Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas to all...

...and to all a Good Night (er.. day... season... youknowwhatImean!!)!


Obviously this is my Christmas post.  But unlike the past two years where I make a pretty sad cap to try and celebrate (let's face it... my caps aren't exactly celebratory!), I decided to follow in Dee's footsteps and have a Christmas Link Exchange.  The idea is that these blogs will be celebrating Christmas much in the same way... by giving attention to other blogs.

While I opened this up to any an all blog and cap creators, I'm actually happy to say that everyone that signed up is a friend.  Dee, Leanne, Katilyn, Alectra, Anne, Jennifer, Martha and Annabelle.  I honestly visit these blogs on a regular basis and enjoy their work a lot!  I didn't have to search for an example from these fine ladies to showcase their work.  Instead I had to narrow the dozens of posts and caps that I love down to a single one.   This list isn't in a particular order, other than roughly how they signed up.


Dee Mentia of 
Dee'lusions of Grandeur


The whole idea of this Christmas Link Exchange was Dee's idea.  It never surprises me when Dee comes up with a good idea as she is one of the cap artists that inspired me to join Rachel's Haven and got me into capping myself.

As a person Dee is the very definition of a mentor.  She is always there to give advice or an encouraging word.  She's friendly, open and willing to share her experiences to others in a friendly way.  She not only makes caps faster than a rabbit mates (seriously... give her an idea and she'll be showing you the final draft in a matter of minutes!), she also runs her blog and helps administer at Rachel's Haven.

Her blog is fairly unique in the world of TG caps blogs in that she not only shares her creations with everyone, she also inspires and encourages discussions.  These discussions can range from the TG cap creation process, to living life as a woman, to politics, to world events.    While I love viewing her fun, zinger filled caps, I also love participating in the discussions she encourages.

I chose this particular caps because it's a recent example of both Dee's cap style, and her ability to garner conversation.  Without even adding a discussion question (which Dee normally does), she got six people to talk about voting.  Voting!

-------------------

Leeanne Montgomery of 
Leeanne's Sissy Musings


Leeanne is a more recent friend, although I've followed her stories for some time now.  You see, unlike most here, she isn't a cap artist.  Instead she's an author.  She has written both "Woman Partner" and the more recent and continuing  "My Fall To Grace" (both available on fictionmania).  

As you can tell by her blog title, Leeanne centers in on the Sissy mindset as opposed to TransGendered or Transformation stories.  While her stories are very long and detailed, Leeanne's blog posts are wonderfully short and to the point.  They come out in various forms from a guide on how to get the best of your sissy to a slice of life from a sissy's perspective.  

The post I've linked to here is a perfect example of how she can squirmingly point out the advantages of the propper sissy postures. Crouching down not only helps the sissy look into the oven where she is no doubt cooking a luscious meal for her wife and her wife's lover, but this position also allows the sissy to proper fluff her wife's lover and/or lick her wife's glorious pussy.  This alone would make any sissy or sissy lover melt into a puddle of bliss, but Leanne also goes on to demonstrate how this position can be used by a sissy's wife (to sit over her sissy's mouth, or ride her lover), or even a sissy's wife's lover (to plow cock first into a sissy's open and waiting mouth).  


-------------------

Kaitlyn Renee of 
Kaity's Fantabulous Captions

Katilyn is a sweetheart.  She represents the 'Sugar and spice and everything nice' in TG captions.  That's not to say that she can't be sarcastic (she still can't stop reminding me that she was Katilyn long before I was Caitlyn!), fun and dirty minded... but I've always looked at her and her captions as 'good' in almost equal opposition to the 'dark' captions I tend to make.

While Katilyn has been making caps far longer than I have, she is fairly new to the blogging world.  While all the other blogs listed here have in excess of 200 followers, Katilyn only has 37.  And that's just a damned shame.  Only 37 people so far have been smart enough to follow Katilyn's great caps and talking points.

So while it might make more sense to show one of Katilyn's great recent TG-ABC caps, I wanted to share one of her darker posts.  I think it demonstrates the width and breadth of her work.  And while it's not XXX rated (she does those too!), it shows that she can create cap that makes you smile and go 'aww.. that's so cute!' in one breath and create another that makes you shiver with dark delight in the very next breath.

