Chapter 5: A Big Day for Tiny Worlds at the West Virginia Book Festival

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Good morning, good evening, good afternoon,
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good wherever you are. Welcome back to another episode
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of On the Same Page, a KCPL podcast.
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I'm Evan. And I'm Tanya. And we
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are your co-hosts for this podcast.
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And today we've got an exciting episode.
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I'm looking forward to seeing how people react
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to this one because I think it's really fun. Me too. I've been perusing the
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website for this author/artist,
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and I'm so excited to get to talk to them. Yeah. And I mean,
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talking about the Book Festival in itself is just kind of a, you know,
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a fun experience because it's a long day, but it's always a
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fun day when we get to do the Book Festival.
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And so it's also just an exciting season
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and time of the year. Like, fall is here.
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I mean, fall starts earlier every year, it seems like, as far as like your
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pumpkins pumpkin spice season and,
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you know, those Halloween decorations at the store, all of
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those fun things. Like, when this episode comes out, it will be
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in full swing. It will be fall. And that means it's one of your
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favorite times, Tanya, because it's spooky
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season and spooky reads and spooky movies and
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all that fun stuff. My Halloween decorations are already up.
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I am not surprised by that at all.
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And speaking of spooky reads and spooky season, we're going to talk
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to an author today, but we also want to go over like who
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all is going to be at the Book Festival this year.
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And I'm just going to start right out of the gate with
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R.L. Stine. R.L. Stine is back at the Book Festival.
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He was here several years ago and he's coming back.
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And so if you are a fan of Goosebumps or anything spooky,
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he's done some YA, he's done some, you know,
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doll— he's branched out and done more than just Goosebumps.
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But he's going to be here. And so we're all looking forward
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to that. We also
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have Craig Johnson. There's a series
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I'm trying to think of off the top of my head that he writes.
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Longmire. There you go. Longmire.
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He's the author of Longmire, and he'll, he'll be at the book festival.
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We also have Kate Quinn.
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She just came out with a book that was, you know, I saw making
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its rounds on the TikTok world earlier this year
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for the Astral Library, and that's her latest
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release. It'll be, it'll be fun to see what she has to share.
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And then there's Another main
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one, Margot Lee Shetterly, the author
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of Hidden Figures, which is a big thing
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here in West Virginia because of Katherine Johnson.
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And that movie was big a couple years ago. And so
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the author of that book, Hidden Figures, is going to be there as well.
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So I think these are all big names for different
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reasons. I love the Hidden Figures movie. It was good.
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I'm good for— I'm always about a story where, you know,
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the protagonists are fighting against the norms and
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bucking the system, and that's what those ladies did
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100%. And so, yeah, I think
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it was a great movie, and I'm sure it's a great book.
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And last but not least for authors that are coming to the Book Festival,
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we have the one that's going to be our guest today. Which is Rosalie
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Hazlett. She's an illustrator and author whose
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work celebrates the hidden wonders of the natural world, but not just anywhere
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in the natural world. In her book, it's the Appalachian
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Mountains. She also has one called Watercolor in Nature,
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which is a beginner-friendly guide to, you know, getting started
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in watercolor and painting
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things in nature and maybe, you know, stopping to look at the things
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that sometimes we overlook and see them in a different way.
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She's here today with us. Welcome, Rosalie. Thank you so
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much for having me. What an honor to be not only included in
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this lineup for the Book Festival, which whenever the names started to come out
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alongside mine, I had a little bit of like, what? Why did
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they pick me? But I'm just so grateful that they, the organizers,
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choose to represent, you know, West Virginians as well as the super famous
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people. I'm really happy to be on
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the show today. Yeah, well, I mean, as you know,
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typically people in West Virginia, we're very loving
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of other folks in West Virginia, and so we
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want to support that. And I will tell you, just last
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week in my book club, I was telling them about
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the book festival, and one of the ladies said to me, she said, oh,
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one of my favorites is going to be there. And I said,
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oh yeah? And she said, Rosalie Hazlett.
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Wow, so that's so cool. And she— you probably
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will meet her. I guarantee you she will, uh, be at your, uh,
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presentation. And, uh, so people,
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people love you. Oh, well, I can't wait to meet her
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too. So we're gonna, uh,
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talk a little bit about like kind of your journey as an
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artist and illustrator and kind of what got
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you, uh, started. So can you tell us a little bit about that and Sure.
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Yeah. So I consider myself primarily an
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illustrator, but I've also started to write my own books.
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My first book came out in 2021, but still that was kind of like,
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it's, you know, tutorial focused. So I
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didn't really consider myself an author all the way up through that.
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And then I think when my second book came out and
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I pitched it as a primarily illustrated book, it was going to
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be like just minimal text all pieced together by these illustrations and
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Then as I was working on it, I just realized like I had more
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things to say than I thought I had to say, and it seemed like I
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needed to write more. So I feel like throughout the process of writing my
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book, second book, Tiny Worlds: The Appalachian Mountains, that's when I really felt like a
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shift to where I started to pour my
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creativity into writing as well as imagery.
