It has come to my attention that this is a thing people do on The Tumblr (tm). I am a tumblr newbie (and honestly, a social media in general newbie), so bear with me as I describe my first ever “real” blog.
TL; DR:
Ask me questions about writing!! Especially LGBT+ fiction and Sci-fi / Fantasy.
My hashtags are: #summerghost evolve (art school), #summerghost art (general art) | #summerghost craft of writing (discussing writing), #summerghost writing (pieces by me) | #summerghost linguist (languages etc) | #summerghost thoughts (personal thoughts)
First, I originally created this blog to document my progress as I get back into art. I’ve been drawing my whole life, but I’m finally in “art school” and really enjoying it. Anything that I post from “art school” (Evolve) will from now on be tagged as #summerghost evolve. I accidentally did summerrain evolve on a few of them (that’s my name) but it’ll be summerghost from here on out. If I draw or paint something on my own, it’ll be tagged with #summerghost art.
Second, I used to be a full time novel editor, with specialties in LGBT+ fiction, Fantasy, and Sci-Fi. I got burnout pretty fast, so I don’t do that anymore, but I still love the craft of writing. Please, ask me questions!! Especially if they match my specialties. A passion of mine was always helping LGBT+ and other minorities get their stories into the world, and I’m happy doing that for free on tumblr. I am still a member of the LGBTQ+ Editors Association. Questions I answer about writing will henceforth be tagged #summerghost craft of writing. If I happen to post any of my own writing, I’ll tag it as #summerghost writing.
Third, I work as a full time Linguist with an online language learning company, and I adore language learning and cultures and communication. If I happen to post anything about that, I’ll tag it #summerghost linguist. I know Dutch and German, am working on separating those two, know a bit of Japanese and Irish, and am learning French.
Anything else will be in #summerghost thoughts
Lastly, the normal stuff: my pronouns are she/her cause that’s easiest, bisexual/demisexual, INFJ + Libra if that’s important, and I’m somewhere in my mid 20s. Don’t stick around if you’re annoying or mean to literally anyone who doesn’t deserve it. ✨
I would love to read some of your work! Do you have a particular passage that you are proud of that you would like to gush about?
Ohhhhh my god okay this is so sweet. After thinking about it for some time I decided to share this one (below) from my creative writing class ages ago. The idea was to focus on the location and infuse it with the emotions of the characters, and have 3 characters present, one who was eavesdropping. An extra challenge was to use as few dialogue tags as possible — I believe 3. I think I actually used 4 but that’s okay ^^; whenever I read it I get emotional about these characters, and I really want to write a worthwhile story about all three of them. I just don’t know what that is yet. Anyway, enjoy! ✨
Rowan trotted around the corral, kicking up dust with her hooves. The two pink things, humans, watched her from a short distance away. She tossed her head to make her dark mane flare in the chilly autumn sunlight and whinnied, breathing in the scent of cold dirt and leaves.
“Wow, darling, Rowan’s doing really well.” The wind carried the voice of the one with brown hair to her. He held the blond one—her blond one—in his arms. “How long have you been working with her?”
“Three or four months, I think.” The blond boy’s voice was deeper and rougher, but familiar. “She can trot like that without hurting herself now. Her hip has healed a lot. I mean, when I first found her—”
“I know, my love, you told me—”
“You should have seen her.”
The wind whipped Rowan’s long, cream and dark grey tail to the side as she came to a walk. Her breath fogged in front of her pink nose.
“Do you think it’s time to… you know…”
Rowan met the blond boy’s eyes from across the corral. She watched his body still as he looked at her, not hearing what the other boy had said. His hair whipped in the wind.
“Ethan?”
“I don’t think I can.” His voice was so soft, it had been ripped away by the wind—right into Rowan’s waiting ears.
“What? Ethan.”
“Mark, I—I don’t think I can do it,” he said, just a little bit louder.
Rowan walked up to the edge of the fence and stretched her neck to the other side, trying to nibble at the sparse bits of half-frozen grass. Ethan laughed.
“She’s always trying to get something that she can’t have.”
“Sounds like someone else I know.” Mark turned Ethan toward him, their faces so close they could touch. “She’s a wild animal. My love, you have to let her go.”
Ethan turned away. “But, Mark, come on. I mean, we’ve… look at her, the way she’s looking at me. I might even be able to ride her. After all the bullshit she’s pulled with me, and now we’re… we’re friends.”
“She had friends in her herd. What if she had a mate?”
“Wild horses don’t work like that.”
“Okay, but what about her herd? Wouldn’t she want to go back? Wouldn’t you? How could you keep her away?”
Rowan finally wrapped her tongue around a clump of grass and pulled, bringing her head up as she chewed on her prize. Ethan screwed up his face and walked toward her, Mark close behind. Tears leaked from his eyes as he placed his palm along her neck, brushing the short hairs with a gentle hand. Rowan leaned into his touch and looked at both boys with solemn brown eyes.
Ethan took a deep breath. “This isn’t just about Rowan, is it?”
Mark bit his lip, watching the back of Ethan’s head. “It’s just—how could you leave?”
“I came back. I was on the expedition to find her,” he said, tilting his head in Rowan’s direction, “and then she needed daily care. I came back as soon as I could. I thought we talked about this.”
“You didn’t say anything! Not a—a message, or, like, a text? And you expect me to just return to normal? As if you were never gone?”
“I didn’t expect—”
“Ethan, it’s my turn right now,” Mark almost yelled, tears streaming down his cheeks. “I didn’t know what had happened! I was lost, I—I was heartbroken. We had a life.” He put his head in his hands, shoulders shaking.
Ethan’s hand slipped off Rowan’s neck as he embraced Mark. “We still do.”
Mark’s sobs filled the autumn air, mixing with the red and gold leaves shivering off the trees. Rowan watched Ethan bury his nose into Mark’s dark, red-brown hair. He closed his eyes, breathing.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I left. I’m sorry I didn’t say anything. I had no idea… but that doesn’t matter. We do have a life. Together.” He kissed him on the forehead. “I came back. I always will. I love you.”
They held each other, braced against the bone-piercing chill brought by the wind. Rowan shifted back and forth on her feet, watching. She hadn’t thought about leaving for a few days… she hadn’t even thought of Ethan as an ugly pink thing for a while. Trying to recall her herd didn’t work anymore. She had a new one now. She edged forward, stretching as close as possible to the two young men, and placed her nose on Mark’s shoulder. He looked up, giggling through his tears, and tentatively placed a hand against her cheek.
