Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hi!

I'm 20 years old and have been writing seriously for about six years now, though I started making stories before that. My favorite genre is fantasy but I'm willing to read almost anything (except maybe heavy romance). I love researching mythology stuff for inspiration. I feel that many creatures that appear in myths and folklore are highly under-used in fiction.

When I'm not writing, I do a little drawing here and there - anime-style mostly. I'm not the best but I think I'm okay. I was originally going to school to become an animator for video games but finding the right school to go to didn't work out well so I changed my major to early childhood education for now. I like kids and teachers get a lot of days off, so I think that would work out well for a starting career. I still know a bit of programming from my experience though and sometimes code up simple text-based games in my spare time. A lot of work but a lot of fun. ^.^

I don't plan on becoming a published author anytime soon, but I take writing very seriously. I know a lot of tips and information, and while I don't claim to know everything I hope to share my knowledge to anyone who shares my passion for writing. I love discussion, and I'm not afraid to give honest and thorough feedback when I can.

I'm probably not going to be posting any works for feedback since most of my projects are novel-length and I want to make sure I improve them as much as possible on my own before getting additional feedback.



Hey, I live in Florida too! I was born in England, though. I thought it was funny that you happen to mention those two places.



I'm sorry about your depression, and I hope you find what you're looking for in regards to religion.

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Anyway, pleasure to meet you both and thanks for inviting me to the guild.

Thanks! And good point. sweatdrop I might post some work after all. But not for a while. But thank you for displaying interest. I'm looking forward to seeing your work as well if/when you're willing to share. ^.^

Hi All (should that be capitalized?),

I'm Summer, but I'll answer to summoora as well. I'm 21 years old with an 18 month old daughter and an 11 week old fetus. Oh, and a husband. cool

Before everything else, I'm a Muslim, and I like to think that I'm a pretty spiritual person. I certainly hope to develop a deep relationship with God. In that effort, I try to live a life clean of intoxicants, unclean substances, and profanity and strive toward prayer and goodwill. I am very open about my spirituality, and I absolutely love talking (and more recently, blogging) about religion. I don't tend to start conversations about this on purpose, but they do seem to inevitably occur, so I apologize in advance for any discomfort this may cause the more religiously squeamish. I've had a lot of friends like that, and I do understand how those sentiments and resentments come about.

Between being morning sick (gratefully, not too badly) and being a mom, I'm studying special education (so cool that you're studying deaf education, DQ! I find deaf culture and sign language fascinating).

I'm also really into nutrition and healing through food. I try to avoid processed foods as well, but I'm not afraid of my more omnivorous tendencies, and I love all things meaty and fatty. I think saturated fat and red meat have been terribly slandered in dietetic circles and in mainstream dietary recommendations.

I think that's plenty for now, I'm starting to feel long-winded. Nice to meet you all!

Welcome, everyone! It's so good to have you here!


I'm a post editor too. So far no one has called me out on it for being confusing, but there's a first time for everything. I'm excited to read some of your work when you're up to sharing it. I've never been much of a short story writer, so I'm always curious to see how those come out. I tend to keep adding information so that it starts heading more towards novel and wouldn't make any sort of sense as a short story.


It sounds like you have your hands full! In regards to religious discussion, I'm quite the opposite - I have a tendency to skirt the topic as much as possible because I'm so unsure of my own beliefs, so please forgive me if I try to avoid those inevitable conversations. I'm also a bit of a health nut, and one of my best friends is teaching me about the "plant strong" lifestyle, which is essentially vegan but more strict because you don't eat processed foods. I'm doing it for health reasons, and so far it's been an adventure.


You're in good company. Dusty and I had an Alice in Wonderland guild a while back, and we're both a bit eccentric as well. I love all of your musical references, and you should definitely NOT be sorry! Rambling is an art form in itself, in my opinion. Alas, one that I have never mastered.

I look forward to getting to know each of you more as this guild picks up!

I think a lot of us are that way. It never lost me any friends, but it alienated acquaintances. In my opinion, you can't really get to be my friend, logistically speaking, until you've withstood quite a bit of rambling. I've started to learn when it's best to just shut up, but that's something that comes with age and time. I certainly didn't have it down by 17.



They are! It's pretty frustrating when my hubby comes home and says, "you're not busy tomorrow, are you?" lol
As far as skirting the religious discussion, I would certainly not expect anyone to engage that isn't comfortable, it's the ones that jump in and say, "all of you stop talking about religion, now! Religion just causes wars, etc." that I find irritating. It's not like everyone has to be a part of every thread or anything.

I got into GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome) diet for health reasons, specifically trying to heal my gut flora and hopefully my allergies, and also hoping that it would work so that I could convince my mom to do it for my autistic brothers and brother with Crohn's. I didn't get to finish the protocol because it got to be too much with the lack of support I had (in a nutshell, no grains, no sugars, no starches, no processed foods, along with a supplement of either probiotic or fermented foods for a period of two years). It did start to work, but I was only on it for about 6 months.

Unless you're doing it for something like the Gershon therapy or something, though, do keep in mind that some nutrients are much more easily assimilated into the body from animal sources. Dietary cholesterol doesn't raise your blood cholesterol, fat is good for you, and basically everything that the ADA says isn't true lol. That said, I think avoiding processed foods already puts a person at ten times healthier than the average Joe. Can you have honey?

Steak... That sounds delicious. We live in a pretty rural area, and we don't have a lot of halal food options. (think kosher law) We have a butcher about half an hour out of town, but they mostly just do either "stew" or "ground." I haven't had a steak in about a year, I think.

Do you do any ferments? It can really spice up your options and give you lots of good bacteria which are basically good for everything from infections to allergies to depression to... well, everything. I found that I really like carrot sauerkraut with curry spices and eggplants stuffed with a bell pepper-pecan-garlic-parsley mixture (a middle eastern pickle called makdoos)