Create a Way with Wendy Fedan

Create a Way with Wendy Fedan

Today we are joined by full-time freelance illustrator/designer Wendy Fedan. Wendy shares about her creative process, how she got started drawing, and about her publishing business Create-a-Way Design & Publishing. If you could use some inspiration to get your book self-published, Wendy can help guide and support you through the process!

Wendy Fedan's Bio:
Wendy Fedan is a full-time freelance illustrator/designer, living in Amherst, Ohio. She graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art where she also teaches Continuing Education courses for teens and adults.
Wendy launched her own design for publishing biz in 2021 named Create-a-Way Design & Publishing to act as a book shepherd, helping other authors through the self-publishing process.
She has 14 indie-published books under her belt so far, mostly picture books which she's also illustrated, but she also has her own novel series called Somewhere In-Between to explore her personal interest in the paranormal.

Connect with Wendy Fedan:
Website: https://www.cawpublishing.com/
LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/wfedan/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wendy.fedan
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wendyfedan/

Host Hilary Adams is an award-winning theatre director, coach, equine-partnered facilitator, and founder of Story and Horse. She is all about supporting creative expression and sharing stories with the world.

Connect with Story and Horse
www.storyandhorse.com
Facebook: @storyandhorse
Instagram: @storyandhorse

Transcript

Intro: 0:36

Welcome to Story and Horse, a podcast where we hear stories from creative lives. Meet new people, hear about their challenges and triumphs, and get inspired to move forward with your creativity. Now, here's your host, Hilary Adams.

Hilary Adams: 0:50

Hi, thanks for joining me here on the Story and Horse Podcast. I'm your host, Hilary Adams. I'm a coach, theater director and founder of Story and Horse, where I work with people to help get their creativity out into the world. Today we're joined by Wendy Fedan. Wendy is the creator of Create a Way Design and Publishing LLC. She's a full time freelance illustrator and part time character artist. She's an author and instructor and a mother of two teens. Hey, Wendy, thanks so much for joining me here today.

Wendy Fedan: 1:28

Oh, my pleasure, Hilary. Thank you.

Hilary Adams: 1:31

I'm so glad to have you on can you start us off? introducing yourself and telling us what you're up to?

Wendy Fedan: 1:38

Absolutely. So yeah, so I'm Wendy Fedan, and I am a full time freelance illustrator. I also do so many other things. I I'm an author illustrating my own books and illustrating other people's books and helping other people put out their books. And so yes, I'm I'm a writer-holic, I'm bookaholic. And I also do caricatures on the side. So I do all kinds of things started out my journey, as in the corporate world for 10 and a half years, and I'm just the freelancing was never my plan. But I am, I'm in it now. And I've been in it for for well over a decade. And I've learned to appreciate it and realizing that that's definitely the path for me now.

Hilary Adams: 2:36

And you have your own business?

Wendy Fedan: 2:37

Yes, yes, I have my, my own business, as like almost business says, actually, you know, because I've got like these pockets, I've got, you know, the pocket of my my business as a freelance illustrator, my business as a caricature artist, hiring myself out for events. And then I've got my business of, which is creative way design and publishing. That's my, my special little baby that I have online. And my website is see a W publishing.com. With ca W stands for create a way. So that's my, my present hub of activity for for all my books and publishing and also my little fledgling podcasts that I've started as well. So. So yeah, let's let few different businesses going on.

Hilary Adams: 3:32

So much to talk about. Before we start talking about your illustrations, which I'm so excited to ask you questions about that, because it's something I absolutely cannot do. And I love to talk about how those come to be and what that process is like, before we get to that I just want to stay with your business for just a moment. Because before we started recording, you said your your publishing company, you help other people who are in the self publishing world, can you tell us a little bit about that and what your services are?

