Our Journey
“It is written”…….In early 2018, I was sharing my thoughts about writing this story with a colleague. She encouraged me to buckle down and put pen to paper. It was shortly after that, that I came across the Google Doodle by Ross Stewart (http://rossstewart.net/) created in honour of St Patricks day. This little image was like a lightning bolt of inspiration – it was just the kind of look and feel I imagined for the illustrations of The Whispering Wall story. I sat down to write the story. After many editions, the final copy was completed in early 2019. It was around this time that my grandad, Brendan O’Grady, moved into a nursing home, as his health had declined dramatically in recent months, and continuing to live in the Pokey Little Cottage was no longer sustainable.
I decided that while the book was not yet ready to be printed, I still wanted to share the story with Grandad O’Grady, while he was still able to enjoy it. Grandad was himself a grand story teller, and enjoyed sharing stories of the faery folk with his children and grandchildren that he had heard from his own mother when he was a young boy.
So I decided to record an audio-only reading, so that Grandad O’Grady could listen to it whenever the mood took him. (INSERT LINK TO YOUTUBE AUDIO HERE). I wrote to Ross Stewart to ask permission to use his Google Doodle illustration as the placeholder image for the audio recording on Youtube, which he graciously agreed to.
I was really touched by the positive feedback from family, friends, and colleagues who listened to the story. I decided it was time to start putting things together and get it printed as a keep-sake for our immediate family members.
“The Artist known as YehettiArt…….” There was one thing missing, however, and that was… an illustrator, who could bring the imagery to life on the page.
As it so happens, Brendan and Catherine’s youngest grandchild, Heather Stirling, was training as a digital artist at the University of Abertay University in Scotland. I approached Heather, and she graciously agreed to work on the artwork for the book. Heather graduated her 4 year degree program in the spring of 2020, and at that point, began working on the illustrations for The Whispering Wall.
Heather is a very talented digital artist. I encourage you to browse her portfolio ( www.artstation.com/yehetti ), and reach out to her to discuss any projects you think would benefit from her tremendous talents. Heather is also available for commissioned art pieces.
“Getting Printed….”….. I had a great experience with printing a limited edition run of a compendium of poems and drawings by my grandmother, Catherine O’Grady, called “Animal Antics And Feisty Faeries”. Unfortunately, when it came time to print “The Whispering Wall” book, the quality of printing had declined with that supplier, and so we began researching more local printing companies we could collaborate with instead. Ultimately, we went with Sure Print And Design (https://sureprintanddesign.ca/) – who demonstrated excellent communication and attention to detail, and it was just an overall pleasant experience dealing with them. We’d recommend them to anyone looking to print their project.
Lani is an artist living in Sligo but born and raised in Co.Clare to a German mum and an English dad. Her whimsical art is inspired by her somewhat alternative childhood, compost toilet, oil lamps and baths by the fire…you get the picture.
The pros and cons of self publishing:
I don’t want a publishing company telling me they’ll be changing my story, characters, or illustrations to make the book more appealing to a mass audience. I’m perfectly ok with this book appealing “only” to a niche market: people who identify with its themes of family, history, and the struggles of being far from home.
Why should the corporate overlords get to decide who’s story is worth sharing with the world? Ask any author, artist, or musician – getting your work noticed and promoted widely is the dream, but giving up almost all control of your art is a very prickly pill to swallow. Publishing as an “independent author” is a far more gratifying experience than pursuing dozens or hundreds of official publishing houses for years and years to get someone to pick up the book – maybe.
This is the biggest obstacle that indie authors face: we’re personally financing the cost of printing physical copies of our books, and unless you have a fairy godmother with deep pockets, that necessarily means a limit on the number of copies we can have printed at one time. In the printing industry, as in most others, higher volume orders = greater cost savings.
So this is my appeal to you, dear readers: if you have a contact you think I should be talking to in order to help bring down the cost per unit for our little book, please reach out to me. I would be so grateful.
Big publishing companies have big marketing budgets. The projects of indie-authors live or die by book reviews and social media shares from people who love their book. One of the greatest honours and most helpful things our readers can do is to share share share our social media posts and of course, to drop a candidate review of our work on Amazon or anywhere else you may have accessed the book, ebook, or audiobook.