A Trashy Novel – Erin T. Whalen

I have put another painting on THE STORY EMPORIUM wall, this one is of The Dusty Butterfly who plays quite a large role in “A Trashy Novel” – my latest book that is in the editing stage… hooray! While writing this novel I thought I would never see the end of it but finally after years of thinking and percolating ideas then 2 years of putting it together I finally have the evidence of a finished piece of work. When I wrote and illustrated my three picture books the same process took place where I felt hopeless and couldn’t finish. I have to say the novel was the worst of all four books when it came to the ominous feeling of complete and utter doom that I would never reach the end. The great part is the more I wrote it and got to know each character and how they all related to each other the plots twisted into each other naturally and a real world full of fantasy blossomed and came to life. What a feeling of accomplishment! All I have to say at this point in the process is I truly hope you come to love and enjoy the characters I created and get lost in the world I created for them. If you do then I can happily say, I’ve done my job.

Thank you everyone who follows my work and especially those who pass the word on about it to their friends. It’s through you that my work becomes known and enjoyed by others and to be quite honest is what makes the many hours of creating worth it.

Please feel free to visit my studio any Saturday at http://www.thestoryemporium.org and see what my latest creations are.

Until next time…. keep creating!

Erin

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!