OF SOUND MIND AND SOMEONE ELSE’S BODY
by William Quincy Belle
Science Fiction with (gasp) sex!
Alan Maitland is a successful businessman on his way up the corporate ladder. Life is good, but life is also full of the unexpected. A scientific experiment goes awry, and Alan’s mind is transferred to the body of Hana Toussaint, a high-class escort. Suddenly, he must not only contend with a new identity, but with the eye-opening experience of living as a female: how to walk in high heels without falling; how to put on a bra without dislocating a shoulder; how to deal with makeup without poking out an eye; and how to get along in a society which in many ways is still male-dominated.
When Alan discovers that Hana has taken over his body, the two of them must work together to find the scientist who can reverse the experiment and give them back their respective lives. Along the way, they must cope with living as each other and learn what it's like to be a member of the opposite sex. And as their adventure goes on, Alan the woman must figure out his growing feelings for Hana the man.
Alan faces the biggest challenge of his life which Hana sums up with one decisive question:
“Are you man enough to be a woman?”
EXCERPT
Alan stepped out of the hotel onto the still-busy street. The night air cooled his flushed skin. He took a deep breath and looked around. It was in a nondescript city neighborhood made up of multi-story buildings with commercial fronts. He didn’t recognize anything. Where am I?
He checked Hana’s phone for GPS or a map, but the display showed Enter your password. He had to find somebody to give him directions.
Spotting the illuminated sign of a convenience store, he headed down the street. In the light of the store window, he fished out the wallet and scanned the driver’s license again.
A man walked by, and Alan called out, “Hey, buddy!”
The man continued until he looked at him and stopped. “Hey, baby. What are you doing out so late? As if I need to ask.”
“Do you know where Charlton Street is?”
“If you invite me over, I may be able to help you.” The man grinned.
Alan frowned. What the hell had gotten into this guy? “Charlton Street. Tell me where Charlton Street is.”
The man ambled over and stood close. “Come on, sugar. How about being nice to a guy?” He reeked of alcohol.
“Oh, Christ,” Alan said. He stomped into the store. Behind the counter, a teenage boy flipped through a magazine. “Do you know where Charlton Street is?” Alan asked.
The boy raised his head and stared mesmerized. Alan snapped his fingers in front of the boy’s eyes. “Hey, you there. Where’s Charlton Street?”
The boy stammered, “This is Varick. Go out the door, turn right, and go down five blocks.” He stretched out his arm to point.
“Where’s East Seventy-Eighth Street?”
“That’s the Upper East Side. It’s miles from here.”
“Thanks.”
Alan started for the door, then stopped and gaped at the hand he had used to snap at the boy. He curled his fingers, then splayed them, looking at the long fingernails lacquered in bright red with little blue stars by the cuticles. He assumed the nails were fake, but he couldn’t tell. Then a surprising thought came to him: They were his fingernails.
He glanced up and saw a security mirror over the door. The teenage boy leaned over the counter to stare at his backside. He looked down. The skirt he wore was short, so he showed a lot of leg. No wonder the boy was checking him out. Checking him out? If he knew the truth, he would run for the hills. This was pushing cross-dressing to the limit.
~Buy OF SOUND MIND AND SOMEONE ELSE’S BODY on Amazon
ABOUT WILLIAM QUINCY BELLE
William Quincy Belle is just a guy. Nobody famous; nobody rich; just some guy who likes to periodically add his two cents worth with the hope, accounting for inflation, that $0.02 is not over evaluating his contribution. He claims that at the heart of the writing process is some sort of (psychotic) urge to put it down on paper and likes to recite the following, which so far he hasn't been able to attribute to anyone: "A writer is an egomaniac with low self-esteem." You will find Mr. Belle's unbridled stream of consciousness floating around in cyberspace.
Find him online:
-website
-Facebook
-Twitter
-Amazon
GIVEAWAY
William Quincy Belle will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn host.
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Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteHow long ago did you come up for the idea of your book?
ReplyDeleteThis book was my 2013 NaNoWriMo project: fifty thousand words in eleven days. However, it took nearly three years of fiddling around off and on, working with various professionals, to arrive at a version where I felt good about putting my name on it. I would like to hope a reader is entertained and not faced with the literary equivalent of a bad move, “I want two hours of my life back!”