Wendy Fedan: 4:06

Absolutely. I've actually learned this sounds like something I just made up. But it actually is a real term book shepherding. So I didn't make up this term, it actually is a term that exists where what I do is I, with my, with my business with my creative way design and publishing business, I not only illustrate other people's books, I also hold their hand if they need it through the self publishing process. Because Because the first person I worked with, she was not tech savvy at all, she felt very intimidated by the process, didn't know what to do. And I was like, Well, I can help I can help you through this. Let's not make any obstacles happen for you. Let's just like open the floodgates like, anything you are confused about or concerned about it. If I don't know it, I'll find it out. You know, and let's just let's just do this. Let's get this book out. So I really love doing that. That's why my business is called creative way. Design and publishing creative way has kind of been my motto for or my mantra for quite for several years now. I Have, you had that, that title going through my life for a while, because I really do believe in making sure that if there's an obstacle in your way, there is a solution for it, you know, there is a way around it. Even if it's financial, you know, I, I did this, this talk one time, about, you know, when it comes to your dream, it's, you know, think about it, like, as if it was your child or something. You know, when you have children, you, you realize there is time that you didn't know that you had, or money that you didn't know that you had, or ways to get money that you didn't know you had, you know, when it comes to your dreams there, there's a way there too. So I always like to say, you know, let's create a way let's create a way around this obstacle and make this happen for you. And that's how I feel about about authors and self publishing, I think it's just so important if you have for people to understand that traditional publishing is not the only way to go anymore. And it's not necessarily the best way to go anymore, either. So I love preaching that. And helping people through that whole process. I love it because it's just, I just love the joy that it brings to other people and I love I just love the healing and and just just that joy and passion that that other people have about when it comes to publishing their own work is great.

Hilary Adams: 7:09

Thank you I love book shepherding.

Wendy Fedan: 7:12

Love that title. So but yet it's so descriptive. It's so perfect. Such a perfect title. It totally describes what what I want to do with people.

Hilary Adams: 7:23

It's a herd of books.

Wendy Fedan: 7:27

Or yeah, shepherding like, I've got mice, I've, I've, I've got my staff and my flock, I've got my, my flock of sheep are the people that you're the other the authors out there who need guidance through this technology that is seems so like, ah, what do I do? How do I get an ISBN number what, you know, how do I get a barcode? And how do I make that happen? Meal? What do I need to do first? And how do I upload my files on to KDP publishing and whatever, or Ingram Spark? And, you know, how do I start an account or whatever, you know, lots of questions that people have. And I'd like to, you know, make it simple and easy, you know, just to even if even if I'm sharing my screen with them or something on Zoom and saying, Okay, this is where you find this, and this is, you know, where you fill this out and click here and all that stuff, you know, just to kind of baby step people through the process. And even there are times when I even just do it myself for the person.

Hilary Adams: 8:36

Yeah. And we're gonna backdoor our way into your illustrations here. Because I also while we're in the world of self publishing, you are a published author. So you tell us about your books?

