We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Natasha Wing. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Natasha below.

Hi Natasha, thanks for joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

There have been many times when I thought I should quit writing and do something else. Sometimes it would be because of the rejections. The publishing industry is full of rejection! Sometimes because there are just too many people to compete against to get published, especially with the growth of self-published books. And sometimes I’d get that imposter feeling of “I don’t have any kids! Why am I writing kids books?” Then there are the times when I worked so hard to promote a book and 2 people show up to the event. Or when I get a royalty statement from Amazon for $1.98 – for the quarter. The most recent time I thought about quitting was when I was between agents and I was shopping my stories around myself. There was no buffer for the rejections so I had to emotionally deal with that while also writing and revising. I’ve toyed with flipping houses, instead. Or doing more pet sitting. But it always comes back to needing a creative outlet, and my form of communication is writing. Writing offers a way to explore the other things in life that interest me so in the end, it’s the right career for me.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

I am a children’s book author who has been publishing for about 30 years. Some of my titles regularly appear on best-seller lists. My most popular books are from The Night Before series which are holiday and school-themed books inspired by The Night Before Christmas. I also write non-fiction and joke books, and have independently-published a few books, the latest being The Legend of Lop-eared Larry. After working in advertising I decided to do more creative writing other than copywriting, and started to write children’s books in 1992. I’m most proud of my series since it continues to grow and I’m adding new titles regularly to address holidays from different cultures as well. This year I’m mentoring two picture book writers to pay it forward in hopes they will get published and start their careers.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

As I get closer to retirement, my goal is to write as many Night Befores as my publisher will allow, and round out my brand so I can continue to earn royalties into retirement. Parents, teachers and fans continue to feed me new ideas for topics so it’s fun to connect with my readers that way and give them stories they want.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I wish there were more partnerships between businesses and artists where businesses would purchase and distribute our art and books to more people, children in particular.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.natashawing.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/natashawing/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/natashawingbooks
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natasha-wing-598624228/
• Twitter: @NatashaWing

Image Credits
Portrait by Stan Yan