Wood Kits, Pellet Guns and Edits

Back from a great weekend out of town, hikes in the woods, digging through abandoned Mika (how do you spell Mika?) pits, shooting pool,buying Wasabi Horseradish and all the while doing edits on Book Two and finding some small holes that have to be plugged in Book One and Two.

I thought I was really and truly finished with Book One but I have to go in and make some changes, the first chapter has to change, it moves, but just a little too slowly for my liking compared to the rest of the book, I did say that set ups are set ups, but I found a more fun way into the book. Here's a tip don't start with your character waking up, that's a start for you, not for the reader, so kill it and find something better.

The Book Two adds are going to be great, look forward to getting them in there, as long as it may take  I might hold off on pursuing agents until I'm finished the third book, not sure about this yet, but maybe that's the way to go, it's going to be killer on my pocket book but I want these books to sell and be loved, as much as I have loved working on them.

Picked up these great wood kits just outside of Ottawa, I've never come across these ones before (Canadian Made!) they will make fine additions to the models.

On a sad note I came home to hear that James Gray has left us, he was an incredible musician, a great keyboardist, accordion player and one of a kind curmudgeon. The stages across Canada will miss you James, I'll miss hearing your music in the many darkened bars I frequent.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

 



Query Letters, Climaxes and the Editing Dog

First off, I wrote a great chunk (22 pages) of the end of Book Two yesterday, sure it's barely legible and covered in notes and scribbles, but it's a huge leap forward. I've mostly been editing in the second book, clearing out stuff that was either slowing down the pacing or just sounded awkward, but I hadn't written the ending yet. I had notes that told me where I was going, the last chapter was pretty firm but I had to get my characters there in a way that was fun, action packed and clear, and I did it, very, very happy.

 

Secondly, I hate my query letter, when I first wrote it and revised, it was very concise, very clear about the first book in the series, but it wasn't any fun, it really didn't reach out and grab you, this was a huge mistake on my part as I've sent it out to 25 agents,  this is a big set back, in hindsight I shouldn't have starting contacting agents without spending more time with the letter, I am doing some revisions on it and making it more unique. In fact the word "unique" was only one of the mistakes I made writing the letter, of course it's unique, I have to tell them why.

 

I've also stopped drinking coffee, one in the morning, and then switching to non caffeinated tea, I was guzzling the stuff while editing and all it did was upset my stomach and reduce my patience, so that also was a mistake.

 

I don't always know when to take a break and walk away to collect my thoughts, luckily my dog Double tells me when it's time to go on his walk. First he waits patiently for the right time, then we discuss the matter and then he puts the full weight of his tiny head on my arm and stops the writing before I put something down that I might have to change later, it seems to be working.

have a great day,

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

 



Tragedy, WorldBuilding, Big Questions

Does a character have to have a personal tragedy in their lives to be the catalyst and motivator in their quest?

I wrestled with this a lot during the early days of writing the first book (as yet unpublished) of the series. Did Oliver need something to happen to him that helped propel him forward - when writing query letters is it important to include this information? Oliver's family has suffered tragedy, his brothers have been injured in the war, both in ways that have changed them, would it be too much to add another dead brother to the mix?

 

Should I start off a book with a nightmare about a dead brother?

 I thought and wrote about it a lot in my notes - it felt moribund to me and played out in books - "Oh look he's got a dead brother, he's an orphan etc. etc.

Death is not that romantic to me.

 

I wanted these books to be about a young kid who grows up on his adventures, he brings villains to justice, he exposes ugly truths, why should he be crippled emotionally too ? If we was, it may have made him weak, unable to find the reserves that he needed to complete the journey that he's on, he's a young kid, if he was already fragile and something upset him wouldn't he just run home to his Mother ? What would his parents be like if they too were getting over a tragedy ? The book would begin with such a heavy pall over it I wouldn't want to read past the fifth page.

Why do some authors insist on beating the crap out of their characters so they can find just a little bit more courage inside them? It reads like total bullshit to me.

 

I want my books to be entertaining, I want a kid to have fun, yes fun, reading my story.

I want this series to fool the reader, not in a malicious way, it begins as one story and gradually as things are discovered a larger picture is revealed that changes the main character and everyone around him. I think a middle grade reader wants to identify first with the characters, they want to see themselves and if the world I have built presents itself as sunny first, so be it, because by the time we get to the end of the quest that world is a very different place, darker, and more dangerous.