Wendy Fedan: 8:50

Absolutely. Yes. My, my, my introduction into the publishing world. I actually when I was a teenager, I wrote my first book. As a teenager, I think it was 104 pages long. And I typed it. I didn't have a computer, of course. Yeah, this is you saying my age. Right. Okay. So, so yeah, I typed 104 pages. And I was, I think I was 12 or 13 at the time. And it was basically my life story you might experience from moving from Canada to the United States. So it was this huge, momentous thing in my life that I wanted to write about. And so I did that. And of course, I tried sending it out to publishers, which was kind of, you know, you can imagine how that went. Got some, you know, some interesting rejection letters back. Got one really encouraging rejection letter back that was actually pretty nice. I think it was kind of funny because it said, you know, we encourage young writers and then of course, I was like, how do they know I was a young writer? Oh, my goodness. So so i i Of course, I got discouraged you know, of course for for a while, but I've always loved writing and it's always you know, when you're, when you're an artist, or when you're a writer when you're a musician or anything, any anything creative like that, if you're not doing it, you feel that weird sensation, you know, you feel that if there's something that you You are meant to do, and you're not doing it. You just feel this emptiness, this kind of like, yeah, I can see is this an emptiness inside you. So there, I've learned that, that I always have to keep writing a part of my life, even though art is my is my profession. And I chose that as as my career path, I always knew that writing was was something that I always have to do in my life. So what? When I was in my 20s, I decided to take that story that I wrote as a teenager, because it was, it was still nagging at me, you know, when something just you just can't let go of it. And you're like, this thing is not going away. So I started rewriting the entire thing. And it became, it became long enough to be a three book series. So I decided, You know what, I think that's what it's going to be. And at that time, finally, I think it was when I was in my early 30s, then I realized there's this thing called me print on demand. That magically appeared in the technology world. And I was like, okay, um, at that time, I was like, Okay, I know how to do things on the computer, artistically. I know how to put a formatted piece of writing together. I think I can do this myself. Now that that technology exists out there for me to put a book out there myself, why not? Why not give it a try? So So I did it with with book one of that series. And I called it merit wearing my weird was the name of the series. And it was, you know, about my move from Canada to the United States as, as a teenager. So there was, it was all about that. The reason why I called it wearing my weird was because one thing I thought about when I, when I moved from Canada to the US was I never felt like I totally fit in anywhere. You know, I was just one of those kind of, like, nerdy kind of kids that just the only place I fit in was was with with my friends, you know, with my little pocket of friends that I had. And it so I've always felt a little weird. And I thought, Well, when I moved, maybe, maybe I won't be weird anymore. Maybe No, maybe, maybe this problem will go away. And of course, it didn't, you know, you You're weird follows you wherever you go. That's just the way it is. So, so yeah, so that's part of the series, where it's just the awkwardness of being a teenager, and sometimes wishing you are someone else. And, you know, dealing with dealing with yourself and just, you know, all those teenage things. So that was a really fun series to write about. And and it was really scary putting it out. Because it was, you know about me. It was it was so I had that fear going on like, okay, is this safe to put out there, but it ended up being a joy. It ended up being great. And I sold a bunch of copies, it was great. And I was like, Okay, time for the next project. So, so yeah, so. So that just opened the floodgate. It seems like after that project was over with and out there, then I felt I could finally move on to, to other stories that had been percolating in my mind for years, and I just realized with that process, also understanding then how to do that process, how to put a book out how to put a cover together, how to upload all that stuff and fill out all that information online. Like, wow, I just felt like I could do anything. And so I just decided to I was like, Okay, I'm just via, I've got a book idea. Now I know how to do it, and I'm gonna put it out there. And now I'm just and now I've got that point where I'm just, you know, wanting to do that for other people, because I know how much joy it gave me and continues to give me to do that. So yeah.

Hilary Adams: 15:18

Thank you. Yeah. All right. So let's talk about illustrations. Yeah, I know that you started writing when you were young. Were you also drawing during sort of ...

Wendy Fedan: 15:30

Yeah, that's funny. Yeah, I basically tell people I grew up with a pencil. You know, it's like, with write writing, and illustration, they just basically rose at the same time for me. And I think sometimes I wonder if that's because I, when I first got my first journal in the second grade to fill out, the top half of the page was blank, and the bottom half of the page was lined. So I, I started just automatically thinking, Okay, well, I have to draw picture to go with whatever I write. So I just ended up doing that there are times when I would write more than I would. And I would just write through, just like, Okay, I can't think of a picture. So I'm just gonna write over this. I'm just gonna make lines up there. But But yeah, I always because of that, starting from the second grade, I knew my dream was to write and illustrate my own books. That was like my childhood dream where he has some people want to be ballerinas, or firemen, or that kind of thing. That was, that was my dream. I want to write and illustrate my own stories. So yeah, that's it definitely grew up with me from the very beginning. Yeah. Oh, and I have to say one more little tiny story about my childhood, which is, I think, pretty cool. I just love this, when, before I even knew how to read, I have a memory of going into my basement with a book, opening it up, and trying to figure out what the marks on those pages meant. I was evaluated and think if I stare at this long enough, can I figure it out? And I will wonder your WHY ARE? What did these dots mean? What do Why are some wire? Why are some of these words bunched together in? I didn't know they were called paragraphs. But you know, it's like, Why? Why is it organized this way? I would try to I would ask myself that I was so confused by it and, and intrigued and fascinated. So I love that. I love that I have that memory of being fascinated with writing even before I knew how to read.

Hilary Adams: 17:49

You kind of were fascinated in a way that's visual. That's like a true art way.

Wendy Fedan: 17:54

Yeah, that's true. I didn't think of it that way. But that's absolutely right. Wow. Yeah.

Hilary Adams: 18:00

You're looking at the composition of the words.