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But I've always loved both. Just, it was
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more of like personal practice, the writing, and art was more of
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the like public-facing thing. So from the time I was really little,
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I loved painting and drawing, painted all sorts
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of things. It wasn't just nature, but just really felt like that was,
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that was my happy place and that was my,
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my place to shine. Always kind of wanted to be an artist,
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but actually I really wanted to be an artist, but you know,
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it seemed like a very unpredictable path, but I just kind of kept Kept
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at it, and throughout my whole childhood, I would keep sketchbooks. I'd also
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keep journals. I journaled every day, and I would often illustrate my
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journal entries. So it's fun to look back now that I've kind of accidentally
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gained this new title of author in addition to illustrator.
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I can look back and see that I've been writing my whole life,
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even if it wasn't like for others or it wasn't formal
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in any way. It's cool to see that this actually
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is very natural to me to pair pictures words together.
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So my journey looked like doing art and
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writing as a kid and then figuring out
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like, oh boy, I need to decide what to do with my life. And I
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really want to do art. And I feel so fortunate because I
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have a very creative family and they always were cheering me on.
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And there was— even when I doubted that I could make it, they were like,
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oh, you got this, you got this. And I just have so
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many friends for whom that has not been the case. So yeah,
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shout out to my family. And I hope
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to— now that I have a child, I'm a new mom, I'm like,
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wow, I really want to pass along that gift
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of like trusting your child, that like if they're excited about something and
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they're willing to work hard, like believe in them because that's—
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they need that in order to, to actually make it happen. So went
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to school in West Virginia at West Liberty University in the northern panhandle.
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And I'm from northern part of the state, currently live in Elkins, have for the
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past few years, but I grew up in the northern part of
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the state. And yeah, just went to a small local school and
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studied graphic design. And then while I was there, just really like
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steered all of my projects towards more illustration.
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So even if they were like we want you to design this
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thing, and everybody else was using computers or like digital
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illustration. I was like, what if I scan in my painting?
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And then like, so I was always trying to find ways to bring it
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back to where I felt like the joy
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of creating for me came from, which was like tactile paint
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on paper. I don't know, how much more do you want to hear?
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No, no, I mean, I think it's really interesting because,
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you know, I guess I never thought about the illustration,
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like illustrator as a career outside of like,
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you know, children's books and like being illustrator and like drawing or,
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you know, in some of like cover arts and stuff like that. Like I
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never thought about it like, you know, you started in graphic design and then
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illustration was your, you know, kind of your driving
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force, your passion. And I was looking at some of the things
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like that you're involved with, like you have like the Smith You
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have illustrated for the Smithsonian, Washington Post,
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like the US Fish and Wildlife Service, like,
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you know. And so I never thought about like illustration as like a career
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that would go all those places. But I mean, it makes perfect sense.
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It's just something people don't think about when they think of, you know, graphic design.
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I've seen all kinds of things where there's been illustrations, but I've never actually
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thought like, where do these come from? Yeah, illustrations are everywhere.
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Yeah. And unless you think about it that way, you just
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kind of move through the world and you just think, oh, that's like a cool
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little picture. Like I think of the Virginia license plates that have like
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the wildlife on them. They're like specialty license plates and some illustrator out
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there, uh, that, by the way, I would love to do that. So if anybody
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here listening is connected, that's a dream of mine that's
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not yet realized. I would love to draw a critter for the license plate.
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But yeah, illustrations are everywhere and I think
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as As long as you— for me, it's all been all about like connecting
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with people that are doing interesting things and then really just
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with all of those collaborations, like figuring out how can I elevate what they're
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doing? Because I'm not a scientist. I don't have a background in biology. I love
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to be outside and I've learned a lot through just being outdoors and
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observing myself. But, you know, there's so many
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fields where They're doing amazing things, but they're not artists.
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And so if you are an artist in that space, then you get to
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learn all this interesting stuff about what they're doing and you get to elevate
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their project. So it's, I think a lot of my career
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has been just thinking about like, what sounds cool
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to me? How can I reach out to someone that works in that
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field or is doing that interesting thing? And most of
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the time I pitch myself to people. So I think a lot of people look
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at my resume or my website and they think, oh wow, like she,
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how did she get so lucky, like, work with all these big
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names. But most of them, I just reached
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out to and get told no to all the time where people just don't
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respond. But then, you know, every 20 times someone does
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respond, and those things add up, and then they know people. And it's
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fun to just kind of think about your career in terms of like, having agency
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and just kind of following your curiosity and seeing
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what it leads to next. I thought it was really cool to
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read your blog and about like your trips to Ireland and
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how that the connection of the Appalachian Trail and your writing is really funny,
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like especially when you're talking about being gifted
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the stomach virus or whatever. Oh yeah. Yeah. While you're
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on your trip. And I saw that you were going to do a
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residency in France, I think, or like a class.
