Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone is having a great October! This is my absolute favorite season, so here is some new/old art to enjoy. I’ll be out of town for a few weeks, so I won’t be replying to emails for a bit, but I plan to have another fan art post next month + the opening of the online store! Q&As will return in December.

I’ve also heard from some people having a rough time right now in life, and while I can’t always respond, I wanted to wish everyone the best, and to keep going. Life often throws a lot of hard stuff at us, but there’s always better days right around the corner. 🧡

Q&A #20 - October Questions

Happy October! Here are some questions from September. I’ll be out of town for a bit towards the end of the month, so the next Q&A will be going up early December. Thanks to everyone who sent these in! (And please keep a look out early November for the opening of my online store!)

Misfit Mansion

Q: If Larkspur ever warmed up a little, do you think that he would have a smile and go out more often?

A: I think he can eventually get there! But he will probably always be a bit grouchy. That is just him.

Q: Does Mr. Halloway think of all of the mansion horrors like his kids, or just Larkspur? Or maybe extra for Iris, since he likes dreaming again now?

A: I think in some way, he thinks of all of the horrors like children! But yes especially Larkspur and Iris.

Q: Does Kyuri like any anime? They said they were from Japan so maybe they’d watched some.

A: Maybe! I think Kyuri spent more time in the water/eating cucumbers instead of going into people’s houses.

Q: Did Mathias ever have like a goth or emo phase? I know he’s only like 13 but he seems like he probably would at some point.

A: I’ve never thought about it, but sure why not haha.

Q: Since yesterday was Wyatt's birthday, what kind of cake or dessert would he want? How long has it been since he had cake????

Q: What inspired you to create Anita? And what’d she say to Mary on page 359? Also if she lied to Mary in ASL (or someone else lied in another language) would the magnifying glass detect it and translate it? Or can it detect it but not translate it? 

A: I can’t really remember what her design was inspired by, but I wanted her to be both mysterious and someone you feel you can trust. On 359, she is telling Lunette and Susi to “tell” Marietta what happened the night they found Velia’s monster! And that’s a good question… maybe it could detect it at the very least!

Q: What inspired you to create Leo and Capella? They are so fun!!

A: I needed a few shady characters for the classic whodunnit mystery. Since the beginning (even before OW became OW), I always wanted to have a carnival within this story. The Chimera Carnival is more like a mafia though, which is why Leo and Capella have pinstripe outfits. Also, Leo and Capella are highly inspired by some villians from an old PS2 game I loved as a kid. I won’t say which one, but if you know, you definitely know haha.

Q: Will we learn more about the inn guests? Like how Leo and Capella met?  Why Arthur is an animal skinner? How did Anita meet Susie? Was Anita born mute or did something happen? And when was Ion created?

A: Not everything will be answered in the books, but we’ll probably learn a little more about some of these! I will say Leo and Capella have been together for a very long time, and Anita is deaf and can read lips. Arthur just sucks and likes money.

Q: Did Lawrence have a crush on Wyatt in the webcomic? 

A: Yes. The inn chapter hasn’t changed much from the webcomic, aside from some minor dialogue changes!

Q: How many people has Harris gotten to leave the inn by calling them substandard?

A: If Yelp existed in Oddity Woods, the inn reviews would be very bad thanks to Harris.

Q: Why’re The Conductor's eyes red?

or maybe they flicker like this…

A: His eyes are inspired by a rail crossing signal! I used to think that maybe they flashed like one.

Q: We know the Conductor can travel between worlds because Wyatt rode the train back, and there are stories about the Conductor in the living world. So why did the Storyteller say that the Conductor seeks the Grave Keys? Also, why does the Storyteller want to leave Oddity Woods?

A: The train actually doesn’t go to the living world! Wyatt has been stuck there for a few years… but not because he rode the train there. He did hop on board at some point, as we see in the beginning of book 1, but it didn’t quite take him anywhere... We’ll see what happened in the second book!

Q: When Marietta was on the Passaway Express the Car Attendant said "if that witch would do her job the boss would finally calm down a smidge". By boss did he mean the Conductor or someone else?

A: Yup the Conductor is his boss. I like to think the Car Attendant has tried to befriend him, to no avail.

Other

Q: So I was wondering, what are some of your favorite scenes to draw and/or write?
A: Good question... I like writing both cute scenes and angsty scenes lol. I say this often, but my goal in writing middle grade is to write things I wanted to read and needed to read at that age. I had a fairly rough childhood, so I like having characters that are able to work through tough times with the help of others. This is why a lot of my characters are sort of outsiders/ostracized by others.

I also love writing/drawing action scenes! I need to practice them more, but in particular I really liked the clocktower scene at the end of MM, the Velia fight in OW 1, and the Stello fight in SK. I like monster fights...

And cute scenes! I want to write stuff that I can read back and think "cute..." over and over. I like the balance of cute and scary.

Q: Do you think any of your books could be able to have an animated pilot or do you prefer them just as graphic novels?

A: If I was ever given the opportunity to make a pilot, I definitely would! I think they would look great animated.

Merch Sneak Peek!

Hi all! Here is a small look at some new merch I’ve made, which will be up for sell in my future online store! My goal is to launch it early November, and have plenty of time to ship for the holidays.

These are some new charms and sticker sheets, though I’m hoping to have a few other small things available. Make sure to subscribe to my newsletter, as they’ll be the first to know when the shop goes live!