Wendy Fedan: 18:03

Yeah. It's like, what does it what does that mean? Why are something bunched together like that? And why are the why are these dots here and these little squiggle marks that are actually quotations? Like, what does all this mean? It means something because my dad keeps staring at it and flipping through the pages and something's happening.

Hilary Adams: 18:25

Was your family supportive of your artistic your artistic-ness?

Wendy Fedan: 18:30

Thank goodness, yeah, I was one of those fortunate people, because not every family is supportive about that kind of thing. And I think the reason for that I really have my grandfather to thank for that because, of course, my mother, my well, both, both my parents, my dad was kind of a dreamer. So he had a creative spirit. And my mom was more of a practical kind of person. However, she grew up with her father, she, she had, she was she grew up in a sixth sibling family. Her mom, I don't believe worked. But her dad was the art editor for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, he went to the Cleveland Institute of Art, which is where I ended up going. So so she grew up luckily, with that understanding that her father put his all of his kids, you know, was able to raise his six kid family on an on artist salary. So she, she didn't have that option, that stigma, you know, that was instilled that other people other parents might have. So I was very, very lucky to grow up with with my mom and dad, you know, who did not have any qualms about encouraging me into the artistic field? I was very fortunate, very grateful for that. Because I do know that there is still a lot of stigma out there. You know, a lot of, you know, parents, they're like, Oh, you want to be an artist? Um, are you sure you want to do that? Yeah. And, and it was, and neither of my parents were artists. So, you know, I think it was very, you know, very wonderful of them to actually encourage me because they didn't know exactly how to guide me on that. So, of course, now, you know, I'm like, of course I'm like I try not to push my own kids into as hard. I'm trying to do the opposite where I'm like, okay. Yeah, like, Yeah, I'd love for you to be an artist. But I understand if that's not what you want to do. It's hard.

Hilary Adams: 20:49

Sounds like Yeah, it sounds like you and your grandfather shared, shared some artistic tendencies and abilities. Right?

Wendy Fedan: 20:59

That's right. Yeah. So I have going on with the with the art thing. Also. Yeah, I've. Yeah, I've always, I've always loved illustration, I guess really is like, there's a difference between definitely a difference between the fine arts and illustration, you with illustration, I think it really ties in so well with writing because it's all about communicating illustration is, is about communicating an idea to someone visually. And art is more about, you know, like fine art is can be more about like, just either, you know, self expression, or just making something beautiful, just for the sake of the beauty of it. I definitely admire artists like that. But I'll admit, I'm, I'm not that kind of an artist I love. I think it's just too ingrained in me to want to communicate something, whether it's with my writing or with my art. And I love I guess, it's maybe one of those challenges that I just really enjoy, like, how can I, how can I communicate this visually to someone? How can I, and even like, if I take words that someone else has written like, you know, like I'm doing right now, or I'm collaborating with other authors, and they give me their story. I love the challenge of of using what they've given me and thinking, okay, how can I show what I know this author wants to express visually, I really enjoy that process. It's just so fun for me. And that's been an interesting journey to working with other authors I've learned in the past. For a while I just, I lost my interest in working with other authors for a little while, because I was doing it the wrong way. I was, I was doing it the way I'm used to working professionally as an artist, because I'm used to people telling me what they want as a professional artist, and then I do it. When it comes to illustrating books, though. It didn't work so well for me that way, it just was because illustrating a book is such a long process. It's such an involved process. And I don't like to work on one thing for a long time. I don't want to take a whole year to work on something. And I know the author doesn't want me to either. So so I've learned. So a couple years ago, I basically picked up the whole thing again and decided to give it another try to work with an author, because a friend of mine from Arizona, that I had never met in person before, but I knew online quite a lot. She said she bought one of my books I had illustrated already, you know, just for myself, put all my joy into it. And it was a book that I illustrated relatively quickly, too, because it was so fun for me to do. And I used my own style. She said she loved it. And she said she wanted, she just knew that she wanted me to illustrate her book. So that started this whole new adventure going for me, and realizing this is how I need to do it instead, you know, this is I've developed my own style. And the people that I need to work with the authors that I need to work with are the ones who already like my style and know that this is something that they want to use for their book. And that ended up being the perfect marriage, you know. So it's worked out really well the book that I did with this one lady. It won an award in Arizona. And then one of the other books I did that same year with someone else. Using that same once again, just illustrating my own style, won three awards. So it was called Three, the three little pigs and the rocket project. It's like to a stem bug. So fun is such a cute title. So, so that's been working out so much better. Yeah, it's I think that's a real testimony to, instead of trying to morphing yourself more for yourself into what you think someone else wants you to be, it works out so much better when you when you allow yourself to come out instead, and just do what comes naturally to you. That that is just, I think the testimony of that that story, really.