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Yeah, yeah, I'll be teaching a workshop in France, um,
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next June. And yeah, I'm really excited about that.
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I— it's a company that works specifically with painters,
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and they organize all the logistics, and then you prepare a
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week's worth of curriculum, and then you come and you
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teach and you eat amazing food and drink so much wine. So I'm really
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looking forward to it. So in all of these things
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that, that you do, like, what is your process,
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like your creative process that you go through when
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you're, when you're coming up with these things, especially now that you mentioned you have
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to pitch yourself too? So like, you know, does that, is that involved in the
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career? Like, how does all that work? Oh man, there are just so many,
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so many parts of the process. I don't know if it would be helpful to
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talk about like an average work week. So I've been, this is my 8th year
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doing this full time. And so things have come and gone and changed. Changed throughout
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that time, but currently I spend about a day
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and a half just working on behind the scenes wholesale of
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my art products that have cool nature stuff on
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them that I've painted. So that is, I would say,
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and I like to share this because I think it's useful for all
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creatives to hear that, like, the books are not really
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where I make much money. I make some money on them, which is awesome.
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I'm very grateful to be published and all of that. And collaborations
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I make a little money off of. Sometimes it's pro bono. But selling
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art products is mostly how I fund my passion projects,
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and I consider books to be my passion projects. So about
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a day and a half or so is spent just shipping
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orders to different brick and mortars. I sell to a lot
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of bookstores. So you'll notice if you go into a bookstore, there are a lot
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of books, obviously, but there are also things like stickers and greeting cards and art
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prints and tote bags and my work fits in well with that
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type of shop. And then I'll
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spend usually, well, you know, being a new mom,
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my time is limited. So I use every little
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minute of my baby's nap time to usually write.
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So in the mornings during his nap, I will like
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not look at any screens, just like have my little notebook
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out, which took a while to get in that habit of like morning notebook
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journaling time, but that's become so crucial to my process.
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Um, and it's not like I have real like big goals for what I'm going
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to write every day. And it's not like I'm necessarily working on any
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specific project during that time, but I just kind of like check in with
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myself every morning. Think about like,
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how are my energy levels? What do I need to do to take care of
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myself? Because I know my creativity won't be in place unless
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I'm like drinking water and seeing a friend and things like that.
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So checking in with myself, and then I usually make a list
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of things that I'm excited about for the day. And if I don't have anything,
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whether that's work or otherwise, then I like try to think about, okay, what could
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I do today to make this day feel like
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worth living? That sounds so dramatic,
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but, but I'll, I'll put things down. Like if it's
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like a big shipping day, like all day I'm going to be just processing a
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big order or something, I'll, I'll like write down 30 minutes
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of sketching or something like that to kind of create some balance.
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And then often during that writing time,
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I will end up working on a project,
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like the written aspect of a new project, just because I'm like
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already there. I'm in the right headspace, the coffee's flowing.
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And so I really like not having pressure
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on myself during that time, but just like committing to show— showing up every morning
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with my notebook And then maybe it's a 10-minute writing
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session. Maybe it takes, it ends up being like a couple hours and that,
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that feels great when I like hit that flow and just want to keep going.
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But it's never like I have to sit down and,
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and really crank something out. So yeah,
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so that's every day. And then there's shipping day and a half a week usually.
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And then I am in my studio. So I have a little storefront downtown
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in Elkins and I've been here a little over a year.
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And I'm usually working on like a
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couple new paintings that could be turned into prints or something
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like that. So that's usually like a day. And then
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I write a monthly newsletter and I have a little online book club called the
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Nature Art Book Club. So those things are really like, I would say,
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marketing focused because I don't do social media much anymore.
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So I've really shifted to putting a lot of intention into
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my newsletters. So Those are, those are some things that I do. And then I'm
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open usually on Saturday, Friday and Saturday. So people come in
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and chat with them. I don't get much done when they're in and out,
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but it's really fun. And especially in the summer when there are a lot of
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festivals and stuff, it's, it's really fun to just like have my doors open
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and people coming in and I work on a painting and get to talk
18:09.515 --> 18:12.370
to little kids about what kind of art they like to do. That's my favorite
18:12.870 --> 18:16.431
thing about, I think, having this shop is letting especially kids peek
18:16.576 --> 18:19.548
in on the process and they all get so excited.
18:20.214 --> 18:23.863
So I saw in your, your intro video on your website,
18:23.895 --> 18:27.138
which is beautiful, by the way. I don't know. I don't know if you made
18:27.638 --> 18:31.653
it or you had someone. My next-door neighbor is an extremely
18:32.575 --> 18:36.487
acclaimed filmmaker. If you've heard of the film King
18:36.600 --> 18:39.653
Cole or Heroine,
18:39.686 --> 18:42.319
they're on Netflix. I've watched that one.
