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Post Surgery

Erin T. Whalen3 Comments

Well I went ahead and did it. I had the spine surgery I swore I never would have. I was losing the use of my right arm and hand and fast! The doctors told me I may never draw again. What is an artist to do? Soooo, I took myself to the hospital (well my Mom did) and I went into the operating room hesitant mind you. But I did go in and thats what counts. Although my back problems are not cured I did regain the use of my right arm…whew! I am hoping that with my new cadaver bone (yes you heard me correctly) in my neck will work much better now, although the Doctors make no promises. I do want to show you some finished pieces I had not put up before. These pieces are for sale and can be found at THE STORY EMPORIUM in The Hope Artiste Village in Pawtucket RI on 1005 Main Street. Check them out:

 

 

 

.Charlie in "A Trashy Novel"Charlie in “A Trashy Novel”

Dripping Zippers
Dripping Zippers
The State of RI
The State of RI
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Scituate Arts Festival

Erin T. WhalenLeave a comment

it’s 6:45am and I wanted to drop you a note to let you know that I am heading to the Scituate Arts Festival in about an hour. This year I am selling prints of my newest artwork along with The Charlie’s Head Series picture books. “A Trashy Novel” will be out in fall 2012 but you can come see the illustrations for the novel. (I do have some prints of the artwork for “A Trashy Novel”)I also have my new art studio calendar on display so be sure to take one when you visit.

The festival runs from 9-6 and is today, Sunday, and Monday so you have plenty of time to get there. I will be the one dressed in the witch costume on the front lawn of the public library.

Thanks for reading my blog and I hope to see you there!

Erin

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Wytch painting

Erin T. WhalenLeave a comment

20110706-112434.jpg

Here is a painting in the works. She is one of the bad guys in my novel. I am plugging along nicely now and the book is coming together… Or should I say it’s all there, just cleaning it up.
I met with an old friend and a few others in the artist community and it made me very happy to know that I belong to such a great bunch of people.

Thanks for keeping me going with my art!

Erin

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Updating my Charlie’s Head Site this week

Erin T. WhalenLeave a comment

With all this writing I’ve been doing my Charlie’s Head website has fallen behind. It’s tough to be an author and illustrator these days because not only do you have to create work and publish it but then you have to keep up with the blogs, websites, and all the social media! It’s confusing is what it is. All of my twitter accounts are active and you can feel free to follow me on any of those. All of my websites have the link to follow and are listed below.

erintwhalen.com  — Erin is the tweeter and tweets about all of her writing and illustrating adventures as well as                                ups and downs.

charlieshead.com — Charlie is the tweeter and he tweets on everything he is experiencing and seeing in the                                     new novel “Charlie in Underland”

lilycopublishing.com — Lily is the tweeter and tweets on publishing trends, books, marketing, and all Charlie’s                                      Head books!

I have just updated Charlie’s Blog or should I say Charlie did (tee hee). I still need to put links to buy the picture books, add some sketches from my novel and some excerpts, then get the Clubhouse going as well as teacher plans and kids activities. So much to do and only two hands to do it with. Any advice on how I can streamline my work would be much appreciated. Also… if you know of any interns interested in helping out a Children’s Author & Illustrator PLEASE send them my way.

As far as the art studio goes it seems we are having a new studio space carved out for us because the old one we had our heart set on is still occupied. I will post more news on that as I hear it myself.

The novel is soooo close to finished I can feel it. I am so excited!

PLEASE let me know if you would like to be on my physical mailing list. I will be sending out postcards when the new novel is ready! Also, I will be mailing out events etc. that I will be doing relating to all my art and writing. Just email me at erinesquedesign@mac.com 

Once again, thanks for following, reading, and enjoying the artwork and books I LOVE creating for you.

Erin

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Opening Public Studio Space in April!!!

Erin T. Whalen3 Comments

I am very excited to announce that I will be moving my art supplies, drawing board, painting table, and all of the stuff I use to create my books and illustrations to a public studio. My plan is to work there daily and I encourage everyone to come and visit me while I produce my next two books with illustrations. I will also be selling books from the studio along with prints of the illustrations. My paintings in progress can be viewed and prints will be for sale on those as well. I am so excited to be able to do this. I will post further details as the time nears and send out invitations to my entire mailing list. I am planning on having some activities and classes for children as well as planned school visits to the author’s studio. Please pass this information along to anyone you may know that would be interested in seeing what I have to offer. I will put out more information as the time nears.

