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Josh Hagen

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First off, Big Thanks to the admins for assisting me getting my registration figured out. (Sorry about being a squeaky wheel)

And a big hello to everyone else out there in the community! I heard about Absolute Write via 'author tube' on youtube and I'm eager to look around and post.

I'm actually a freelance illustrator (and sculptor) who's always loved writing. When I worked on my bachelor's degree (years ago), I wrote a lot. I took creative writing and even wrote a book for myself. It started as a whim and I just wanted to see if I could do it. I finished it and edited it and that was it. Then I concentrated on my artwork.

I initially wanted to work in comic books. I loved them and still do. I started a small illustration company of one after college, but wasn't going anywhere. I live in rural North Dakota, so gaining clients was tough. I ended up pursuing my masters degree at the Savannah College of Art and Design. That was a blast and I was able to dabble in a number of other departments and even get back into writing a bit more. I met my wife there and my art focus evolved into storyboarding and design work.

We moved to Los Angeles where we both had internships. We both got part time work and I started on my freelance work. I ended up working in all sorts of places. Fx shops designing and sculpting appliances for tv and movies, storyboards for commercials, etc. I even did construction on a NIKE commercial set. I grabbed anything cause it is TOUGH to make a living in LA.

It wasn't easy though. We moved there right when there was a writer's strike and we ended up leaving in the middle of the recession. We moved back up to my home state of North Dakota. My wife took some adjusting as she is from the tropical island of Barbados. The winters were quite a change for her.

Luckily, I can work remotely from my home office here and I do alright.

When our son came along 5 years ago, I started to think about what else I could do. Then, a little over 2 1/2 years ago, I started to create children's books. Our son loves to read and I wanted to make some books for him. And if anyone else likes them, that's great! At the same time, I started to think about writing again. Over the years I had written small stuff for fun here and there. Maybe just to keep it alive.

I ended up keeping the secret that I was writing. I didn't want to give it away in case it was a total failure. I just plugged along with my freelance art and my children's books. Then, mostly late at night when everyone went to bed, I would steal away a few hours to write short stories and plan some books. I would read and study whenever I could. I had stashes of books on writing hidden all over. I looked like an addict.

On my birthday earlier this month, I revealed my secret to my wife and I believe her words were, "Why the hell did you hide all this?"

I had decided to tell her on my birthday as a present to myself so I could do this in the open during the day, but also because I had sold a couple of short stories that I had submitted months earlier. So now I am working more hours during the day on my writing and submitting more stories, entering more contests, and studying studying studying, practicing practicing practicing.

....And, I think I'm writing a book here too. I didn't realize I would drone on so long. Sorry about that. Anyways, I'm very happy to be here with all of you. I'm certain that I will learn a lot and hopefully my future posts will be less verbose.

All the best!
Josh
 

Chase

It Takes All of Us to End Racism
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Welcome, Josh.

I grew up in rural Montana, attended college in Billings, but traveled to the deep south (Pocatello, Idaho) for grad school before also eventually moving to the Pacific coast.

I roved around quite a bit of North Dakota, and have a client west of Fargo, ya, y'betcha. :greenie

Don't feel too bad about hiding your writing :e2paperba. Robert A. Heinlein, the great sci-fi writer once warned: "Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards." :roll:
 

Josh Hagen

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Chase - It's nice and quiet here don-cha-know. I dig that Heinlein quote. Sounds like him. :)

BradCarsten - Most of my short stories (including the two I've sold) have been sci fi. But some are also thriller, horror, comedy. And the book I'm working on is middle grade with a bit of fantasy.
 

L. Y.

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Welcome to the Water Cooler. :welcome:
 

regdog

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:welcome:


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Nadinarte

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This is the cutest introduction ever. My eyes were gleaming with emotion. (*ꅔ ˙̫̮ ꅔ*)

When you said that you wanted to draw comics but it was too much of a tough route I really felt your pain. When I was a teenager I used to dream about becoming a comic artist, I studied and practiced every day, spending my afternoons drawing and sacrificed my social life massively...bittersweet memories. I used to write as well, it was part of the creative process.
Not many people know how f***ing difficult it is to put together a decent comic. It's needed not only a compelling storyline and writing, but also the vignette composition has to be well thought together with single and double-page composition, dynamic drawings and characters, rhythm and pace...it's like writing but it's even more complicated.
I actually think that writing is easier than creating a comic. It's still difficult to write decently, don't get me wrong, but putting together a quality comic book is soooooo overwhelming and time consuming, it takes a full day to complete a full page if you're by yourself.
Also, when you said that you wrote in secret and told us about your wife's reaction when she found out... ✾(〜 ☌ω☌)〜✾

Lovely. Absolutely lovely.
Welcome, I'm looking forward to read your work. ଘ(੭ˊ꒳ˋ)੭✧

Nadia
 
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Josh Hagen

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Thank you so much Nadinarte! You're very kind.

And I wholeheartedly agree about the trials involved in comic books. A couple other things kept me from entering that industry. First off, I needed more work. I traveled to the San Diego comicon after I received my bachelors - a present to myself. I learned a LOT about what mistakes I was making. Editors are straight to the point (which I appreciated). Therefore I left to get my masters. When we moved to LA and I started working on this and that, I was working at the big Barnes & Nobel there and a manager wanted me to work on a comic book with him. He had no idea what he was doing and I ended up doing everything. When I was nearly finished with all the work, I discovered that was gone. He had up and left to the east coast. Never saw a dime.
 

Nadinarte

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Thank you so much Nadinarte! You're very kind.

And I wholeheartedly agree about the trials involved in comic books. A couple other things kept me from entering that industry. First off, I needed more work. I traveled to the San Diego comicon after I received my bachelors - a present to myself. I learned a LOT about what mistakes I was making. Editors are straight to the point (which I appreciated). Therefore I left to get my masters. When we moved to LA and I started working on this and that, I was working at the big Barnes & Nobel there and a manager wanted me to work on a comic book with him. He had no idea what he was doing and I ended up doing everything. When I was nearly finished with all the work, I discovered that was gone. He had up and left to the east coast. Never saw a dime.

( ಥ_ಥ ) Oh that sucks...
It's already a small pay as it is when it comes to comics, never mind having a twit that runs away with your money!
 

UchronianSteve

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Hello UchronianSteve. Good to meet another short story writer. What genres do you work in?

Well, Josh, while I actually have a variety of interests, my main genre of choice has been that of the alternate/counter-factual history genre for quite a while now, and I even actually recently (self)published a compilation of "flash fiction" short stories along those lines(though, overall, this one focused a fair bit more on ordinary people and the minutiae of everyday life, than on the subjects more normally popularly associated with said genre such as politics, etc., though the latter was also present). Honestly, I've always been a history buff, and I can't quite help but just be fascinated to think about all the different directions that history might potentially have gone in, you know?

(That said, though, I've also been interested in fanfiction for quite a while, and might-hopefully-actually get around to posting some somewhere.....;) )
 

Josh Hagen

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Nadiarte - Quite true!

UchronianSteve - "What If' are very fascinating. You reminded me of a book on my shelf that I'm looking at right now. It is titled "What If? 2." Several historians wrote scenarios of what might have been. Many great stories there.