18:42.612 --> 18:45.898
Yeah. So they live next door to me and he,
18:46.459 --> 18:50.355
Curran Sheldon, needed to test out some new equipment.
18:50.403 --> 18:52.599
So he asked if he could do a little video of me and I was
18:52.615 --> 18:54.587
like, that's amazing. Sure.
18:55.116 --> 18:58.690
It's beautiful. And I love the section where you talk about teaching
18:59.123 --> 19:02.970
kids. Yeah. Your— how to do watercolor
19:03.470 --> 19:06.257
and like your process and things like that. So that's great. Yeah.
19:06.802 --> 19:10.585
Yeah. That's another thing I do is I don't do it super regularly,
19:10.665 --> 19:14.560
but I kind of do like little teaching bursts where I'll Um,
19:14.816 --> 19:18.101
teach workshops sometimes in public schools around
19:18.601 --> 19:22.347
the state, sometimes in conjunction with like, um, a book
19:22.363 --> 19:26.161
talk or signing or something. So your store's called Meander,
19:26.433 --> 19:30.006
right? Yes. Okay. So you talked about like a lot
19:30.118 --> 19:34.028
of how you, you know, um, are these little projects and you'll
19:34.044 --> 19:38.274
work on things as you come across them. And one
19:38.306 --> 19:42.247
of the things we were talking about when we were planning this is like
19:42.632 --> 19:45.997
the idea of like, we always hear about writer's block, people who
19:46.497 --> 19:50.211
are writing. And so as an author, I'm sure you've experienced that when you're doing
19:50.804 --> 19:54.233
your author side of things. But is there such a thing for like
19:54.730 --> 19:58.735
when you're creating other types of art, like illustrating? Is there like illustrator's
19:59.235 --> 20:02.998
block? Like, is that, is that a thing? Or, you know, we're just curious
20:03.622 --> 20:07.420
your take on that. Yeah, I, I definitely think it is a
20:07.468 --> 20:11.606
thing. I think most of the time It's not knowing
20:11.959 --> 20:14.881
when to walk away from a project, and that's not in a negative way.
20:14.929 --> 20:18.719
It's just like when to say, like, okay, this is done. Like,
20:18.783 --> 20:22.332
this is probably to a place where it needs to be, and I'm gonna walk
20:22.832 --> 20:25.655
away. Something that helps with that are deadlines.
20:26.795 --> 20:30.135
So if I don't have, like, a deadline
20:30.183 --> 20:34.181
on something, and a lot of my work that I make for products
20:35.642 --> 20:38.896
I don't have a deadline. It's just me making stuff that I think is
20:39.008 --> 20:42.343
fun based on what I find outside. And those
20:42.599 --> 20:45.757
usually, I don't have a lot of, I think the pressure feels low
20:46.142 --> 20:49.572
because it's just like me making it for mostly
20:50.072 --> 20:53.019
for me and then seeing if other people will like it. But it's not like
20:53.519 --> 20:56.353
there's a client or like a book deal deadline or something.
20:57.267 --> 21:01.210
But then usually I like to have a big
21:01.290 --> 21:04.544
project. Like I mentioned, the passion project. I like to have like a big thing
21:04.641 --> 21:08.632
kind of like simmering in the background and So usually
21:08.985 --> 21:11.695
since 2020, that's been a book, you know,
21:12.433 --> 21:15.912
like always kind of having a book that I'm either working on or
21:16.024 --> 21:19.552
like looking for that spark of an idea, which can take
21:20.052 --> 21:22.679
so long to come to when you like find an idea where you're like,
21:22.759 --> 21:26.062
oh yeah, like I want to spend 2 years working
21:26.562 --> 21:29.974
on this and then more time marketing it. It takes a while and like
21:30.474 --> 21:34.288
it's a big commitment once you decide. I recently decided
21:34.400 --> 21:37.400
on my 3rd book. I think, as long as, uh,
21:37.866 --> 21:42.102
somebody wants to publish it. But yeah, so I've been working on that for about
21:42.602 --> 21:46.724
3 months. And with that type of project, I don't yet have
21:46.837 --> 21:50.335
a deadline because I don't have a book deal yet. I haven't started submitting it
21:50.624 --> 21:54.700
to publishers, but I do have an agent. So I give myself
21:55.200 --> 21:58.632
deadlines like, girlfriend, you got to get something out in the next 2 weeks.
21:59.033 --> 22:02.564
Like, even though you like feel embarrassed of like where
22:03.064 --> 22:06.238
it's at or something like that, you just have to get it out there and
22:06.334 --> 22:09.525
like get over yourself. And so with illustrator
22:09.541 --> 22:12.556
block, um, I think going for walks helps a lot,
22:12.572 --> 22:15.859
like just getting a change of scenery and then coming back to it.
