Emily Winfield Martin's Blog

That's how their tale begins...and now they are in the world!

Snow & Rose is released today, both in print *and* in audiobook.

There are a few lines from a favorite song that stuck with me through the years I was working on this:

"Out of sorrow, entire worlds have been built / Out of longing, great wonders have been willed"

Because the ingredients for this story were this: an old sorrow and an old fairy tale. And from those two things, a whole world grew.

It is the most of myself I've ever put into any one thing; in writing about these girls, the wolf-hearted and the rabbit-hearted, and what they lost, I was able to write about the history of my own heart, and my own loss. And tangle it all up in ferns and ancient trees and keys that might-or-might-not-be magic.

I hope you will like my mysterious forest. You might, especially if you like any of these things: willful sisters, mysterious woods, boy mushroom-farmers, unusual libraries, strange enchantments...

You can find it online, at your local bookstore, through my longtime friends at BuyOlympia.

I've spent so much time here, and now it belongs to all of us...

to you too, if you want.

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One of my favorite things about the real, bound book is this little sketchbook section in the back.

I can't believe my first proper novel will be out tomorrow...I hope you'll love it.

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Snow & Rose is out in exactly one week (October 10th!)  While we're waiting, I made a new page on my website celebrating one of my biggest inspirations: old fairy tale books.

Click here to see some of my favorites & nerd out with me!

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Just a note to let you know that the summer's worth of Floraphilia originals (including the newest one, below) will all be in my shop tomorrow, Thursday 9/28 at 12 pm Pacific!

The Garden of Eden / 8.5"x11" // watercolor & gouache on paper

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My next book comes out in just a few months (October 10th, to be exact) and I wanted to to tell you about it before it's actually here!

Snow & Rose is an illustrated fairy tale, my first proper novel and the most personal thing I've ever done. It was also the longest in the making -- I imagined a reworking of my favorite Grimm's tale, Snow White & Rose Red, years and years ago -- and then it was several years in the writing, editing & art-making.

I have so much to say about this story and the two girls that are its namesakes (and I will share more soon!) but for now I'll leave you with the words that grace the jacket flap, because I think it encapsulates the book so nicely:

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Snow and Rose were two sisters, as different as night and day.
They lived in the woods, but it hadn't always been so...
 
Once, they lived in a big house with spectacular gardens and an army of servants.
Once, they had a father and mother who loved them more than the sun and moon.
But that was before their father disappeared into the woods and their mother disappeared into sorrow.
This is the story of two sisters and the enchanted woods that have been waiting for them to break a set of terrible spells.

***********

It is the tale of two brave girls, a strange library, and a boy named Ivo, of a wounded bear, of what it means to know and to believe.

You can pre-order your own mysterious tale of the forest from
your local bookstore,
Barnes & Noble,
Amazon

&
Powell's

More soon!
(October, kindly hurry up!)

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Ever week this summer, I've been making a new flower (or flower-related) painting.
Shameless mixing Greek & Latin, I've called the series Floraphilia...

Now that I'm about halfway through the project, I though it would be nice to have them all in one place, so here are the first six pieces!

(If you want to follow along on the installments, I post them on Instagram & Twitter)

Floraphilia / 8.5" x 11" / watercolor & gouache on paper

The Serpent & the Bloom / 8.5" x 11" / watercolor & gouache on paper

Love Will Tear Us Apart / 8.5" x 11" / watercolor & gouache on paper

Rose of No Man's Land / 8.5" x 11" / watercolor & gouache on paper

The Hidden Garden / 8.5" x 11" / watercolor & gouache on paper

The Emperor's Peonies / 8.5" x 11" / watercolor & gouache on paper

The series will be available in my shop when summer ends & the flowers are gone for the year!

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"Don't Let the Bastards Grind you Down"

in latin/nonsense

I wanted to make myself a sign with these words (a secret message of resistance in The Handmaid's Tale.) And I wanted to surround the words with harbingers of all the beauty in the world, so it's two reminders at once. There are a lot of times when I need this sign, for all kinds of reasons, and I thought other people might too (so I'm posting a high-res version here you can download from the link below)

I've already tacked mine right above my computer, and it's a very nice reminder.

Click here to download a nice, big printable file

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I've already tacked mine right above my computer, and it's a very nice reminder.

Click here to download a nice, big printable file

���

Save

"Don't Let the Bastards Grind you Down"

in latin/nonsense

I wanted to make myself a sign with these words (a secret message of resistance in The Handmaid's Tale.) And I wanted to surround the words with harbingers of all the beauty in the world, so it's two reminders at once. There are a lot of times when I need this sign, for all kinds of reasons, and I thought other people might too (so I'm posting a high-res version here you can download from the link below)

I've already tacked mine right above my computer, and it's a very nice reminder.

Click here to download a nice, big printable file

���

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Do you want to see what one of my books looks like at the beginning?

Julie at the great Seven Impossible Things has posted a bunch of process art from The Littlest Family's Big Day --  click over for storyboards, cover sketches, etc. There is even more, but I pared it down to a good overview of what it looks like behind-the-scenes.

I love these two early cover sketches so much. I think they were the first thing I ever made, when the idea was just percolating. Anyway, there's a lot more to see, along with art from two other books, The Lizsts & The Bear Who Wasn't There included in The Sweet & the Surreal, a post from her Kirkus colum last week.

I love seeing the beginnings of things, all wispy and rough.

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