Seriously.... if you enjoy reading my caps, then you need to go and check out Katilyn's.  If you are anything like me, you aren't a fan of the sweet stuff in general, but Katilyn delivers on ALL the goods and I'm a big fan of hers.

-------------------

Alectra Play of 
Alectra's Playgrounds

Alectra is the TG capping community personified.  While you can guarantee that each and every one of her caps will be about a man transforming into a woman, you can never guess what she's going to come up with next.   Leather, latex, bondage, sweet, saucy, squirmy, emotional, dominant, submissive, a tale of beautiful renewal, or a tale of sad destruction... Alectra does it all.

One of the things that I love about Alectra is that she never stops improving her design and layouts.  Like me she has a commitment to continue improving and never resting on the laurels of her previously beautiful work.   This cap that I'm linking to is a perfect example of her work... it's dark and latex and foreboding... but at the same time the story is beautiful and makes us all want to be the subject.

And to top it all, she's not even a native English speaker.  I recall having difficulty reading her captions in the past, but Alectra has even improved in this area.  When I say that she's become a better writer, I don't mean that her stories are better developed or that she has better subject material... she's always had those things.  No, she's continuing to improve her writing in a foreign language.  As someone who can barely count to ten in Spanish and only knows a dozen or so words of German, I really have to tip my pretty pink hat to Alectra for writing so well in a language she hasn't spoken her entire life.

-------------------

Anne Oni Mouse of
Anne Oni Mouse: TG and the rest


Anne is simply put a creative genius.  Not only does she write fun engaging stories to go into her caps... not only does she incorporate an elegant design and layout in her caps... but she also creates the images used for them!

That's right... while other cap artists (myself included) can talk about artistry and creativity, Anne is one of the only that can say every bit of her cap is hers and hers alone.  Where I can spend hours looking for the right image to use, Anne simply hunkers down and makes the right image.  It really gives her caps the unique feel of the image and story being created specifically for each other... because they WERE created for each other!

But Anne isn't a one trick pony.  Her caps cover a wide range of subject and tones, leaving her readers in full suspense as to what will come next.  I chose this cap to share as I think it shows how her writing stands up equally well to the images she creates.  The story is simple enough... guy goes into a spa and gets transformed into a woman in the steam... but Anne writes it in a way that you can read it over and over and find some new detail to focus on.

Anne doesn't even limit herself to a single blog.  She runs several so that she can get her wonderful work out to as many people as possible.  So don't just check out this single cap... check out the whole world of her creations!

-------------------

Jennifer of
Jennifer's TG caps of Defiance

Jennifer is a dear friend of mine.  Way beyond her beautiful and sexy caps, we are close friends that talk often, play on DX together and share almost everything.  She's almost always one of the first people to volunteer help (to other cappers, to friends, to the Haven community, to the DX community ..), and she even sticks her neck out to offer help when it's needed even if it hasn't been requested.  It's sometimes hard to believe that such a sweet girl can make such dirty, sexy, over the top, XXX, deviant caps... but she does just that.

It would be almost easy to pigeon hole Jennifer's work as sultry hot one handed reading material.. but she goes far beyond that.  I chose this cap to show off how she can send us inside the mind of her subject and make us all believe that it's truly happening to us.  Her writing has just that perfect tone of authenticity that it's hard to believe that she isn't explaining something that has actually happened.  The story outline is simplicity itself... guy/gal thinks to himself how he came to be transformed by a woman... but the cap could hardly be described in such a simple way.  It just has to be read to get all the nuance out of it.

I find it hard to believe that any fan of my work isn't already a fan of Jennifer's.  But just in case, don't let the fact that I chose a 'clean' cap of hers to showcase to mean that she doesn't write the sexy stuff.  If anyone has a bigger oral fetish than me, it would have to be Jennifer.  And she caps about that often!  Her blog has been around since early January and she has hundreds of caps to peruse through.

-------------------


Martha of
And Now for something completely different...


Martha and I have traded many caps.  We both have a love for a good down and dirty cap, but beyond that we're not really close on our preferences.  Martha likes the idea of not necessarily being transformed, but more likes the idea of just becoming a woman and living her life.

The Great Shift Universe is one of Martha's favorites, as it not only makes her into a woman but also is random as to who it will make her.  You see Martha likes to explore how a person would react when everything changes.  Not just gender, but social status, race, ethnicity... hell I think she's even explored religion!