Hilary Adams: 26:04

When you sit down to do illustration, when you sit down to illustrate, yeah, what is your process? Like? How does where did they come from and sort of? How do you go about ending up with that? The visual story? Oh, yeah.

Wendy Fedan: 26:23

Oh, yeah, absolutely. So. So when with like, like, when I'm illustrating someone's book, basically, or even my book, what basically what the process that I do is, I'll look at the manuscript, whether it's my manuscript or someone else's, and all off, I'll fake Okay, where are the, you know, where are the, the points where I think, would flow well with turning pages, and then I saw I separated into little chunks like that. And so I decided, okay, that's the first step. And I'll be like, Okay, this is this is the first page this is, so this is what I'm dealing with, with the first page. And then on and on and on, with each and every page, looking at each page separately, and thinking, Okay, how do I want to visually communicate? What this what's going to be on this page? And how do I introduce these characters? And so I'll first I'll do just that just kind of figuring out the storyline, and figuring out, okay, how am I going to illustrate this story, just as a big picture, kind of a thing. Spread by spread page by page. And, you know, there are some spreads that that might, I don't, I don't really, I like to, I like to design in a really fun way, I don't want to just say, Okay, there's texts on one page, and then there's an illustration on the other page, I, I all, I never do it that way. I always have to, I always like to mix it up. And I like to, I mean, sometimes there, there'll be usually just, you know, the text in one part of the page and one part of another page, but, you know, sometime about I'll also allow myself to imagine, oh, what will maybe this part of the text can be woven through or something like that, you know, it might work out really cool if we do this, you know, with this particular because if there's action going on, you know, and maybe you're having the text flowing or something or, or really bold in one part or something might might help communicate this even more boldly an hour. Just to kind of, I'm always thinking about entertaining, you know, what's what's entertaining for the, for the reader, what's going to make the reader want to turn the page and look at what happens next. I like to think about what what the illustration of course can add to the story. Like what what is the story not saying that I can say as an illustrator, you know, what, what can I add, but but with without changing anything of the story, of course, but but just adding that extra little spice, you know, to the story with like, maybe there's this fun little character in the background or something that keeps showing up and it's not in the story, but it's just back there do with doing something, you know, this and of course, I'll I'll communicate, you know, I'll send all my sketches to the to the author and say, Hey, this is my idea. What do you think, you know, I like to collaborate with the author. That way they're not you know, thinking that I'm dictating what the story is gonna do, you know, but then of course after you know, after I get like the the roughs stuff done, then I'll really get into character design. And, and I'll start designing the actual character and think, Okay, this is what I'm thinking and my character is actually pretty simple, kind of cartoony, so I never usually spend a lot of time designing a character. Because I don't I once again, I my personal style is I like to do things quickly, and therefore I don't want I don't necessarily make my illustrations very complicated. So I don't make my characters very complicated either. But I do want my characters to be engaging and fun. I want you I want the, the person to look at my character and say, I like this character. Yeah, no, I want someone to see it. If someone looks at this character, I want them to smile, you know? Unless it's, of course, the movie, the main character in the story or something. But first, there was one main character goes, you know, I like cute stuff. And I like to design cute characters, like the little like the three little pigs. And, you know, I've gotten a lot of comments on that book, where you know, this, like, Oh, those pigs are so cute. I love those pigs like, oh, great, thank you. So glad you like them. You know, because they're all happy and cute and all that stuff. So yeah, I hope that kind of answers the question.