 

Here's a link to literary agent Gemma Cooper's blog entry on world building, there some good stuff here and some great shots of the Harry Potter Studio Tour, she makes good points about time, how long does it take for a character to get from one place to the other? This was a major issue for me when writing my series and I had FUN, yes fun figuring out all kinds of methods that I could use to move my main characters around in good time.
http://jennybent.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/world-building-with-harry-potter-studio.html

 

I have received two rejections in the past two days, one from what I would call a "Longshot Agent" one that I submitted to but who wasn't quite looking for my type of project, close  but not quite a match and the second was someone I would have liked to work with. It's tough I guess I've set up a couple of challenges for myself that would be better explained in a conversation but if your query/writing sample doesn't give enough or hook them immediately, just move on.
I don't mind the rejections, I've received 11 so far of about 25 queries that I've sent out, it's a competitive time in publishing especially for MG and YA fiction.

 

No pictures for you this morning, maybe later on.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Villains, Sea Shanties and 12,000 words

I really enjoy creating villains and the books are full of them, there are all kinds of dastardly and nefarious gangs running amok in the streets each with their own distinct uniforms and preferred methods of combat. In the second book I've also written one song and am finishing another that ends the book, luckily I have many musician friends and I can already picture one group in particular performing the songs at a book launch. There is just so much I enjoy about these books that I'm able to take everything I loved as a child from comics to movies and mix it all up and pour it out.

I've got room for a lot of new pages and I'm currently writing the first climax of book two, feels good.

The above drawing is of one of the gangs, not giving away their name just yet but I do have a couple of Marvel Universe Juggernaut figures that I could mod pretty quickly to look like the guy above, but that will have to wait, gotta get to the end of this book first.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com



Modern Times, Airport Trucks and 12,000 words to go

As you can see while I was laid up with a mangled jaw I did do some small builds for the dioramas I made a bunch more of these cogs for another "Modern Times" themed diorama, this time I'd like to do a classic Clock Tower set complete with moving hands and all kinds of ropes and pulleys. The second photo is of a small fuel or baggage truck like you see at the airport.

I'm back into editing on Book Two and really enjoying chopping out the dead stuff to make room for the 12,000 more words that I need to get to in the next couple of weeks, I did get a bit stuck for awhile, obviously the break at the cottage has done me some good and I'm hacking crap out like there's no tomorrow.

As always if you have any questions about the Book Series or the diorama builds send me an email.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com



Lions, Tigers and Oh Wow! Monsters!

If the first book of Any How Town is like an Indiana Jones film and the second book has shades of the Goonies I'd have to say that book three is Jurassic Book and it's chock full of beasties. Yes there are beasties in book one but book three is a full on beastie overdrive. I've been waiting months, even years to get to all the beasts and transcribing/editing the third book today has given me the chance to experience the thrill of describing and encountering these beasts all over again.

If you click on the label "bestiary" you can see other photos of the beasts and see how they were made.

your monster keeper,

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Book Three, backyards and trees.

The first three books of Any How Town were written in long hand in our backyard about two summers ago, I sat in this yard (above) and wrote all day and into the evening only stopping to make dinner. I was shocked at how much I was able to accomplish in just over three months, all of the notes, drawings and dreams just poured out and when I was finished and returned to painting in the studio I had a giant stack of pages, more importantly I had what was to become my first (second and third) book.

I sat under the shade of a great tree and was able to work for hours hidden from the sun, sadly that tree died by the end of the summer and there was little shade in our yard.

The night before we left for the cottage a freak storm blew through Toronto and the tree that had once shaded me, now dead, was unable to battle the wind and half of it came down in our yard.

If you look closely you can see the branch is balancing on the wire.

Now we're back and the tree branch has been cleared, I woke up early this morning, around 5:30 am with a great idea, a nice change from waking up with a pained jaw like I had been for the past two/three weeks. I pulled out my notes and rough draft pages for Any How Town Book Three, set up the lap top outside and got back to work. I thought when I returned that I'd be finishing Book Two but the idea I woke up with was so solid and realized I had to get it down on paper, typed not handwritten, and it's 9:30 and I've gotten to about the twelfth page and I couldn't be happier.

I'll be getting back into Book Two tomorrow but for now getting the through line of Book Three is taking me to some great places.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com



Back into Book Two and tiny pilots

It seems like it's been about three weeks since I've done anything of consequence in regards to the book series, my injury really took me out of the game for awhile there but we're back after a great week at the family cottage and I'm ready to finish Book Two and do some tiny edits in Book One.

I took the time while I was at the cottage to do some beta testing of my own with the help of my nine year old nephew, I read about thirty pages to him and am happy to report that I had his attention almost the whole time, there were just a couple of little dips that pointed me towards a couple of new edits, thanks N. you were a great help.

I forgot how much I enjoyed reading to him, if there ever is an audio book edition of Any How Town I'm the man for the job.

