Ghost Projects that haunt us
What to do with our unfinished, unmarketable, neglected projects
One of my Ghost Projects is returning to life!
I’m super excited to announce the launch of a project that I started years ago on my Wordpress blog and that I’ve been wanting to revamp and bring to Substack. It’s called Letters to Dead Authors & Artists, which is exactly what it sounds like. I’ll publish letters from fab writers, readers, and artists to the dead authors and artists who have inspired, entertained, enlightened, bored, or even enraged them. The letter writers will create an original portrait of the author and an audio recording of the letter.
We’ve got letters coming to Vincent Van Gogh, bell hooks, James Thurber, Shel Silverstein, and so many more! The first letter goes live on Thursday, September 4, 2025. You can subscribe with this button:
Or maybe you’d like to contribute a letter? This is a community project, and I’m open to pitches!
More notes & links
The posts by
that I mentioned: The Unafraid Creators of Unafraid Books; The Whale and The Girl and Their TimeMy “unafraid” book that Beth mentioned: The Bitter Life of Božena Němcová.
I was one of three Substackers featured in
’s recent post, How Three Writers Are Growing on Substack—Without the Noise.You can read two of the beautiful visual stories created in my recent Graphic Storytelling workshop:
wrote this lovely and insightful piece about the power of Looking Up and being present. And ’s heartwarming and heartbreaking story of her aunt’s baby stork—with animations added since our class!I wrote about
’s Big Magic in a previous post:
Thanks for reading The Habit of Art by Kelcey Ervick, a Substack Featured Publication (twice!). Some of you are new here, so welcome! I love writing and drawing these posts and am grateful to everyone who follows along. I’m the author of four award-winning books including the one Beth mentioned: The Bitter Life of Božena Němcová. I’m a professor of creative writing, and I live in Indiana on the banks of the St. Joseph River.
-Kelcey
Oh my WORD. Kelcey! Oh my WORD and my Golden Opens and my Waxed Thread and my Needles and my Glue. Also my Words. I am blown away. I just had my artist husband come in and look at my screen. She did all of that! By hand! He said, admiringly. But I would also add by heart. Thank you, Kelcey. Thank you.
I love this post, Kelcey! And love celebrating Beth who shares so bravely and honestly what we all go through. Thank you for illustrating and articulating this so beautifully!