Hilary Adams: 31:29

What do you use physically? Are you drawing is a hand drawing? Is it computer like, what do you what are your

Wendy Fedan: 31:38

I'm laughing because I used to, I used to be totally just using the pencil. And sometimes, sometimes I will just go back to the pencil in the paper. And I'll start that way. Like some i I'm used to now doing things straight on the computer. As far as drawing, I'm still drawing, you're not using any tricks or anything. Like I'm using my my tablet and writing with the pen tool on the tablet, you know, using Photoshop, I like using Photoshop, so I can sketch things, and then sketch over it, you know, just to kind of fine tune it more. But there are times when I'm like, You know what this computer thing isn't working out. For me, it's just not flowing very well. And I'll go back to the pen and the paper. Just tried and true, you know, just to maybe because sometimes if I'm doing something directly on the computer, I worry that my mind is thinking, this is the final piece or I'm thinking too much about this is what it's going to be if I have my, if I just have the pencil in the paper, I feel like I'm definitely back in sketch mode. And I'm just like, okay, I can just do whatever, I doesn't matter what I what I draw, you know, because when I'm on the computer, I'm so used to doing it for work. So I'm like, sometimes like, Okay, I just got to get away from that back to the pencil, the pencil and paper like, okay, just have fun, just have fun, and see what happens because it's like, I have to I think when you are having fun with something, allowing yourself to have fun with something, that's when the magic happens a little bit more, I think. And then I'm like, okay, I can just scan my sketch into the computer and work off of that. So, so it's just as well, it's just adding adding one more step of I use paper. But the reason why I have left is because I actually when I had a job a while back, working at a gaming company, they actually I was the only I was working with a lot of younger, like I was the only female but I was also one of the older people, I guess who worked there because it was a gaming company. And it was kind of funny I was they had to order pencil and paper for me. They had to order that stuff for me. I could not believe it. I was like seriously, like if they had to order a scanner because of course since I was using, you know, the pencil and paper that I had to scan it to get into. So they had like, I felt so bad. I felt so bad. I felt so it was so I I taught myself over those years. I was like okay, I got to see if I can try to make this work for myself where I don't have to always use the pencil and paper all the time.

Hilary Adams: 34:36

They didn't have they didn't have do you have a pencil? Do you have paper?

Wendy Fedan: 34:40

Like there? You guys don't have pencils or paper? Like, seriously? Because Oh, yeah,

Hilary Adams: 34:49

I'm looking behind you and people are listening to this. Can't see it. But there are some very beautifully illustrated images behind you and they're very colorful. Do you start working in color after? Like, do you do first do non color and then add the colors?

Wendy Fedan: 35:04

That's right. Yes, I always. I Yeah. Normally I don't think about color much at all, when I'm just starting to sketch me personally. I mean, there are other artists who might not do it that way, but that's the way I started. And that's just the way I've always done it. And so I usually won't, I always have maybe an idea of What the color might might be? How much blank space is going to be going on on the page, that kind of thing. But yeah, I, like Currently I'm working on a book for myself. And originally, I was thinking it was going to be filled with beautiful color. And it was going to be very, you know, very beautifully illustrated, and all that. And then I've been, and then I, I showed my sketches, which don't have any color. Except for maybe I thought, well, maybe a spot of color here and there, as I was showing it to other people trying to get some feedback on the book, and they said, I'm like it the way it is. So it's kind of funny, it's like, okay, well, that'll make my life a little more simple, I guess. So I so I've added with this new book, I've decided like, Well, yeah, maybe I'll do this a little bit differently, where I won't, it'll be mostly black and white with touches of color, where, where the interest of the story is supposed to be, you know, it's like more symbolic coloration kind of thing. So some, that's something I've never really done before. So that'll be interesting to do with this new book that I'm working on.

Hilary Adams: 36:54

That's almost putting your foot in the other in the fine arts world you're talking about in terms of expression and symbology? Feeling emotion?

Wendy Fedan: 37:04

Yeah, true. True. Exactly. Yeah.

