This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Arts & Entertainment

Fridley Writer Publishes Debut e-book

Emmaline Westlund, 22, based her first book in Fridley.

Fridley resident Emmaline Westlund, 22, has been writing since she was seven years old. She used to make writing her escape. Now, she's making it into a career.

Last month, Westlund self-published her debut young adult e-novella, the first of a seven-part series.

The 80-page book, Sketchbooks: Paper Dolls is about a teenage girl living in Fridley who loses her father in a car crash. In her father's will, he leaves her a big art studio in the basement. She finds sketchbooks in the studio and discovers that everything she draws, including people, comes to life.

Find out what's happening in Fridleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"At first, I was thinking I wanted to write about vampires, zombies, or something paranormal, but that's too overdone," Westlund said. "Then my mom threw out the idea of what if anime came to life? So I put a new spin on it."

Westlund has many unfinished pieces of writing stored on her computer that she hopes to polish and complete. Her goal is to publish 30 books by the time she turns 30.

Find out what's happening in Fridleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"My writing mostly has a modern, urban feel," Westlund said. "I like to set my books in Fridley so I can picture where my characters are going."

Westlund enjoyed developing the relationship between the main character and the main character's best friend in the book, she said. The best friend is modeled after her own best friend.

"She's very different from the main character," Westlund said. "It's like oil and water. It was fun to make that work."

Self-Publishing
At first Westlund tried the traditional route of getting a book published, sending more than 100 query letters to publishers. She either never heard back or received a generic form letters in reply.

Then she read a Star Tribune article about a Minnesota author who made it big by self-publishing, and decided to try it herself.

"Some days I would have to force myself and push myself through," she said.

Westlund finished the book over a three-month span, working two or three days a week, she said.

"I wrote the last line and realized: Oh my God, I'm done. I finished it!" she said. "It was backflips and shots of tequila all around."

Her e-book is on sale for 99 cents through Amazon Kindle, with a paperback edition available for $6.99. The paperback version prints on demand and ships out in three days.

As of Wednesday, Westlund sold 29 Kindle editions and 17 paperback editions. The book went on sale June 1.

School and Work
Westlund attended Minneapolis Business College for a two-year program in graphic design. But the job market was tough. She flirted with becoming a tattoo artist or truck driver.

When she went to California in 2009 to find a job, friends there bought her a tattoo gun and insisted that she do a tattoo.

"They said, 'You're such a good artist, you have to!" Westlund recalled. But one friend ended up in the emergency room due to a puncture from the tattoo gun.

Westlund works part-time at the BP gas station on East River Road and Mississippi Street. She estimated she works about 113 hours a week between the gas station and writing—at least 82 hours of those hours devoted to writing.

"I work a job I hate to try to fund the job that I love," she said.

Westlund's previous jobs—at a drug store, a catering company, Target, UPS, and another gas station—may find their way into a memoir she has in mind with the working title "Six Years in Hell: My Life in Retail."

But a positive thing that came from working at BP, Westlund said, was observing "very gorgeous" Muslim headscarves, or hijabs. That inspired Westlund to experiment with wearing a headscarf herself, although she said she doesn't believe in organized religion. She is taking a break from wearing it on hot summer days, but wore it daily from around Christmas to March this year.

"I just put it out there on Facebook one day and asked, 'Do you think anyone would care if I started wearing it?' It took me a while to build up the courage," Westlund said. "I found it to be fun and comfortable. I actually love it when I wear it. Every once in a while I'll have a bad day when someone will accuse me of being a terrorist, or berate me for wearing it, but in general I think people seem to respect my decision to wear it when I do, and it really kind of boosts my self-esteem."

Westlund described herself as someone who doesn't have a mute button. She can be the life of the party, but also really enjoys her time alone, she said. She is also a "serious cat person" who owns three cats.

Life Struggles
In the past, Westlund used writing as a distraction or escape from her struggles. For years, she resorted to cutting herself as a means to free herself from emotional pain.

In 2007, on her 19th birthday, she got a tattoo on her arm reading "Love Hurts." The tattoo is in red ink and "kind of looks like cuts," she said. "It helped me refuse the urge to cut by putting it on my arm."

She also has a tattoo of cherries and suits of cards, celebrating her freedom from her gambling addiction. "For a while I had a $300 a day scratch-off habit," she said. "I loved the thrill of winning, and I was fairly good at picking them. I was spending my entire paycheck."

Writing helped replace destructive habits, she said. But now, she treats it like a job.

"I've really kind of moved past that part of my life," Westlund said. "Now I focus more on my writing as though it's a job than treating it like an escape."

Future Books
Westlund's plans include finishing a book called Roma and Juliette—a take-off on Romeo and Juliet.

She also wants to write a "good, old-fashioned vampire" novel, she said. "The vampires don't sparkle, and they don't mind killing people."

In the future, Westlund wants to get tattoos of her cats and of a bookshelf, adding a tattoo of each book that she publishes to the shelf.

When she's not writing, she has more than 4,000 e-books waiting on her Kindle to read. (Westlund said she has been reading chapter books since she was about four years old.) She also enjoys writing in her blog, which she calls her "All About Me Blog."

Someone to Run Ideas by
Chris Newmiller, Westlund's boyfriend, has known her for more than two years. He said he believes she could reach her goal of publishing 30 books before she is 30.

"She just has a very interesting, really vivid imagination," Newmiller said. "She always thinks stuff up. I told her she should dictate to a tape or just write her ideas down."

He met her at the gas station and says he shares many of her personality traits. "She's casual, outgoing, and has a no-nonsense attitude," he said. "She has a unique level of determination."

He says he read her first book in one sitting and carries a paperback version in his pocket.

"I try to be there for her when she needs someone to run ideas by or just chat a mile a minute about an idea and have someone listen," he said. "

Weird Projects
The e-novella ended with a cliffhanger, with secrets to be revealed in the next book in the series, Westlund said.

She currently has more than 30 writing projects going, she said.

"I don't question my brain," Westlund said. "If I'm going to throw something out, it usually works."

Writing isn't always easy though, she said.

"I think the most difficult part of it is the editing and the
proofreading. I try really hard to get every word just exactly right
the first time through, but it still takes forever to actually
proofread and get publishable," she said. "Other than that, I suppose the fact that I don't have an internet connection at home is a pretty big hurdle."

Westlund advertises her published book through Twitter, she said.

"With all the weird projects I have going on right now, the goal of 30 books could very well possibly happen," Westlund added.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Fridley