A Word from
the Author
Welcome!
I’m Erika Shepard, writer, speaker, retired field geologist, world traveler and transgender woman.
We’ve all had a few challenges and adventures in our lives. Many of mine have found their way onto the pages of my books. Some were unique, others not, but as always seems to be the case, they involved risk and the sometimes unsettling, sometimes liberating possibility of change.
We all face change. At times we find ourselves confronted by it, like it or not. We are then faced with two choices: a steep rocky road on the left or a slippery muddy one on the right. Both lead to something new, but neither is appealing. Yet we must move forward.
This is a theme I weave into my writing, whether it be a transgender story, a geology adventure, or a tale of ordinary people trying to survive their choices. The written word allows us to share these experiences. It is in that sharing we may sometimes see our own lives in a different light.
With that in mind, I thank you for taking the time to visit my website. I hope you find in these offerings a different light that works for you.
New Release
Abomination Child
A Transgender Journey.
A young boy in 1958 Missouri, a Halloween party at school, and suddenly a seemingly ordinary family is torn to shreds by a single violent act. Abomination Child is a story of one person coming to terms with being different, but it also follows each family member as they struggle with the consequences, each trying to find their own path forward even as the world changes around them. It is a tale of survival, change, and the importance of love and respect in all our lives.
Trans-Formations:
From Field Boots to Sensible Heels
A memoir.
On a sunny summer day walking on the railroad tracks near my home in Missouri I found sparkly rocks amidst the creosote-soaked rail ties and was fascinated. Later that year, on a rainy, cold day playing in the basement of a neighbor girl’s house, I discovered something else—that I desperately wanted to be a girl. I was then eight years old.
A career in geology and a life of cross-dressing in secret followed. For forty years I led that double life as I struggled to be everything society expected me to be—until I finally couldn’t.