It's great to feel positive again about the work and I'm ready to get the second book finished in third draft form before the end of August, get an agent or begin submitting directly to publishing houses. Still not 100% sold on ebook self published formats, when I picture kids reading the books, I see the physical book in their hands so we'll keep that on the back burner for now.

expect more posts and progress to come. Also excited about these eight pilots showing up at my house sometime soon, just because the dioramas are on hold doesn't mean I can't still pick up some folks to populate them when I get back to them in January.

all the best,

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Character Sketches MG series, Sweet Relief and Concentration

I've started to label each post here on the blog, if you're looking for pictures of the characters go to the "Character Sketches" label on the right, for my thoughts on writing a book series and trying to get published etc. go to "process notes". Diorama and building stuff is labelled under "Diorama", "Vehicles", "Bestiary" and "Tutorials" where you can see how things are built.

I can't remember the name of the character in the top photo, I have notes on him, his family etc, but his name escapes me right now, he's the son of a famous Sputter Jack racer and also the first person Oliver and Eaglet meet from the Capital City, so his outlook and world view are very different from theirs, his appearance also opens up the possibility of O and E travelling to the Capitol city further down the line.

The second drawing is of the fourth member of the band of soldiers that the books were originally about, he's a fun character to write who walks the edge between being totally out of control and the life of the party, the wild card, there' usually one in every group of friends.

I'm getting so damn tired of not being able to write, I can't focus so well on the words and editing with this pain in my jaw, I can draw, sketch, etc. but writing is just too hard, so I can't wait to get to the dentist today and start getting this sorted out.

As always you can email me any questions you have about the books, characters, diorama building or whatever you like,

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

 



More Characters MG vs YA and pain

Way back when I began this project my main character was the fella you see at the top Brinker Ellis, he lived (well still does) in a shack behind the most popular bar in the city, one of his best friends Denny "Deaths Head" Stinson is pictured below he's one of the older brothers of the main character Oliver Stinson. These guys were soldiers, the books take place three years after the was has ended.

 

The switch to Oliver and Eaglet being the main characters is explained in one of the posts below, but I wouldn't be against writing a book about the four teenaged friends who the stories were originally going to be based around, it was some thick dystopia for sure, there were characters with PTSD, drinking problems, rage issues you name it, but it was also a lot of fun.

 

Expect more drawings to show up over the next while, I am in a huge amount of pain right now, going into the Dentist Monday and will probably have to get a root canal or two, the right side of my jaw feels like I've been kicked in the face with a combat boot, and yes I do know what that feels like. Drawing seems to be the only thing that helps take my mind off the pain, that and taking pills, and also getting ready to have six people over for dinner in about three hours.

wish me luck,

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com



Character sketches and process

I realized that for the next little while I should just focus on sketches of characters who will appear in the first book of the AHT series. The top drawing is Sinawa Rainland, who is Eaglet's Mother, she is seen wearing the standard poncho and facial markings of the Sinawa people who live in the Green Points forest.

The second drawing is the town engineer Janvia Magetal, the first female engineer the town has ever had. I really like the Yankee pinstripe style of her coverall and it's become a motif for city workers in AHT, it's also very similar to the uniforms worn by the convicts at Lance Head Prison - maybe this is a coincidence maybe not, you'll have to read the books when they come out.

It's always a challenge with these posts about revealing too much, there are some aspects of the series that seem like the books are aimed at a younger audience than the MG level of reading, but as more information and characters cross paths with Oliver and Eaglet the more sinister elements and themes of AHT start to show themselves.

All for now,

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

 



A Slow Start A Strong Backbone

 

Yesterday was absolute crap in the writing game and before heading to sleep I received another rejection from an agent that I submitted to, nothing like trying to catch 40 winks with a head full of doubts. I even considered just taking today to start outlining a new book, a stand alone, separate from the Any How Town series. A ghost story or a heist story, but my initial ideas were too dark and violent, so I cleaned the bathroom instead and will soon clean the treads of the stairs, the negative energy has to go somewhere, may as well put it to good use.

I suppose I'm just talking to myself right now, trying to get my spirits back up so I can work on these books with the attention and care that the characters deserve. I've been an independent artist for a long time, as a painter I'm used to working long hours before achieving something. I always know that my imagination will save me no matter what I come up against, I've got a thick skin but yesterday I felt pretty damn sensitive. I am so very grateful for my wife and my dog and the home that we have together, a home that is getting cleaner and cleaner by the day.

The above drawings are of Katherine Orrow, who I posted about yesterday, she's riding a giant turtle named Chesterfield, this was my first attempt at drawing a turtle, funny how these things come up, I've drawn and painted chickens, cows, horses, cats but this is my first turtle - a giant turtle covered in horns to boot.

