DSLCC Graduates Team Up To Write, Illustrate Novel
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Josh Hagy had an idea for a novel that had been rummaging around in his head for years. He also had an idea for the perfect person to illustrate it.
Hagy has written and published “The Crownless King”, now available on Amazon, and a fellow graduate of Dabney S. Lancaster Community College, artist and photographer Heather Gladden, has illustrated it. Although the two are a few years apart - Hagy is 25 and Gladden is 22 -ntheir families had known each other for years. Gladden is friends with Hagy’s sister, and both are also graduates of Alleghany High School. Hagy had seen Heather’s work and asked her to consider creating the accompanying art for his book.
”I asked her to read some of the book and told her, ‘see what you come back with’,” he says. “I didn’t realize just how good she is.”
The 260-page book is not Hagy’s first effort; he has co-authored two fantasy-themed books with Devan Nicely (also a DSLCC and AHS graduate), “Chaos Reborn”, published in 2006, and “The Sixth Sword”, which is scheduled to be released in 2011. But “The Crownless King” is a solo piece of work.
“This is not a fantasy, there’s no magic in it,” says Hagy, who received an Associate Degree in General Studies from DSLCC in 2004 and now is employed as a surveyor's assistant and draftsman with surveyor Greg Vess. “It’s about one person trying to find his place in the world, about one man making a difference. He makes choices that shape the face of a nation.”
On the Amazon web site, the book description reads: “A miller's son who dreams of bigger things. A smith who once betrayed everything he held dear. A kingdom on the brink of rebellion... The Crownless King is the tale of Sam, a young man trying to find his place in a world shaped by the sins of the men who rule it. As innocence is taken by violence, Sam must learn that everything is not as it seems and that in this life, heroes aren't born, they're forged...”
“I’ve always wanted to write,” says Hagy, “and I’ll do it until the day I die.” Hagy says once he decided that the main character would be a sawmill worker - -something he knows a bit about, having worked at his father’s sawmill—“the story almost wrote itself. It’s a very personal story, and it takes place in a world that I created. And it’s a very accessible novel. I’d recommend it for teens and adults.”
Hagy is particularly excited about Gladden’s contribution to the finished product. She not only provided a cover for the book, but she also created art work for the beginning of each separate section of the book.
Gladden, who earned an Associate Degree in General Studies from DSLCC in 2008, created (with her father’s help) the murals that graced DSLCC’s Moomaw Center last fall at the “Bubbles, Bands and Brunch” fund-raising event for the DSLCC Educational Foundation. After taking a photography course at DSLCC with instructor Chuck Almarez and enrolling in some more photography courses at Radford University, she decided to switch her major to photography. But she won’t give up her interest in drawing and painting.
“I was really excited when Josh asked me to work with him,” says Gladden. “He’s a really talented writer, so it was an honor to be able to help him bring his story to life.”
Hagy and Gladden met several times while the book was still being written and “we bounced ideas off each other,” says Gladden. “I think we both had the same vision for many of the images.”
“This won't be our only collaboration,” says Hagy. “Heather's going to do the work on the sequel, “Blood and Steel”, when I get it written and we can sit down together again.” |  | “The Crownless King”
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