DeleteThank you for participating in this book tour. Being an indie author is an uphill struggle.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Wikipedia, there are 2.2 million new books published each year, 300,000 in the U.S., 150,000 in the United Kingdom, 20,000 in Canada. The book review section of The Washington Post states they get 150 new titles each day. Each day! What are the chances of anyone getting noticed? Even if somebody has written the next classic, there’s the harsh reality of statistics. Having the public choose any particular book out of the annual American field of 300,000 strikes me as being the equivalent of winning the literary lottery. Congratulations, E. L. James: over 70 million copies of the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy sold.
By the way, the above is about new books published each year. According to Google, there are over 150 million books in existence! Literary lottery, indeed!
There's a lot of junk out there, which means the public is leery of investing their time in anything unknown. Who wants the literary equivalent of bad movie? "I want two hours of my life back." Cheers to the risk-takers who brought E. L. James to the forefront.
I appreciate you taking the risk.
All the best to you in your world. :-)
I liked the excerpt, thank you.
ReplyDeleteIf a man suddenly had to live as a woman, how would he deal with life, love and even sex in a male-dominated world?
ReplyDeleteOf Sound Mind and Someone Else’s Body
Currently 4.4 out of 5 stars on Amazon
Interested, but not yet committed to reading the book? Visit my web site for a longer excerpt. (Warning: This may be a tad explicit. Of course, now that I’ve said that, it’s even more tempting to go look, right?)
Still wondering? Here’s what reviewers are saying.
5 Star Review: One would like to believe this
"That two sane rational people would react in a sane rational way to finding themselves in another body especially one of the opposite sex. Much of the genre that involves body/mind swaps is strictly erotic in nature as if every person swapped can't wait to have sex. Mr. Belle's work is far from that even though one of the protagonists is a professional escort. Sex plays a role in this decently plotted story but only as a sideline to some interesting philosophical questions. Questions that are approached with both humor and an open-minded desire to question societies hangups. Food for thought in a book about a bodyswap. Who would have thought? Then again in the end this is a thought piece wrapped in a sci-fi story that is just plausible enough to be believable. An entertaining and enlightening read."
5 star review: The mind switch trope but with nuanced exploration of the sexes
"When I first started this book, I expected it to be just another mind switch story so common in sci-fi. But the author has carefully chosen his switchees - Alan, a rather self absorbed rich guy, and Hana, a high class escort. Alan goes to bed, and is suddenly wakened in a position he finds repulsive. He panics, grabs his purse and runs home. He makes his way back to his condo, and meets with Hana,, now in his body. Over the next few days they experience life in different socioeconomic conditions than their wont. Even more significant, they experience being "the opposite sex". They both need to readjust their pre-conceived notions. Hana opens Alan's mind to looking at the world differently, and they both learn that some of their assumptions about men and women may have been mis-founded. For Alan, it's eye opening being looked at like a piece of meat. And Hana learns some painful physical lessons.
I was very pleasantly surprised at the way the author turned a rather trite science fiction cliché into an entertaining novel."
Good evening, Mr. Belle. Would you ever consider writing another story such as this one with the reverse happening? A woman's mind transferred into a man's body.
ReplyDeleteYou make me think of movie companies cashing in on the fame of a film and releasing Whatever 2 which turns out to be merely a rehashing of the first film and consequently, a lame remake. Can I return to this premise, these characters, with anything new and original?
DeleteI’m inclined right now to think not, although Metrofloat seems to have greater promise for a return. I would look upon such a thing with a great deal of caution. Did Blade Runner 2049 live up to the anticipatory hype?
However, before such a thing, I have several ideas to consider. A little more romance? A little more eroticism? Our only limitation is our imagination.
I understand what you are saying and I tend to agree with you that many sequels are lame and sometimes they tarnish the shine of the original. I suppose I was merely curious to know if you think that you could imagine the reverse happening and if so, could you put that experience into words?
DeleteWhen you say the opposite, keep in mind that the premise of the story is a man and a woman swapping bodies. I deal with a man in a woman's body and a woman in a man's body at the same time. While my original idea was to discuss women's issues by forcing a man to actually live as a female, I tried to emphasize these issues by having the woman see her own situation by living as a man.
Delete