As far as my novel goes, I am getting good reviews from my writer’s group. I haven’t any new drawings to post at this time because I have been getting ready for the studio. Please comment and leave any thoughts on me opening a public studio. I would love to hear your opinions.

Erin

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Meet the Underground Witch

Erin T. Whalen2 Comments

I have been doing so much character work as well as cleaning up my chapters and let me tell you this novel is shaping up better than I thought possible. I am so excited to be able to share the progress with you. I have taken this entire weekend to be by myself with my stories. I am popping back and forth from text to sketch then back again.

Underground Witch
Underground Witch
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Worked all weekend…

Erin T. WhalenLeave a comment

Any artist will tell you there is no better place to be than the ZONE. This weekend I worked all sorts of hours and it felt like no time at all. I have been in the zone before but never this deep. Once out of it, I was confused and dazed. It was almost a scary feeling and if that is one of the side effects of deep zoning than I am willing to have more of it. Here are some of the pieces I created while in that zone. Tomorrow I will be adding the finishing touches on it and this piece called “The Ringmaster and his Prey” will be finished and in line behind the “Evil Clown” waiting to be hung in my new studio… I will announce more on that in the springtime. So many great things I have in store for my young readers this year!

 

Puppet of Charlie
A piece of the puppet of Charlie made by the Ringmaster
Evil Ringmaster Works Charlie through his puppet
Evil Ringmaster Works Charlie through his puppet

 

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Sketching my novel

Erin T. WhalenLeave a comment

Sketching some of my characters – here is a sneak peek of the ringmaster. There are so many more but I don’t want to spoil the

surprise! Keep your eyes on the blog for more info …

The Ring Master
The Ring Master

Erin

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Frustrated with disability

Erin T. WhalenLeave a comment

Good morning –

Today I begin with my frustration. Let me begin by saying I am and always have been an optimist but since 2009 of May this wonderful characteristic of mine has declined greatly and unfortunately it still declines daily. I never mentioned this on my blog because I didn’t think it needed to be talked about or was relevant but since this is my blog about my writing and artistic struggles I think it does need to be mentioned.

I need you to know that I am writing from my bed.

I am doing this because I have a major spinal disorder that prevents me from sitting up for long. Not only does it prevent me from sitting up but it also prevents me from running, walking, swimming, driving, and basically anything under the sun with ease. It hurts to put it mildly. I have been writing and drawing from my bed since 2009 of May because that is when my inherited disorder showed itself.

I think its important to tell you this because it is the number one reason I have been struggling to finish my novel. Although the ideas are coming fast and furious and I can’t seem to get them down as good as I used to. When I write, I tend to pace and walk then sit to write then get up and do the same thing all over again. It’s a very physical process for me. I have even gone so far as to lay on my living room for and have my friend help me set up all of my artwork and inspiration materials around me. I have attached a photo below.

My Disabled Office
My Disabled Office

I want you to know I am by no means complaining. I am just giving you a glimpse into my daily life because that is what blogging is all about. Please know that I will never stop writing until my hands don’t work anymore and even then, I will probably talk – type. I love writing and all that is involved but also please know that I am struggling to do it.

Thank you so much to all of my readers who have purchased my work in the past. I hope my new work lives up to your expectations.

Erin T. Whalen

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The Ever-Changing Novel

Erin T. Whalen1 Comment

Once again my novel has morphed into something I never expected. I outline and plan and write and then BANG – my story takes me in a different direction. Not a bad thing though, because the story is taking on a deeper meaning for me. I have learned one thing while writing this book, well actually I’ve learned many things 🙂 but the one thing I learned that I am talking about here is how many levels the author can go into a book. The best I can explain it is like a deep hypnosis where you start with one thought and you go deeper into the trance and go down to another thought. While doing all of this you learn so many things about yourself and the issues you are dealing with. It is such an amazing process and that is why it takes so long.

Sometimes you hit a place you never knew existed and you just have to explore it. You can’t ignore it and go back to your original outline. Your story is telling you something, leading you somewhere that NEEDS to be explored and like any good writer – you put on your explorer hat (you know the kind with the little light on the top) and go deeper into the dark to see what your story is telling you. I think the best way to describe writing a story to all the readers out there is that the writer is the first to FIND the story, explore it, take notes along the way, and come back to tell about it.

We don’t make the stories up, we find them and explore them, then come back and report on them. The next time someone asks me what I do for a living, I am going to tell them I am an explorer.

I have to go back to my expedition now… I will report back to you a little later.

Erin