My First Fan Art!!!

     I don't know if you could hear the excited "SQUEE!" that erupted the moment I received this... but it was pretty loud! XD
     I was SO excited to receive fan art!! You have no idea. Many thanks to JM for sharing her artistic talent with me in such a creative and amazing way!!!

    Those of you who have read The Heart of Everything will recognize the three main characters, and not just because the artist labeled them with their names. She actually captured them very well, based on my descriptions in the book! See Jesse's longer hair... Alex's polished look... the relative height of each character... all done to a T! Emer is even wearing the hoodie that Jesse gives her in Chapter two :-D.
    All in all, this made my day! Publishing your book and watching it become "real" is one thing - seeing your characters "come to life" in art is another step up! I know cover art is often used to give a visual representation of characters - or at least, it can be. Now that I am self-publishing and having to do research into book marketing, it seems cover art is just as often (if not more often) used to grab attention and sell the book, rather than meaningfully portray characters and plot (one of my biggest beefs with cover art is when it DOES NOT match the book descriptions... I absolutely HATE that... which probably explains why I prefer my covers to be people-free XD). But accurate or not, cover art is done professionally and for a fee. Fan art, which is done for the love of the story and the characters, means ever so much more. It's less about talent because it's done from the heart - though, I would argue that JM's depiction displays both talent and enjoyment of my book! Thank you again for blessing me with this :').
    To that end, I would like to invite any budding artists out there: if you enjoy my book (or future books!) and bring those characters or scenes to life on paper, please share them with me! Feel free to post them on social media (please tag me so I can see them!) or use the contact form on this website to let me know that you'd like to send it to me directly. Please tell me whether or not I'm okay to share your art here/ on my other channels - I don't want to infringe on anyone's rights but I do want others to enjoy it if possible! I can't promise to share everything I receive. But I do promise to keep and appreciate anything I receive from my fans - it touches my heart to see what these stories mean to you!!!
​     Feel free to scroll back up and give another happy smile at that cute picture (that's what I keep doing... the way both boys seem to be "claiming" her... so adorable!) and stay tuned for more updates!