22:15.955 --> 22:19.707
And usually like if there's more that needs to be done, then I'll know like
22:20.207 --> 22:23.972
after I've looked at other things for a while. And then also
22:24.533 --> 22:27.499
knowing when to get feedback when you're stuck,
22:27.740 --> 22:31.300
and then, and then just knowing when to ship it. And that,
22:31.492 --> 22:35.117
that's something that my dad also an artist, and he
22:35.617 --> 22:39.418
taught me to ship things. Like, you can deliberate over it
22:39.514 --> 22:43.702
forever and you're gonna go insane, but at some point you just gotta send
22:44.202 --> 22:47.922
it and know that the next time you can do better, but this was
22:47.954 --> 22:52.030
as good as you could do right now. I know when we were—
22:52.287 --> 22:55.736
before we started recording today, you had mentioned like
22:55.752 --> 22:58.384
it had been a while since you've been on like a book tour and been
22:58.884 --> 23:02.604
doing these kind of things. And so, you know, the book festival is
23:02.620 --> 23:06.232
coming up and you're gonna be there. So What are you looking forward
23:06.732 --> 23:09.924
to about the Book Festival? And it's your first time, or is it your first
23:10.424 --> 23:12.863
time at the Book Festival? Yep. Yes, it's my first time.
23:13.617 --> 23:18.370
I'm so excited. I think the lineup is awesome. I personally
23:18.450 --> 23:23.652
am very excited about the used book sale. So a— that's
23:24.152 --> 23:27.778
a big hit. Yeah. And a little tidbit
23:28.278 --> 23:31.294
about Elkins is that we have not had an actual
23:31.794 --> 23:35.469
library for 5 years because it flooded in 2021. And so
23:35.870 --> 23:38.841
like most of the books were damaged.
23:39.226 --> 23:42.919
The library has to be rebuilt. It's taken forever for
23:42.935 --> 23:47.736
funding to come in. So we currently just have a little
23:48.236 --> 23:51.670
house that has 2 rooms and not
23:51.686 --> 23:55.684
very many books. And so I am just
23:56.184 --> 23:59.909
like hungry for books. So I'm really excited
23:59.957 --> 24:03.331
about these book sales. Well, my presentation is going
24:03.831 --> 24:07.894
to be about how to take a book from that spark. Well, I think
24:08.394 --> 24:10.416
I am not like— I haven't finalized it yet, but I think I want to
24:10.916 --> 24:14.159
start with like how to know. Like I was just saying, like making a book
24:14.659 --> 24:18.594
is such a huge time investment and it's gonna
24:19.094 --> 24:22.498
follow you around for better or for worse for several years.
24:22.610 --> 24:26.026
Like books, when you're in one while you're working on it,
24:26.058 --> 24:29.312
they just live in your mind. And so you
24:29.328 --> 24:34.137
have to really want to live in that place. And so I
24:34.637 --> 24:38.161
think I want to talk about like how I've found that seed of
24:38.661 --> 24:42.377
an idea that feels right, and then kind of
24:42.409 --> 24:45.663
just share all the nitty-gritty details of like starting
24:45.696 --> 24:50.074
with the idea and then going all the way through publication
24:50.251 --> 24:53.382
and marketing and talk about what I've
24:53.882 --> 24:57.508
experienced. So I've only published 2 books. So there's so many more,
24:58.456 --> 25:01.683
you know, people that have a lot more experience than I do. But I
25:01.747 --> 25:05.071
do think I've learned a lot with each book. And I
25:05.119 --> 25:08.170
just, I want to be very, very— with all my talks that I give,
25:08.234 --> 25:11.590
I want to be generous. But I feel like with this one, because I'm speaking
25:11.622 --> 25:14.916
to a room full of writers, like, I know Y'all are going
25:15.416 --> 25:19.222
to be excited to hear like the ins and outs. So I'm just going
25:19.722 --> 25:23.500
to like put it all out there. And I mean, that sounds like a
25:24.000 --> 25:28.071
good presentation. I mean, I'm sure that people who are
25:28.442 --> 25:31.771
fans of yours will also be there, so they'll just want to hear from
25:31.819 --> 25:35.408
you whatever you have to say. But, but there will also
25:35.908 --> 25:39.020
be people there who are writers and who do come to this for, you know,
25:39.101 --> 25:42.535
inspiration and, you know, advice. And so
25:43.196 --> 25:46.418
It sounds like a really cool presentation, especially with all
25:46.918 --> 25:50.522
of the media that you deal with, like because you are an illustrator
25:50.906 --> 25:54.545
and how that goes into your writing and your process. I think it'd
25:54.593 --> 25:57.799
be great. Yeah. Do you mean like pairing the
25:58.299 --> 26:01.647
text with the illustrations and like how I digitize things and stuff? Yeah.
