The Claddagh Fairy

New Picture book ~ The Claddagh Fairy

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

This week I published a children’s picture book called The Claddagh Fairy. Look how cute she is!

The Claddagh Fairy by Eileen McKenna Children's Picture Book Irish Ireland St. Patrick's Day
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Book Description: Anna’s Grandpa gives her an Irish Claddagh ring. He sends her a jewelry box from Ireland with a fairy inside. Anna’s ring brings the fairy to life and teaches Anna an important lesson about friendship, loyalty and love. This illustrated picture book will delight children as they learn about Anna’s grandpa’s homeland Ireland and the meaning of the Irish Claddagh ring.

I created the artwork and wrote the book back in 2014 but for some reason I stalled. That was 10 years ago! If I had to guess, I probably lost confidence in myself. After that, anytime I have had extended time off I’ve added The Claddagh Fairy to my to list. But for 10 years I kept pushing it to the back burner. It was at the top of my list – yet again – but I told my friend Connie I wasn’t going to work on it. For not the first time, Connie said, “You really should publish it. It’s all done!” We all need a friend like that!

That afternoon I went home, pulled The Claddagh Fairy out, made a few slight edits and ordered a draft on Amazon’s KDP site. When I got my draft, I made some tweaks to the artwork and after, 10 years, finally clicked publish!

The Claddagh Fairy is special to me because it is inspired by my grandpa, Michael Dennehy. We called him Grampa. Grampa was the sweetest grandpa, with the cutest brogue. He was from County Cork, Ireland. I spent a lot of afternoons with him as he told me silly stories of characters with names like Nan Pike and Patsy Galoop. He passed away when I was in high school and I still miss him.

Order the claddagh Fairy

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New life for an old project

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

claddaghfairy

I’ve become obsessed with Pinterest lately. I guess it started when I designed my Nutcracker pin and was pinning other types of nutcrackers. I pin to my Beach board – other paintings of the beach, beach decor, etc. Pinterest is really a great place to collect ideas. I’ve also been pinning ideas for holidays like Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, and Easter. It’s very inspiring. The real trick is to turn all that pinning into creating!

This year I haven’t really done much for Valentine’s Day. Years prior, I’ve painted, block stamped, and even created string art. I’ve been too focused on my beach painting project and didn’t want to lose focus. In looking ahead to St. Patrick’s Day, I decided to go through my previous artwork and perhaps design a fabric print in the Irish theme. As I dug through a bin of old projects I found “The Claddagh Fairy,” a book I wrote and worked hard to illustrate when I first started this blog. I put a lot of time effort into the book. I even had a doll made! What a shame that it is sitting in a bin.

irishmeadow

claddagh fairy doll 2

With St. Patrick’s Day a little over a month away, I decided to dust off the book and release it into the world by self publishing it. It’s not about the possibility of book sales, it’s about finishing and sharing a project I worked hard on. I find tight deadlines very motivating, so I’ve been working these past few days, tweaking the story, finishing the artwork, and preparing the files for printing. Even though I’m a graphic designer, I’ve never self published before, and it’s overwhelming. I found a great, very detailed post about it. If self publishing is in the back of your mind – read it here.

Even as I write this, it still seems impossible that I’ll get this done, that the files will be right, the dedication will be in the right place, etc. But, I’m committed to seeing this through, until “The Claddagh Fairy,” is part of the Amazon collection. The luck of the Irish would come in handy right now.