Celtic mythology?
ISBN: 9781908168917 (epub, kindle)
ISBN: 9781908168818 (256pp paperback)
Visit bit.ly/EvilAbove
* * *
September Weekes returns…
Cold Fire
Peter R. Ellis
London, 1680. The famous philosopher, Sir Robert Boyle, is about to demonstrate the results of his investigations of the phosphorus and its cold fire to fellows of the Royal Society and other guests. Far away at the edge of Wales an alchemist learns of the discovery and, helped by his young assistant, attempts in his own way to form the mysterious material, little suspecting that his work threatens to open the universe to the evil power of the Malevolence.
Summoned by the Brains, September, the Cludydd o Maengolauseren, arrives charged with halting the Malevolence’s storm of destruction. But how? She finds herself out of her time and in a world not quite her own. Nevertheless her experience of the Malevolence tells her that she must do something. The fantastic beasts she encounters may come to her aid, if she can work out how to save them from the Cold Fire.
For September, hardly any time has passed since she was trying to save Gwlad in Peter R. Ellis’ thrilling fantasy series Evil Above the Stars. Now, in the first of the September Weekes novels, she appears to be closer to home, at least in space if not time. But not everything is as she’d expect it, and she still seems to be wearing her school uniform! Combining science, fantasy and adventure, this is a novel truly worthy of the designation Speculative Fiction.
ISBN: 9781911409168 (epub, kindle)
ISBN: 9781911409069 (264pp paperback)
Visit bit.ly/Cold-Fire
MEET THE AUTHOR
P R Ellis goes by the names Peter or Penny. He/she (whatever) is transgender or gender fluid or non-binary.
What that means is that I was born male, lived most of my life male but I have a feminine side (?) that I have been able to reveal for the last sixteen plus years. My ideas about myself and where I fit in the gender spectrum or map have changed during the course of my sixty-plus years. I now think of myself as “me”, i.e. not two people, not one person sometimes acting as another, but someone who while physically male likes to express feminine preferences in dress, appearance and perhaps other attributes, if not all the time, then whenever convenient.
I was a science teacher, have always been a writer, and now, having retired from the career that paid the bills, am indulging myself by writing what I want to write and trying to get it published. As well as the Jasmine Frame stories, I write fantasy and SF, articles on science and still, occasionally, science education resources.
Lou and I live in Monmouthshire where we do all sorts of things.
You can follow me and Jasmine on my blog www.ellifont.wordpress.com