26:01.791 --> 26:05.350
Yeah, I can definitely touch on things like that and just how to— how— I
26:05.850 --> 26:10.271
don't know. I think one of the hardest parts of a book is staying
26:10.303 --> 26:14.054
motivated. And so I have like come up
26:14.554 --> 26:17.882
with a couple sort of like outlines that I've gone back to when
26:17.914 --> 26:20.425
I worked on each book that's like,
26:21.874 --> 26:25.207
here is basically what you need to do next. And so I want to share
26:25.319 --> 26:28.669
that too, even though, you know, an illustrated book is very different from like a
26:28.686 --> 26:32.229
novel. I think there are a lot of crossover skills.
26:34.825 --> 26:38.673
So we, we do different segments on this podcast.
26:38.818 --> 26:42.168
And so we have— so we're going to transition into one of
26:42.184 --> 26:44.731
those. And it does involve things you've already mentioned.
26:46.877 --> 26:50.908
And so for this overdue conversation, we were inspired
26:51.408 --> 26:54.876
by the idea of all the book merch that's out there
26:54.988 --> 26:59.228
that seems to be growing, like, you know, accessories for Kindles.
26:59.341 --> 27:02.794
There's like, you know, different— like, I can find
27:03.294 --> 27:07.243
like t-shirt designs that are for book lovers and special bookmarks
27:07.436 --> 27:09.748
and, you know, merchandise.
27:10.567 --> 27:14.647
And we know that you do, you know, your own merchandise
27:14.904 --> 27:18.901
and Um, so like, how does your creating
27:19.077 --> 27:22.993
merchandise fit into your roles as an author and artist and,
27:23.651 --> 27:27.038
um, you know, that whole thing? Because you said
27:27.538 --> 27:31.532
you work on that some specifically, like the shipping and like maintaining that and
27:32.032 --> 27:36.250
like— Yeah, well, I think of, um, creating the
27:36.750 --> 27:40.568
merchandise as like funding myself to be able to do more risky
27:40.760 --> 27:45.559
projects and like really take the rest of my time and work
27:46.059 --> 27:49.811
on books that are more niche. Like, my Tiny Worlds of the Appalachian Mountains book
27:50.453 --> 27:53.839
is very regional, and I knew it wouldn't sell huge
27:54.339 --> 27:57.867
amounts. It sold well, and I'm happy about that, but it's like never going
27:58.367 --> 28:01.654
to be on like big bestseller lists or anything because it's so regional.
28:02.569 --> 28:06.340
And my third book, which I won't mention yet, but it's
28:06.420 --> 28:10.208
also extremely niche because that's what I love. That's what I get excited
28:10.708 --> 28:14.325
about. And I think that some of the best books that I've gotten the most
28:14.825 --> 28:18.580
out of have been just because the author fell in love with something and they
28:18.677 --> 28:22.380
wanted to really dig into it. It's not because it's something that
28:22.880 --> 28:27.602
can be sold in every bookstore all over the world. So that's
28:28.102 --> 28:31.233
kind of one of the things is like figuring out a way
28:31.249 --> 28:34.687
to fund myself to write and illustrate for
28:35.187 --> 28:38.510
books. And then I also think it plays in really
28:38.606 --> 28:42.252
well with connecting with booksellers
28:42.365 --> 28:46.005
because— and libraries— because I
28:46.358 --> 28:49.902
wholesale these art products to lots of
28:50.402 --> 28:53.703
different shops and bookstores. And so whenever I do have a new book come
28:53.895 --> 28:57.744
out, they're excited to carry it because they already have my stuff there. They can
28:58.244 --> 29:01.448
like make a little display where it's all cohesive. And then if they host
29:01.948 --> 29:04.624
me for an event, not only can they sell my book, but people will also
29:04.640 --> 29:08.281
buy art, which often they'll spend more on
29:08.781 --> 29:12.119
the art than book because books are just like, you know, they're kind of a
29:12.665 --> 29:16.165
low-dollar item. So I think it works,
29:16.534 --> 29:20.051
it works really well together. And I think you don't have to be like
29:20.067 --> 29:23.856
an amazing visual artist in order to create
29:24.356 --> 29:28.272
some things that could accompany a book. Or yeah, I think
29:28.416 --> 29:31.917
like making a fun little tote book, tote bag. I remember, oh, what was
29:32.013 --> 29:35.976
it? Emily Hilliard. Are you familiar with Emily Hilliard?
29:36.618 --> 29:40.051
Don't think so. She's an Appalachian author,
29:40.276 --> 29:44.319
and I went to one of her book talks and she had tote
29:44.367 --> 29:47.591
bags that said Friends of Coleslaw, and people
29:48.091 --> 29:51.843
were snapping those things up left and right. And her
29:52.343 --> 29:54.939
book, like, she was writing about, like, Appalachian food and things like that.
