Confession

Ella Roselyn is actually my pen name. My real name is Kierstyn King (yes, the illustrator). This month has been an experiment in writing, sort of my own adventure on top of an adventure and a motivation for me to continue even when I became discouraged.

I'm proud to say it worked. I've managed to write and illustrate an inspiring and well written story in less than a month. Oddly, I think writing it under an alias and on a crazy time table enabled me to do it better than I would have otherwise. Less over-thinking, more writing and when I wasn't doing that, I was painting.

Emotionally, it's been a roller-coaster. When I was talking about days feeling like I was just oozing everywhere and pouring my soul on to pages I meant it. It feels weird to be done, except for the few things I have left to do - like upload the file and publish. After a month of working like nuts, rest is weird, I feel a little lost, and a little healed. I had to face some things while writing, I realized some things about myself - some things I don't yet understand. Like why do I love even when it's painful and it'd be easier to forget? is it because it's worth it, even though it's emotionally hard, or is it because I just don't know what else to do? Is writing this story even worth it?

It's a kid's book, to be sure, but to me, it's so much more than that.