Hilary Adams: 37:07

When you first I have to ask this because I'm fascinated by how people's minds work. When you first sit down, do you see like in your mind, the images and then you translate them out? Is that how do they show up that way? Or is it words are like,

Wendy Fedan: 37:23

that's like, a interesting question. That's a good question. I, I don't necessarily know what's going to come out of my pen, like I'll try. Like when it comes to designing characters. I mean, when it comes to designing characters, especially, I don't necessarily know exactly what's going to come out of the pencil. As I'm drawing, I mean, I'll have an idea of what I want. And and I'll try to draw, you know, and I'll see if it works. But sometimes I'll have to draw it over like a few more times, before I get the, the, the cuteness aspect that I want out of it. Now, luckily, I've been doing it for long enough now that it does come more naturally. And I do I have developed a style that just naturally comes out. And I'm very, very glad about that. But that takes a long time. Definitely, I think as an artist to to develop that aspect of style. Or as far as well. I don't know, it's kind of a weird thing to say though, because the truth, I do believe that, you know, his style is just what comes out of you naturally. But I guess in order to fine tune your style, I guess I should say it takes a while to do that. And I feel like that's something I've finally been able to do. Since I've been creating characters for so long. And and another thing is I've, I've I understand what's going to come out of my pencil is is always going to be cute. That's one thing I just have to accept it's always going to look cute. And that's that's totally fine. I'm like I'm happy with that because I like drawing cute things. Like I'll try like I'm one thing I'm also doing is in addition to my picture books, I I love working on this paranormal series that I'm that I've been working on for a while I've put out two two books in this series. So far, this paranormal series called somewhere in between. And I've, you know, I've got some like demon kind of characters in there, like some scary and I've tried. I've tried. Like, I'll go online and I'll look for inspiration on how to describe you know, these are non illustrated novels, you know, but I'll try to imagine what the scary like demon like characters is going to look like in the book and I've tried drawing things out for myself based on things I've seen online and I'm like, I can't not make this look. Yeah, what's the I don't want a cute demon it's just so funny to me. So I'm I also as an illustrator as an artist. I know Oh, I know, what is, what my limitations are as far as style goes as well. So when it came to illustrating my, my somewhere in between my paranormal novel series, I decided I did illustrate the first cover, and I was able to make it look, you know, realistic and you know, it was general enough to not have any cuteness on it at all. But for the second novel, I really wanted the caricatures to be the characters to be illustrated on the cover. And I'm like, I'm not going to do this. I'm not even going to attempt doing this, because I know I can draw realistically. But it's not what comes naturally out of my pencil. And I know that so it would take a lot longer for me to do this than it would be for me to just hire someone who does do it naturally. So I found so I found a friend of mine who lived in Alaska at the time, she was like, she already knew this series, she already loved the series. So I was I totally was able to get her on board. And she already knew the characters just was so cool. So she was able to illustrate my characters for the for the cover instead. And that I think that's I love that I'm that I don't have so high of an ego or anything to say, I must be the one to illustrate the cover of my book, like, No, I'm not the one to illustrate the cover of this book that I wrote, like, I just know, you know, another artists would be better because every artist has their own style and what comes naturally to them. And I think it's important to utilize the skills of others that you know, can help you through this for us. Absolutely,

Hilary Adams: 42:17

that's funny, like cute demons.

Wendy Fedan: 42:21

Like, oh my gosh, I can't draw anything scary to save my life. I hate that.

Hilary Adams: 42:32

couple cool tips for people who are listening who you know, are interested in sort of either unblocking their creativity or getting, you know, getting their creativity flowing. And if somebody's listening to this, and they're thinking, you know, I sit down and even just fine, you know, like, I sit down and I want to connect with my what might come out of my pencil. Like, even if it's not, you know, if it's going to be some version of stick figures or something. Yeah, play with that. How do you have suggestions for people by hussar? To get out of your way? Or get going on that?

