To be clear from the start I identify as female & lesbian but I'm actually transgendered, to be specific a male to female transsexual still in transition, Pre-op. I am passionately interested in music, film and literature. Not to mention the whole Gothic/Victorian/Industrial/Steampunk/Cyberpunk ethos. I really am 51 and none of this is new, my psyche was birthed at an early age heavily influenced by the writings of people like H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, Michael Moorcock, Tanith Lee among many others. Music was also a seminal influence, bands like Siouxsie & the Banshees, Joy Division, the Slits, Nina Hagen and others all influenced my aesthetic sensibilities. there were many other things - art & film for example that contributed - but for me the main thing is I never atrophied, became stuck in the tastes of my youth neither did I "grow up" renounce my past & embrace the orthodox/mainstream/conventional/normal - in other words the blinkered, the bigoted, the hypocritical, the racists, the politically correct, the homophobes - well the list just goes on and on doesn't it? Suffice it to say I've continued on my own path through life following my own drum :-) Michaela.