The second sketch is of one of the most powerful characters in Any How Town and one of the key players in the mystery of the first four books, I'm not going to say anything about him, don't want to give too much away.

As always if anyone has any questions for me, send me an email to the address below, it would be great to hear from you.

enjoy the sun today Toronto

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Avoiding the Moribund and Character Design

What a terrible day it's been at the keyboard, messed up all over the place, just didn't have it today. I think I have to move forward and work on the end of the book, I'm going over it in sections and just got nowhere. Terrible feeling, on the other hand our kitchen is cleaner than it's been in weeks (we made fresh jam this weekend and pasta, so things got pretty messy in there) and our backyard now has solar powered lights running through the ivy so that will be nice to look at this eve as the moon comes up over the backyard.

Above are a couple of designs of characters who appear later in the series, actually the figure at the top doesn't show up until after the first four books are finished, he's in Book Five and Six which is a two part story. The character is named "the Clam Pot Man" and he's my rip on Boba Fett. There was no cooler moment in the Empire Strikes Back than the pan up to the Bounty Hunters and I wanted something similar to open the fifth book of the series and believe me, the Bounty Hunters in Any How Town are some of the weirdest and scariest dudes you've ever seen.

This was my second attempt at designing him, he is supposed to look like an old wood fire stove and a suit of armour crossed together. Why? You'll have to wait and find out.

The second drawing is Assembly Woman White Street and she makes her first appearance in Book Three and is a major part of Book Four, I've written a bunch of rough pages with her in them and she's a hoot to write as a character. I love subverting tropes, taking moribund settings and pumping them up, the first book is set in a mine and at first I wanted to avoid a setting like that but then realized it's what I do with it that makes it new, and I believe I accomplished that in Book One, same with the Assembly Woman, if you judged her by her appearance above, you will have made a grave error, when it comes to warriors there are none more feared than the Assembly Woman.

Writing about these characters actually cheered me up.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Scattered Notes, Character, Loss of Innocence

I've had several thoughts pass through my head this weekend about my main and supporting characters, some trivial and some very worthwhile. When I started writing the first book I changed the age of my characters by two years, I realized that they would be far too young to handle the quest that I was sending them on and not only because of the physical trials I put them through in the books but also by the end of the 4rth book I knew that the root of the story was about the loss of innocence.

The conspiracy that the two discover is large and has a statewide effect on all those around them, they had to be more mature to handle and assemble what they find, what they find changes them, they change with every book in the series.

 I also realized that I kept them at about ages ten and eleven because I wanted to avoid romance, there are romances in the story, they just happen to people close to them. From reading twitter and other sources I know that romances are very popular, almost necessary in these kinds of books, but O and E endure tests of their friendship, and that to me is the heart of the book, this is a story of a boy and girl who are friends and their friendship helps them endure the journey.

Always apologies for how awkward these paragraphs are, I'm mostly leaving notes and reminders for myself about why I've taken on this project.

All for now,

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com



Character Sketches, Different Races, MG world building

Many of the posts during the #MWSL craze yesterday commented on "PoC" characters, which after some figuring I understood as "people of colour", I'm sure this desire comes from agents and people writing for the Young Adult, reality based fiction market.

Any How Town is full of different races, that's what makes it interesting for me, above is Canto who makes a brief appearance in Book Two, he's an Aucassin, they're fishermen, he becomes incredibly important in Book Three, there's just one small problem, he speaks a different language than our heroes.

The second character sketch is Maihem, who is a Gardan youth, they're customs and mannerisms are very different than out heroes, his race is the enemy, but things are not always what they seem.

I love the freedom of world building, I don't know if I'd ever set a book in our modern era, I would definitely write books set in the 20's, - 50's. If Any How Town fit into any era in our world it would be a post WWI  setting, the technology is different, but the feeling is the same.

Hope to get a few more character sketches done today and also a couple of chapter punch ups would feel good too.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Twitter Explosion #MSWL

Yesterday was an incredible day on Twitter, a hashtag appeared "#MSWL", it stood for "Manuscript Wish List" literary agents were posting the kind of books that they would like to see, I've never seen twitter explode  like this before. I was glued to the screen for over two hours reading comments, researching agents and agencies, finding out about other MG and YA authors and books that I would like to read.

 

I also felt good about my books after reading what some agents who had turned me down for representation were looking for, and why my books do not really fit with them (as they say) my work is more Indiana Jones and they wanted something more complex, and also science or romance based, more YA than MG.

