Tag: behindthescenes

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Hethei

Everyone meet Hethei!

Hethei is the sidekick to the main character Airya in our book Unredeemed. He is a cute little owl with special powers that match the main character’s. He is adorable, lovely, and is very opinionated.

The whole reason that Hethei exists is because of my youngest daughter, Dawn. She would not speak or make a noise when she was a baby. It was then that my crazy imagination went, “Hmmm, what if she can only speak to owls?” One night after this thought, I came up with a princess who had an owl companion. The story didn’t end up being a type of story where the princess can only speak to owls, instead we went with a deeper narrative on colonization. But Hethei wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for that spark of thought, thanks to my youngest.

Colin Moore Alvarado made this beautiful piece of art for us that we greatly adore.

If you want to dive into Hethei’s tragic backstory, feel free to click on the link below.

Hethei is also on our Unredeemed bookmark that you get for free if you order a paperback directly from us. We also have a cute pin of him, which I listed!

Hethei’s Backstory
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Behind the Scenes of “Father’s Odd Requests”

“Father’s Odd Requests” started as a writing prompt that wanted the beginning of a story to start with a father’s two requests. When working with this prompt, I let my mind run wild, which was fun. I thought to myself, what are two very odd requests that a dead father could have (because I like things a little dark), and then built my story around that. I love how it opened a whole creepy, whimsical world filled with mystery and how that world helps begin the journey for a son who was never close to his father.

“Father’s Odd Requests” is about a son and a daughter who set out to fulfill their father’s odd requests, which are finding a certain “Ice Blue” cotton candy to put at his grave along with a coin that he always carried in his ankle. After that, they are supposed to videotape what happens to show their mother.

This truly amazing artwork with so much detail was done by Eli Cuaycong. I really can’t believe how he was able to bring this story to life with just one scene. It’s one of my favorite art pieces, and I am so excited to have it up on our wall when we move in the near future.

My plan and hope is to expand on this story that takes place in The Kasverse. I truly cannot wait to watch James grow and uncover his father’s secrets.

If you want to read this story about a son’s connection with a father who has passed, feel free to click below.

Father’s Odd Requests