So with her transformations, she also likes more 'real' photos.  Snapshots, where I prefer studio shots.  I chose this cap of hers to showcase because it demonstrates a lot of these traits.  A gender and race change that has a good snapshot image.  Her design is still clean though, which makes it easy to read.

And if that doesn't capture your interest, then you need to stop by Martha's blog and check out the fun games she's done.  The last one involved sending her the amount of money you'd pull from a magic ATM.  When she got all the responses, she made up several transformations, so you could find out what you became!

-------------------



Annabelle Raven-Hyde of
Annabelle's Family Tradition




Annabelle has taken her specialty of making family TG caps and taken it a full step further.  You may recognize the name 'Hyde'... that's not just of the Jekyll variety.  No, Annabelle has a whole family of TG cappers that's joined in on the fun.

Many cappers out there have taken he name of 'Hyde' and now call Annabelle their TG mom.  And what fun they have together.  Annabelle will often include these cappers and their individual personalities in her captions.

But even when she doesn't include other members of the Hyde family, her caps have a family feel.  I included this caption to showcase as it shows the fun sexy nature of her family caps.  The story lets us all wonder how their party went without being obvious and showing us the action directly.  Very sexy indeed!

I'll admit that I don't know Annabelle as well as I do the other cappers here.  While we travel in some of the same circles, our paths haven't crossed directly.  Maybe that's something I'll have to remedy in the New Year!

-------------------

Alexis Michelle of
Captions by Alexis

This is a late addition to the Christmas Link Exchange, but one that is certainly worth adding.  You see sadly, I had to close off submissions early Christmas Eve morning as that's when my festivities started.  I had written most of this post before then, and once closed I just had to do a little polishing and set it up to publish on Christmas morning.

When I got back to my computer this morning, I saw that Alexis threw her hat into the ring only a couple hours after I had closed it off.  At first I was just going to let it go... she did ask to come in late after all.  But then I went over to her blog... and wow Alexis is a prolific cap artist.  Her first post was August 26th of this year, and she's already made 557 posts (for comparison's sake, I've made 447.... in just over two years!).

I hate to admit that my first thought was that Alexis was posting other people's work.  But I couldn't spot any other peoples caps in her blog, and her caps do carry a certain unique style.  Her blog is certainly worth visiting, and worth adding here!
-------------------

So that's my Christmas Link Exchange list.  I hope to do this again next year (or maybe sooner if people want!) as there are plenty of bloggers and blogs out there that would enjoy the extra attention.  I also hope that you've gone through and visited each of the blogs listed here.  Not only are the blog masters fun people to know their art deserves to be seen by everybody.  I'm sure you'll become a fan of all of them, just like I have!

10 comments:

  1. Dear Caitlyn,

    As with all that you do, you even excel at something such as this gift exchange idea Dee had. I truly appreciate the TG Cappers including me in the fun. Thank you.

    Merry Christmas,

    Leeanne

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Leeanne! It was great fun writing up all these mini reviews.

      Delete
  2. Dear Caitlyn,

    I just wanted to thank you for your kind words and let you know I'm your fan too! Hugs & Kisses,

    Kaity

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh Caitlyn that so sweet from you to say! I really appreciate what you said. And I have to say that I love the cap you've chosen to show, because it was written during an emotional state that made want to quit from all, but in the end decided to keep on going.

    Thank you. It's really an special one to me :)

    Funny fact, we posted our post almost at the same time!

    Hugs and Kisses Alectra

    P.S: I did had my experience talking in english with real people... I mean... Live errr in fron of them. In London.. Mmm you know what I mean ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Alectra! I could tell that particular cap was a little more emotional, and that (at least to me!) made it a little more special!

      Delete
  4. Hi Caitlyn, thanks for the appreciation. Actually I sort of inherited Hyde from the existing Hydes: Evie, Victoria, et al... We'll definitely have to interact more. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Annabelle!

      You know, I've always been curious about the genesis and fluidity of the 'Hyde' moniker! All of the girls out there that have taken the name seem to be great artists on their own, but together you are a full force to be reckoned with. I look forward to interacting with you more!

      Delete
  5. Thanks for participating in the Christmas Links Exchange! I think we spread some Christmas Cheer in our little corner of the internet world!

    And if there is ever a Zagat Guide to TG Caption Blogs made, YOU should be the one to write all the blurbs!

    ReplyDelete