Merry Christmas 2021
Hello, everyone! I'd like to wish you all a very merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! I am going to reveal three special things from Bleary Eyes, as a special treat to welcome in the new year.
Firstly, some numbers and things I'm grateful for. I added up all the word counts of my projects from 2021- which, only half of the year I really focused on writing and writing a lot, so these aren't as well as I can do, but I was extremely proud regardless. They are as follows: Bleary Eyes, First Draft: 123,963 words. Project BE:DSS: 3,489 words. Project RBE: 4,837 words. Project RPE: 8,636 words. Project AE: 1,294 words. Project GFT Vol 1: 3,291 words. Project 2C: 3,334 words. Project 3B: 4,241 words. Project IB: 2,520 words. Project SF&F: 2,487 words. Project TRFER: 1,094 words.
Project 1912: 1,093 words. Project ASD: 4,566 words. Project SNS: 4,727 words. In total for 2021, that I've kept track of: 169,572 words. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud of that number. But I want to double it in 2022. I want a lot of these projects to be first draft done, or at least close to being done. I have high goals, even while entering UNLV as a student and continuing to work as an editor and book reviewer. My sanity my fray a little, but I've got plenty of determination. I am so grateful for the people I've met in 2021, and the stories that I've started writing. I feel like they- and the new writing projects- have given me a new sense of purpose. I can only hope that my writing lives up to expectations, and that I don't let anyone down. That said... I want to show off something that exceeded my expectations this year, and entirely blew me away: Some wonderful art! I talk so much about Winter and Axel- but many of you have never laid eyes on them. So every three months, I'll be revealing some artwork of them, starting now. I'll release two portraits I've commissioned now, in January, in April, in July, and in October, occasionally with some additional art as well! And I already have a very special reveal of art planned for December 2022! Today, I have for you probably the artwork I have used most to show them off, as it comes from my talented artist, Kiyo! She is a regular artist of mine, always giving me visuals of my characters, and I feel like it would be a great insult not to show her versions of Axel and Winter off first.
Meet Axel Octavius Dunn, aged 16. Axel wasn’t ugly- certainly not, but he gave off that vibe of “don’t bother trying to get to know me.” It was the way he regarded people, the wall he put up and the way he spoke- as if he was being polite by replying at all. Very few got past that long enough to have an actual conversation with him. He wasn’t arrogant, he just didn’t seem to care. Or, at least, he didn’t let people know if he did. Winter was the only one who seemed to see him the way he should be seen: as someone beautiful, quiet, and haunted.
Unemotional- that was the word to describe him by most, but Winter disagreed. Instead, she thought he was more emotional than people realized. Standing at 5’6”, he was shorter than most of the guys in their grade. He had the slender body to go with it, however- skinny legs, small hands and feet, a small waistline. He got broader at the shoulders, lanky arms not without muscle. His mother was Japanese American, and his father was Danish-American. It was from them he got his unique mix-up of genetics.
His face was long and straight, with a high forehead and a distinctive dimpled chin. His lips were wide and narrow, pierced on the right side with a little silver hoop going through his lip bottom lip. High cheekbones, pale skin, a small nose that was quite rounded and soft with a downturned tip. Axel’s hair was black, curly and messy- not in a wild way, but rather, like soft waves falling around his head, bangs doing their best to cover his forehead.
The most distinctive part about him was his eyes. The most brilliant, stunning blue eyes- so blue they seemed unnatural. Dark blue rims around the irises, growing brighter near the pupil. The left eye had a sliver of yellow in it, peeking out in the blue like a golden fleck. He had thick, long eyelashes, like a girl’s, and the skin around his eyes seemed even paler in comparison to the rest of his face, any pink seeming almost purple in the right light, as if he was perpetually tired. His eyebrows, narrow and sharp, curled over his eyes, which weren’t very deeply set but instead sat forward on his face, nearly in line with his cheekbones, angular and giving off a casually relaxed look at almost every glance he gave.
His style was dark and edgy- just like the rest of him. His ears were both pierced with hoops similar to his lip, and he often wore necklaces. He wore black Doc Martens boots, black skinny jeans with rips on the knees. Often, he would wear a colored shirt- dark blue or dark red- but cover it with a black hoodie or sweater thrown over his arms and zipped up, just the barest hint of his shirt peeking out.
Meet Winter Rosemary Jozefson, aged 17. Winter was always told she was beautiful. Deep down, she thought maybe she was- but she woefully denied it. She had always felt… too large. She wasn’t- but she was curvy, and broad bodied. Wide hipped, wide shouldered, straight waisted, with a large bodice. The only part of her body she truly loved were her legs- thick thighs, but slimming as they went down, tall and long and gorgeous as she stood at 5'7". Even her feet were large, though, which just reminded her how big she felt. It would have been wonderful, she thought, to feel small for once. Most of her friends were 5'5" or shorter- with her best friend a mere 5'0".
Winter was olive skinned, that natural tan skin with yellow undertones. Her face, however, was nothing short of bright: with rosy, rounded cheeks. She had a heart shaped face- where her jawline came curving together in a soft line, defining her expressive warmth. She had a pointed chin and plump, heart-shaped lips, naturally the color of a warm pink. Her nose was short and cute, with a very rounded end- a little bit large on her face.
Her hair was shoulder length, wavy and chestnut brown. She had some blonde highlights running through it, adding vibrant color to the soft waves, and she had straight bangs to fall over a somewhat large forehead, with a longer tendril on either side to frame her face.
But the distinctive part of her- her favorite part of her own face- were her eyes. They were small and narrow, sharp eyes, framed with very dark lashes and headed by thick, dark brown eyebrows. The color of her irises was what made them beautiful- hazel green, often an olive green. And despite having beautiful eyes and a lovely face, Winter vehemently hated makeup. She rarely wore any, except perhaps a neutral lipstick, though even that was rare. She also had few piercings, except for two little diamond silver earrings in her ears.
Winter had a somewhat girly, somewhat hippy way of dressing. Casual, easy, friendly, approachable. She liked wearing sandals and wedge heels, and often was seen in long skirts that went all the way to the ground, or stopped at her ankles. Although, at school, she often had to wear leggings or jeans. She enjoyed wearing tank tops or fitted tops with over the shoulder straps- a fan of rounded necklines. However, her neck was never bare: because she had a wrought iron pendant on black string that never left her neck. It was a round circular pendant- with a series of ridged snakes curling around and around in a Celtic pattern. She was never seen without it.
And for the third thing, I wanted to share some aesthetics I put together, inspired by my good friend Sienna Froste! I made this, some of the images are ones I found and do not own, except for the signature heterochromatic eye, which is an artwork I commissioned. It's an unofficial little thing I put together to show some aesthetics from my upcoming novel, Bleary Eyes! And that is where I'll leave off. Merry Christmas, guys. Let's have an amazing 2022. So excited for everything yet to come!
Signing off,
Summer Rain.