About the book
A whimsical collection of illustrated doodle characters living unexpected lives filled with curiosity, friendship, wonder, and everyday adventures.
Alternate Selves
Ordinary Lives in Extraordinary Forms
Alternate Selves imagines the hidden lives of characters who exist just beyond the edge of the familiar. Inspired by a series of original doodles and transformed through illustration, these figures step out of stillness and into everyday moments filled with curiosity, friendship, wonder, and quiet purpose.
Together they inhabit a world where the extraordinary is treated as ordinary and where kindness, exploration, conversation, and small moments of delight become the stories that connect them. Part character study, part visual fable, Alternate Selves invites viewers to imagine the lives that might exist behind every face, every sculpture, and every sketch.
Gallery
Beauty Required No Explanation
This gentle elephant has never discovered a convincing reason not to love the world. People, animals, weather, trees, improbable conversations everything arrives as another opportunity for affection. A whimsical doodle about generosity, belonging, and the expansive intelligence of a welcoming heart.
The Angel With Dreams of Her Own
Hope can be offered without surrendering the self. She smiles and brings hope wherever she appears, but she is not merely a symbol created for the comfort of others. The angel carries private wishes, unfinished plans, and dreams that belong entirely to her. Her generosity and her own becoming are allowed to exist together.
Orange, the Thoughtful Wooden Penguin
Stillness does not mean an absence of thought. Orange is a wooden penguin who moves through life slowly and considers nearly everything. He notices what others hurry past, gives questions room to settle, and treats attention as a form of respect. A small meditation on mindfulness, reflection, and the inner lives we cannot see.
No One Should Call Him Two-Dimensional
A flat beginning does not limit the size of a life. He may appear to occupy only two dimensions, but the world keeps opening around him. Wonder arrives through color, movement, companionship, and blueberry panacakes. Life presents too many marvels for anyone to be reduced to a simple outline.
The Man Who Dreams of Ceremonial Bells
A quiet dream waits behind the green bow. Dressed with care and marked by an extravagant green bow, he carries one enduring ambition: to ring ceremonial bells and feel their sound move through the air. His dream is specific, slightly improbable, and entirely serious the kind of private calling that gives an imagined life its direction.
The Barrister Cat Flies a Kite
Even the most serious life leaves room for blue sky. The barrister cat intended to remain dignified and attend to important matters. Then he saw the clear blue sky. Soon the legal papers were forgotten, the park was calling, and a kite was climbing into the wind. A reminder that delight can interrupt even the most carefully organized day.
Details
Format
8.5 x 8.5 Hardcover
How to purchase
Author
Art and text by Paula Phelan
Year
2026
Pages
30 pages
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