29:55.469 --> 29:59.431
So, and she's not normally a visual artist, but she
29:59.463 --> 30:02.736
was able to put together this cool little thing and it just It
30:02.752 --> 30:06.558
creates also a great gift to gift someone like a book by an
30:06.606 --> 30:10.347
author and a cool little thing that they made. And so
30:10.363 --> 30:13.992
I think they go really well together. And even if you don't feel comfortable
30:14.492 --> 30:17.862
doing any sort of design, you could always collaborate with an artist friend to put
30:18.362 --> 30:22.165
together like a little mini series of stickers or something. And also
30:22.245 --> 30:25.473
those things can really build awareness about what you do.
30:25.553 --> 30:28.892
So like whenever I do a book talk workshop, Um,
30:29.244 --> 30:32.596
sometimes I speak at schools and things. I will almost
30:33.096 --> 30:36.557
always give away stickers to people that attend, and it's like
30:37.057 --> 30:40.310
a nice quality sticker, but it has my name on the, like, little on the
30:40.810 --> 30:43.677
bottom. And I just see that as like a cool form of a business card
30:44.177 --> 30:47.430
because then they're gonna have that. They're gonna look at their sticker on their water
30:47.930 --> 30:50.846
bottle all the time and see my name, and then they might recognize it when
30:51.038 --> 30:53.957
my book comes out. I love the Stay Slimy.
30:54.486 --> 30:58.365
Greeting card, I think it was, made me laugh. And anytime I get
30:58.445 --> 31:02.373
a card from someone that's like by an artist
31:02.873 --> 31:06.909
or illustrator, I always look at who made it. Yeah. So like,
31:07.166 --> 31:10.212
it's like a glorified business card,
31:10.276 --> 31:14.107
but way cooler because it's something that's like fun and functional. I mean,
31:15.245 --> 31:18.852
one of the reasons that we, we, we wanted to talk about that,
31:18.868 --> 31:22.362
Tanya brought this up to me and I didn't even know this was a thing,
31:23.276 --> 31:26.242
but there was a situation where Um,
31:26.258 --> 31:29.815
someone tried to trademark a phrase that was like going
31:29.911 --> 31:33.838
popular in like the BookTok world, and they tried to trademark
31:34.338 --> 31:37.475
it and they weren't successful because it's like, it's, it,
31:37.844 --> 31:41.434
it was Hot Girls Read. And you know, they were trying
31:41.466 --> 31:44.382
to, you know, make that a trademark, uh,
31:44.815 --> 31:49.286
and you know, that was all on the internet, but like went crazy
31:49.462 --> 31:52.844
and was like, you can't do that, man. You know,
31:53.244 --> 31:56.546
I mean, that's especially after it's already been a trend.
31:56.594 --> 31:59.994
Like if you were the first person say it, mate, and like make a bunch
32:00.494 --> 32:03.445
of materials about it, maybe. But if it's already a trend and then you just
32:03.945 --> 32:06.960
slap it on a tote bag, you cannot claim that. No,
32:07.522 --> 32:11.149
no. And I mean, you know, the one thing about there being so
32:11.649 --> 32:15.627
much like merchandise around books is that it gets more people talking about books
32:16.127 --> 32:19.656
and like, you know, letting people know that like, you know,
32:19.961 --> 32:23.363
these— all these people are still reading. Because I,
32:23.797 --> 32:26.429
I don't know what I was looking at the other day, but I saw someone
32:26.926 --> 32:30.934
talk about like, you know, that, that people don't read anymore. And it's like,
32:31.655 --> 32:35.070
yes, they do. Uh, it just may not be as in your face
32:35.198 --> 32:38.805
as it once was. Uh, but, you know, like, people still do read
32:39.305 --> 32:43.117
and people love reading. And that's why these merchandise things are,
32:43.197 --> 32:45.794
you know, popping off and, uh,
32:46.644 --> 32:50.042
going crazy online. Yeah, I've never
32:50.542 --> 32:53.795
made any like book-specific merch. But maybe I
32:54.295 --> 32:58.002
should. Maybe you should. Listen, I'm telling you, Kindle inserts
32:58.355 --> 33:01.951
are a huge market. Like, I don't even know what that is.
33:02.369 --> 33:05.997
So like, and they have Kindle cases you
33:06.497 --> 33:10.878
could buy that are clear on the back and people will put
33:10.991 --> 33:15.069
like, you know, designs in their Kindle case. And so
33:15.310 --> 33:18.858
like, you know, it's, it's like a lot of people
33:18.922 --> 33:22.310
will do stickers and make their own, like, you know, it's kind of like putting
33:22.810 --> 33:26.148
stickers on like laptops and stuff like But you'll do it on the
33:26.648 --> 33:30.324
Kindle. And so people will make inserts and just sell
33:30.824 --> 33:33.617
them online and like, you can buy my Kindle insert.
