What started as a personal gift to his two sons, now has a local father gaining notoriety as an author of a heroic adventure delighting children of all ages. Geoff Payne, author of The Incredible Adventure of Hugh Hound teamed up with illustrator Sarah Truman, also local to Owensboro, to share a simple adventure story that will soon be available on Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com, as well as other major retailers.
“This started out as me writing a story for my boys,” Payne said. “I have two boys, Chance age 10 and Xander age 6. I wrote the story for them. We constantly pretend and we always come up with different quests we have to go on. I was at work one night and was lost in my own thoughts and it progressed on from there and eventually came to develop the two main characters. These guys needed to be involved in a heroic quest which is how The Incredible Adventure of Hugh Hound came to be.”
The story, which is told in rhyming verse and vivid illustration, had been put on hold for years before finding an illustrator to bring to life the imaginative detail displayed in Payne’s storyline.
“The story had been written for probably five years. I had tentatively approached several people about illustrating as I myself am no artist,” Payne joked, while explaining he can’t even draw a stick figure. “After approaching several people, I got no formal commitment. I thought maybe one day I would have the spare funds to hire a legitimate artist.”
In the meantime, he shares his creativity and finished writing with his coworkers. Meeting illustrator Sarah Truman was what Payne called a “very fortunate coincidence.”
“This guy I worked with, Mark Payne, came up to me completely random asking me about the book I wrote for my kids and asked if I thought about having anyone illustrate it,” Payne said. “That’s when he informed me his niece is an artist and he thought the two of us should work together.”
Payne said he eventually ended up meeting Sarah and initially thought about having her illustrate the book primarily as a “vanity project” to give to his boys.
“But, once I saw the quality of Sarah’s work, it was phenomenal,” Payne said. “Even from the rough sketches, I could tell it was going to be worth putting in the final effort to make it happen.”
Payne said Sarah would eventually take the storyline beyond a level he ever originally imagined. He has since worked alongside IngramSpark as a way to self-publish his book for global distribution.
“Technically I am not only the author but the publisher as well. I tackled all of that myself,” Payne said. “I formatted the book and laid the book out and made sure it met all their (IngramSpark) specifications.”
Payne is excited for the upcoming book launch later this month in the Owensboro area. This gift to his boys has far exceeded his expectations and his hope would be that other children would enjoy the adventure found in its pages.
“My boys really motivated the choice of a book because they are both very much in love with books,” Payne said. “I myself have always been a bit of a book nerd but my boys take it to a whole other level. This is just something I wanted to be able to give to them.”
This adventurous children’s book is now available for pre-order here. Updates on the book launch can be found on their Facebook page.
