My Summer of Sewage and Romance

It was a drunken summer night in my early 20s in a dirty rundown part of a dirty rundown city. Life was big and bad and beautiful and so was I. Or at least, I wanted to be.

After weeks of mounting tensions with a friend I adored, we finally revealed our feelings to each other. Or maybe the driving torrent of infatuation gushing from my loins forced open her dam of reciprocation. (Terrible analogy, I know. Brushing up on my descriptive skills would've helped my love life back then. Hindsight.)

The air was thick with promise and other people’s sweat. Bright young things and cockroaches were out in full force.

Tonight was the night my crush and I would cement our non-platonic status and have our first official date! If by "date", you meant showing up to the same party and hopefully leaving together. And arriving somewhere later again, together. Ah, to be young and nebulous.

I walk up to the porch steps around 9pm. Disgustingly early. I wanted to make sure the night (and our lithe bodies, raaawr) were still young.

I see her, curvy and lovely and smiling, at ME, on the porch.

"So-and-so! Whose name I cannot reveal for privacy and liability reasons!" I cried.

"What's-her-name! Whose actual name I shall not speak because it's her story and she doesn't want to reveal personal details!" she replied.

We hug. Hold hands. Run off into the virtual sunset.

Wait, it was already evening. So, maybe what I really saw were the blinding lights of the police barricades that had been set after the latest shooting. Or general blurriness of vision caused by seasonal allergies. Either way, it was BEAUTIFUL.

Other young people on the porch stop to stare at the breathtaking sight of two gender non-conforming exotics showering one another in affection. Me, dappled in contrast. She, painted by the sun.

We run down the steps, giggling like naughty school girls, embracing our futures and ourselves.

I lean in for a kiss, aware of the eyes still on us.

"Ha, we'll give them a show!" My self-satisfied baby dyke self thinks to herself, "Love is revolu--"

My thoughts are interrupted by a literal flash of lights and explosions in my head.

"Oh my god, is she okay??" I hear the peanut gallery twitter.

I've just smacked my head right into my date's. It was at this moment I discovered we were both literally hard-headed. I wake up with a knot on my forehead to remind me of that the next morning. Alone.

Needless to say, this did not bode well for our short-lived, non-relationship.

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Title: My Summer of Sewage and Romance

Genre: Women’s Literature/Mystery/LGBT/Comedy/Urban/Beach Read/New Adult

Age Range: Adult/New Adult

Word Count: 500

Author Name: Ginnett Moon

Why my project is a good fit: It’s a fun read with a distinct voice that makes the transition to different lifestyles and viewpoints entertainment. Hit shows like Master of None, Girls, and Insecure prove there is a wide market for fresh voices in urban settings. I’m a good fit because my lived experience lends truth. As an editor myself I’m easy to work with and open to revision.

The hook: What happens when you throw hormones and high ideals on top of a filled-in swamp? Now add a missing statue, a conspiracy, and a ton of hot girls who bat for another team.

Synopsis: A recent college grad in her early 20s celebrates freedom by moving to the nation’s capital for love and adventure (and cheap rent). Life is full of parties and hot girls until a first date goes terribly wrong and her crush is framed for theft at the Natural History Museum. So she stops her hard-partying, rainbow-flag waving ways and puts on her detective cap to find the real culprit. Liberating fun and games turn into humiliating encounters with police and other authorities who stonewall her (pun intended). At first her new friends are supportive but soon the trail leads to a famous figure in the GLBT community and she is labeled a sellout and shunned. She relentlessly tracks down leads and keeps finding herself steps away from being arrested or worse. To add insult to injury, she must go undercover to gain the confidence of suspects, even if it means pretending to be someone she hates. This definitely puts a damper on her social and love life. Along the way she sees glimpses of people’s humanity, the good and the bad, which challenge her preconceived notions and empowers her to be fully herself. This also improves relationships overall in her life. She finally unmasks the real culprit and reveals a vast conspiracy reaching the heights of Congress to the depths of the capital’s sanitation department (DC Department of Public Works). The seeker emerges a heroine. More importantly, she gains love in many forms: self-love, love of a worthy partner, love of true friends, and love of a fickle public.

Target Audience: Women/LGBT/New Adults

Bio: Ginnett Moon is a copywriter, reporter, and editor based in the bay area. As a world explorer and back yard investigator she’s pled her case on Capitol Hill and thrown up on girls in dive bars. Now she likes to write about it.

Platform: Help me build it and they will come. (Don’t worry I have experience with social media and content management.) I have built a personal network in LGBT and women's communities.

Education: B.A. in social sciences, minor in English from a top 20 U.S. liberal arts college. Additional training in screenwriting, playwriting, essay writing, and literary criticism.

Experience: Staff writer, copy editor, freelance reporter, English tutor, content manager, localization specialist. Published in print (newspaper) and online.

Personality/Writing style: Eclectic, observational, irreverent, versatile. I'm comfortable with different formats including stand-up and spoken word.

Likes/Hobbies: Dogs and dancing, but not dog dancing. I enjoy travel within the US and abroad, learning languages, and meeting people. I am a fan of most types of cuisine.

Hometown: Somewhere in Northern California