 

Not only did I find two or three new agents to follow and submit to but there were also some really good ideas that appealed to me as a writer in case I want to write a new book separate from the Any How Town series, steam punk themed work, ghost stories etc. genres that I love and will explore.

 

This is a photo of my dog and you can see that he's a little anxious, he was very patient while I worked furiously writing notes and sending out queries, and he was rewarded with a long walk down many shaded paths and long runs back and forth across a soccer field.

 

I also managed to get though my first paper copy edit of Book Two of the AHT series which is great, there's lots of corrections and notes and I'm now prepared to go into the second draft feeling very confident about the work.

 

I'd like to thank all of the agents who participated in #MSWL yesterday, it was very helpful.

cheers,

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

 



Thinking Back on Adventures Books

My brother used to devour these books by Enid Blyton, they were a constant in our home, I came to reading a little later in life around twelve or thirteen when I went mad for Mack Bolan books and Stephen King novels. I love the size of these books, the simplicity of them, they were a great size for a back pack or even a pocket, there would be a small pile of them stacked on top of our German Shepherd as my father drove us to the cottage in a sweltering car without air conditioning.

I remember going to England on our first huge trip across the pond to visit family and there were titles in this series that hadn't been published yet in Canada, my brother was in heaven.

When I think of my series, I think of these books, of course as you can tell from the photo my stories are different, given all the man eating turkeys chasing people around, but it's my dream of Any How Town, I don't know if  publishing these days supports books of this size or a series that continues as long as the author, not the audience, desires.

I also love the titles here, Enid Blyton guarantees adventure, whether its on an island, in a castle or up a mountain.
The beta testing has been begun, not sure how long until I hear back from one of the kids, I have to come up with ten simple questions they can answer, or maybe it's best for the parents to just tell me what the reviewer thinks.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

 



Trial by Tiny Fires

A Comic Book Available for Purchase in Any How Town

 

Today I began beta testing the first book of the Any How Town series, the challenge was simple I posted on face book that anyone who wanted to read the first fifty pages could, provided they were voracious readers who would offer feedback. If they liked what they read they would get the next fifty pages.

The only catch was they had to be kids under the age of twelve.

I capped the group at four, today I am sending out the first fifty pages.

Understand something here, I have had my plays read by David Fox, Jerry  Franken,Holly Lewis, Eric Coates, Urjo Kareda, Andy McKim, Layne Coleman and a host of other incredible actors, directors and Artistic Directors but nothing in my past can compare to the nerve wracking feeling of having a kid read the start of my book and tell me if it's boring or not.

I hope to get some great structured feedback and will seriously consider any changes they suggest.

updates to come.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Ride the Dino Turkey! Write the Dino Turkey!

Once again when confronted with a blank piece of paper I realize how rusty my drawing skills are, I have to draw every day or things are just going to get worse. Disappointed with a couple of aspects of the piece, especially Oliver's face but it's the first of many so I'll let it go.

It's a rainy day in Toronto and the pressure headache that started yesterday is still lingering, hope to get a good chunk of editing on Book Two finished but it will be slow going and I may start to do notes on a stand alone book in case I can't get any agents to bite on the series, I may have to write an entirely different book first in order to get the series published later.

Enjoy the above image of Oliver riding a giant Gobbler, one of the many animals that live in AHT.

Congratulations to the Chicago Blackhawks and the Boston Bruins, heck of a series, heck of a game.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

 

Words From "the Agent Game"

A flower in Stanley Park 

I read this tweet from "the Agent Game" today, "Telling me your book improves after a few chapters is a bad idea. Telling me your proposed series gets better a few books in is ridiculous.".It took me back to how I phrased the final part of my post about how I'm having a hard time getting a literary agent. I don't think that the above quote it applies to my work, the central mystery of the first books is introduced on the first page and the arch mystery that spans all four is introduced on the third page.

When I first set down to write the series I went through my crazy stack of notebooks, notes and drawings and made sure that my points were in order, my experience writing plays always comes in handy when getting story together, I wrote what had to be there first and then coloured the picture in, so I have a lot of confidence in the structure of books one and two.

Actually I'm quite proud of how the whole thing fits together from Book One to Book Four, every question that I asked, I've been able to answer, each character has there place and function, each object has a reason to be in the story.

Sometimes I worry that the voice I wrote with is too "workmanlike" but I wanted the tone of the narration to be gentle given the audience that the books are aimed at, I find no fault with that, it may feel like it lacks colour in the first few pages but set up are set ups and must be treated that way, all in all I do feel good about the work.

I suppose I'm just feeling sensitive right now, have a pounding headache from the crazy barometric pressure, even took a pain reliever, which I never do.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com