33:34.244 --> 33:37.520
And that's a huge market right now. Um,
33:38.516 --> 33:41.873
wow. Yeah, completely book merchandise. Seems like it would be easy
33:41.890 --> 33:44.941
to make because it's just like a flat little piece of paper, right?
33:45.006 --> 33:48.218
Yeah. Yeah. And it's— and you just size it right. Like,
33:48.234 --> 33:51.334
yeah, I mean, you could, you could, you could totally start. I mean,
33:51.383 --> 33:54.561
I'm sure you— I mean, I think you could come up with some great Kindle
33:55.061 --> 33:58.654
inserts. So, okay, all right, well, or I was thinking recently,
33:58.734 --> 34:02.730
I've been thinking about like what types of different items
34:02.842 --> 34:06.469
do I wanna— because I'm always coming up with new like designs for
34:06.969 --> 34:10.225
things, but then like what could I apply them to? So I also have never
34:10.725 --> 34:14.157
made bookmarks. That sounds like fun, and I feel like I'm always looking for more
34:14.657 --> 34:18.265
bookmarks around my house. I should just make my own and sell them while
34:18.765 --> 34:21.136
I'm at it. Yeah, I mean, that could be a whole new, you know,
34:21.296 --> 34:24.823
a branch on your, on your website and things you sell is like book merch
34:25.323 --> 34:28.894
or, you know, just that kind of, kind of thing. I mean, people, people love
34:29.394 --> 34:32.677
it. You could probably find some good puns to put on bookmarks too, because I
34:33.177 --> 34:36.685
noticed you do some puns. I do some, but usually I outsource
34:37.185 --> 34:39.538
the puns. I've only come up with a few myself, but I have a couple
34:39.635 --> 34:42.921
friends that are really— they have lots of good puns, so they get all the
34:43.421 --> 34:47.393
credit. That's another form of collaboration.
34:47.441 --> 34:50.601
You're just collaborating with people. You're using the people you know and,
34:51.258 --> 34:54.369
and, uh, just collaborating. It's, it's fine. It's fine.
34:55.107 --> 34:58.475
But yeah, there's, there's a lot of book
34:58.975 --> 35:02.773
merch out there, uh, and so you could, you could definitely get into
35:02.821 --> 35:06.381
that market. I'm excited about it. Maybe I'll try to come up with
35:06.414 --> 35:09.813
like one new thing that's book related for
35:10.423 --> 35:13.780
the festival. If I can get around to that, I have about a
35:14.280 --> 35:16.996
month, so. I mean, that could be something.
35:17.221 --> 35:20.887
That would be fun. You could kick it off there and like,
35:20.904 --> 35:23.431
you know, this would be your new thing. Who knows?
35:26.313 --> 35:29.919
Well, thank you so much for joining us today.
35:30.000 --> 35:33.321
We're so happy that we got to take a moment
35:33.386 --> 35:37.080
and talk to you, and we look forward to having you
35:37.112 --> 35:40.371
at the Book Festival, and maybe we'll see each other there.
35:41.308 --> 35:44.986
Yeah, so you'll both be there. We both will be there. We are going to
35:45.002 --> 35:48.713
be in the marketplace area. There's like
35:49.213 --> 35:53.017
a special like table that's for the Kanawha County Library, usually over in the corner,
35:53.595 --> 35:57.129
and we'll be there making announcements on the speakers. That's what Tanya and
35:57.629 --> 36:01.080
I are going to be doing, like, you know, making announcements and just
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doing fun stuff like that. So we'll be there for the
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library. Yeah, thanks so much for having
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me. This was really fun. I want to mention the survey
36:11.979 --> 36:14.334
again. We have a survey,
36:15.119 --> 36:17.507
so please go to our website,
36:17.523 --> 36:20.727
kcpls.org, click on the banner or scroll
36:21.227 --> 36:24.796
down to the bottom and click on KCPL Podcast on
36:25.296 --> 36:28.914
the same page. It's all there. Click on that, and then our survey
36:28.978 --> 36:32.375
is right on that page. You can take it.
36:33.128 --> 36:36.765
And so, and next month, we'll give you a little teaser.
36:37.165 --> 36:40.871
Next month is November. And we're
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going to do a little bit talking about The Hunger Games. So we're going
36:44.584 --> 36:48.019
to have that going on next month on the podcast. So tune
36:48.131 --> 36:51.376
in and listen, listen to that. And we might have
36:51.876 --> 36:55.247
another special episode in November. We're still trying to get the pieces of that
36:55.391 --> 36:59.102
together. So I can't talk about that yet, but we'll
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do something special in November one way or another.
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And so Thank you. Thank you for listening.
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This has been another episode of On the Same Page, a KCPL podcast.
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I'm Evan. And I'm Tanya. And we'll see you
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in the next chapter.