Transmutation Now!

"Transmutation NOW!" is the name of Phil Geusz's first novel. Originally written circa 1997 as a near-daily serial posted on the Transformation Story Archive mailing list, TN! in many ways set the pattern for the bulk of Phil's later literary output. Consisting of six distinct sub-parts, the novel deals with the ethical, moral, and even philosophical consequences of altering the human form. Yet it is also very much an action-adventure tale, following the trials and tribulations of Jack Strafford, an actor who unwillingly becomes a rabbit for a role in a movie. Due to circumstances beyond his or anyone else's control he becomes stranded in his new body, and must learn to accept that things will never again be as they once were for him. At first depression sets in, then Jack decides to make the most of his new life instead of whiling away the years just moping around. Once his attitude changes, he grows and grows and grows until eventually he finds himself staring into something frighteningly akin to the face of God himself.

Phil made several attempts to market this novel over the years before it finally found a permanent home at Raccoon's Bookshelf, here.

It has also been made available through Amazon.com here

TN! in time became a storyverse, though a closed one. Phil went on to write several other tales based on the original TN! concept, the best-known of which is "Love Carrot", a short-story about an all-bunny rock band of the same name. (Indeed, some sources refer to the TN! setting as the "Love Carrot" storyverse.) Also fairly well-known are a series of tales about Carl, a grizzled Chicago police officer who had himself age-regressed to boyhood as part of a federal undercover program intended to combat gangs, drug-dealers and child-molesters. Perhaps most significant of these "follow-on" works was a group of stories about the Church of the Transmutated Mind, a quasi-religious institution intended to foster spiritual growth through freedom of form. These works served as the ideological foundation for Phil's later (and far better) works in the "Drama Class" storyverse, in which spiritual growth through transmutation is again emphasized. (See "Lapism") There has been some TN! fanfic written and posted as well; while Phil is flattered by this, he cannot consider it canonical as he hopes someday to return to this setting and perhaps, as is his habit, write about universe-shattering events. A second TN! novel, "Stamp of Approval", was begun and abandoned in roughly 1998; Phil has never entirely given up hope for it, and therefore desires to retain full control over the setting.

"Transmutation NOW!" was how many readers were first introduced to Phil's writing, and it remains the work he is perhaps best-known for.