Wendy Fedan: 43:02

Yeah, I would say just just keep on doodling, you know, and just think of it. Don't be hard on yourself, basically. Yeah, just try to have fun. And if there is a style that you want, like, as I think as you're starting out, especially with art, like my, my son's going through this right now where he he's a teenager, and he's really thank goodness, like really interested in art. Like, I'm so happy, like, on the moon, so happy. And but he's, he's, you know, figuring out what his style is now, and he, he is so different from me, where he he's really into landscape painting and stuff like that, which is really cool. But he's, you know, he's looking at other this is this is definitely what you do when you're starting out is if you if there's a style of something that you're attracted to, and you're like, Oh, I really want to see if I can do this. Give it a try do it. Like my son, he he started with Bob Ross, you know, paintings and stuff. Like he would watch Bob Ross stuff. And he would try to, you know, learn from Bob Ross and that kind of stuff. And now he's, he's, thank goodness starting to look at photographs. And you know, now that he's learned some techniques, you know, he's starting to look at photographs instead and try to trying to emulate what he sees there as best as he can. And his I love. One thing that's kind of fun is seeing what how his style is developing as a young artist is really interesting. You know, he is very hard on himself. Which is unfortunate, because I totally understand that I felt the exact same way. I had a terrible inner critic, you know, growing up, I totally understand what that's like. And it's hard to get past that. It's hard to not beat yourself up and say, Oh, this looks terrible. I hate the way this looks. You know? It's hard not to. It's hard to go easy on yourself and say, you know, well, I am just learning because my son is exactly the way I used to be where it's like I want to be perfect now. I want to be good now. You know? And it's not something that you're good at you toss it aside and think, Okay, I can't do it. And that's it, you know. So I'm just really, I'm glad to watch him as a young artist that that he is not tossing things away. And he is realizing that, yes, he can, he can, the more he does, the better he gets. And that is the truth with art with that's the truth with anything. And it is the truth when it comes to drawing and art as well. The more you do it, the more comfortable you'll get with it, the more you'll start to realize where your strengths are. Some artists really are good at catching likenesses, like with portraits and characters, caricatures, that kind of thing. Some artists just don't, you know, that's just not their thing. Some artists are more inclined to, to drawing animals, or landscapes or you know, any things like that. And I think it just, I think when it comes right down to what you're attracted to, yeah, yeah. Like, whatever. Like drawing horses, you know, drawing horses, actually, horses are really hard to draw, in my opinion, like, they're, they're one of the hardest animals to drive. But, but yeah, but if you're someone who's around horses a lot, that might not be so hard for you to draw, because you're so familiar with the anatomy, and you know, what a horse looks like, you know, just you dreaming of horses all the time. So of course, you know, horses aren't going to be too hard for you to draw, you know. So I think when it comes to art, when it comes to drawing, it really is about, you know, think about, you know, what you what you enjoy and and also just just see what comes out, see what comes out and just keep if it's something that that you want to keep working on? Keep working on it. Yeah. So just like anything else, the more you exercise that the better you get at it, that's for sure.

Hilary Adams: 47:30

Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. As we wrap up here, is there anything else that you'd like to share? And please also give us your contact information?

Wendy Fedan: 47:39

Thank you. Yeah. Well, when it comes to Yeah, I just, I just want to say if there, is there any, any authors out there who, who might have that thought that, that traditional publishing is the only way to go? There are some are authors that might be kind of stuck on that idea. And they might be discouraged that, you know, all I can't get an agent, I can't, you know, so I can't, it's just, you know, I can't this I can't this is, this is too hard. This is too hard. Think about self publishing, please think about it, because it's really, it's, it's not too, it's not difficult to do and, and if you've got a novel idea, and you're thinking, well, I need someone to illustrate my cover, or I need this or that, you know, there if you go into Kindle Direct Publishing, you can actually, there's a resource there to put a free cover together for you. You can do self publishing, with zero financial investment, if you want to do it, you know, there's, you can put as little to no financial investment into it as you want. Or you could put as much investment into it as you want. You can put a lot of money into it, but you don't have to, which is really great. And I'll give you my information here yet to yeah, please contact me if you have questions about self publishing, if you have that obstacle. If you feel like I like I'd love to do it, but I don't know how. Or I'm afraid. I just feel like this this big, you know, mysterious thing for me. Yeah, email me, you know, contact me, you can talk to contact me through my website. It's caw publishing.com. Once again, that's caw, publishing.com there's a Contact Me button there, you'll find that so you can contact me through my email there. And I'm really happy to talk to other authors because I, I want I want you to realize that there's a way that's why I named my my business create a way of publishing because there is a way there's always a way for you. Yeah,

Hilary Adams: 50:13

well, thank you. I'm gonna make sure I make a note of that and everything that you've all the links in the contact information will be in the show notes. So being on the search for joining me here today really, really appreciate it.

Wendy Fedan: 50:28

I love talking shop. I love talking about this subject. And it's been so much fun talking to Hilary, thank you so much for this opportunity to speak with you. Thank you. Yeah.

Outro: 50:41

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