Fan Art Feature #6

Here is some amazing fan art from this past month, including a few fan OCs! As always, you can submit your own art to kaydmailbox@gmail.com . Next month will be a bit quiet as I’m heading out of town for a bit, but I still plan to have October’s Q&A posted soon!

Q&A #19 - September Questions

Mandrake….

Misfit Mansion

Q: Would Kel ever help Larkspur cook?

A: I bet Kel would grow food for him! They probably have some system in place since Larkspur would just walk into the greenhouse and grab whatever.

Q: Does Iris have any other human friends? (Other than Mathias and Mr. Halloway!)

A: Iris has a lot of human friends in town! She is the type that can be friends with anyone, and is probably the most popular horror in Dead End Springs. But she spends more time with her family.

Q: What would the Misfit Mansion cast be like on a cruise? I feel like Iris would enjoy it!

A: Oh, she would. I could see it going either really well or really bad… I think it would stress Halloway out a lot either way lol.

Q: What kind of horror is Kyuri?

A: Kyuri is a kappa! They’re a water monster in Japanese folklore that also happen to like cucumbers. I based his design off of the Animal Crossing turtles.

Q: How old is Iris? If she came three years ago to the house and it's two years later then she should be five years old, but she looks so much older.

A: She came into existence as an 8-year-old, which was the same age Mathias was at the time. So while technically she’s only existed for five years, she is 13 in the second book, and 11 in the first!

Q: I noticed “Dreamon” sounded like “dream demon”. What inspired you to create the word along with Iris and Larkspur?

A: I toyed around with a few different names, like “Nightlight Imp” and “Dream Imp”, but the publisher didn’t like the word “imp.” Dreamon is in fact a combination of dream and demon! I talk more about Iris’s design in the “Development of Misfit Mansion” posts.

Q: June guessed that Kel and Agnes were horrors, and she shared a little backstory thing that she used to be friends with a troll. So, does that mean June has some sort of history with horrors like Halloway and Anemone did, or something? In like some way? Like, what was her opinion on horrors?

A: Some horrors lived in town a very long time ago, but eventually left for whatever reason. As time went on, people forgot they existed. June liked the horrors she knew, though they left when she was little.

Baby Kel and his mom.

Q: In the first book when Iris and Agnes got in a little fight, Agnes said Kel's parents were killed by paranormal hunters. What were Kel's parents like?

A: I think they were a lot like him, very quiet and gentle! They would do anything to protect Kel.

Oddity Woods

Q: I have a question for the OW cast, what are their favorite colors?

A: Probably the color of their clothing! I think Marietta wears yellow because Inspector Mysteria’s coat is yellow. Wyatt probably likes blue or green for no particular reason. Milly likes pink and enjoys girly things (sometimes), Lawrence likes red and gold because they’re the colors of royalty or something.

Q: I'm really curious about Owen and Velia. What were their personalities like before all the terribleness that happened? Do they have families in Perdita still missing them? What kind of things did they like to do? I think their story is so sad! I know that they are most likely definitely gone forever (especially Velia because her spirit faded away) but will they ever appear again in flashbacks or something?? I feel like all the stuff that went down at the inn had a pretty big impact on Mary.

A: They were childhood friends, I don’t think either of them really had families, which is why they became close in the first place. Velia wanted to leave Perdita and eventually attend college. I don’t think Owen knew what he wanted to do with his future, but he probably would have just followed Velia and figured it out later. Velia was very ambitious while Owen was more easygoing. Maybe we’ll see them again in some way.

Q: What would the Oddity Woods characters look like if they were in CookieRun Kingdom?

A: As someone who has played a CookieRun game for almost ten years, I felt obliged to draw this.

Q: Who is the woman on the far right in Lucas Candor's photo from the flashback?

A: Tune in for book two!

Q: What was Owen doing in Oddity Woods in between visits to the Labyrinth Inn?

A: Probably like Wyatt, surviving. But I think unlike Wyatt, Owen was more open to speaking with the residents of the woods, which is probably how he came across the Conductor.

Q: I was looking at some of your old Instagram posts and noticed a drawing from a while ago where Lunette is doing Marietta's hair. In some of the things from the second book that you've shared, Marietta has her hair in the same ponytail. Did Lunette do that?

A: I originally wanted this to be the case, but to save time I had Marietta pull it up herself in the book. I think it would have been cute, since Marietta doesn’t have a mom herself! This was the art in question.

Q: If the people who live in the woods feel cold to outsiders, would outsiders feel unusually warm to them?

A: Oh yeah, I guess they would!

Q: I kind of feel bad for the Conductor. He has a thankless job and people just try to stop him from doing it even though it's really important. What does he like to do to relax?

A: He likes drinking tea and being alone in the engine room. He doesn’t get much alone time…

Q: Wyatt called the residents of the woods creepy. Does he still think that now that they have friends from the woods?

A: I think he’s changed his mind a lot!

Q: Are we going to see more depth to Lawrence's character in the next book? He's a very interesting character to me, I want to learn more about what's going on in his head. And what made him decide to join Wyatt and Marietta?

A: :D

Q: What do you think the main Oddity Woods characters' favorite Sonic character(s) would be (if Sonic existed in their world)? I think Wyatt would like Tails (cause they both make science-y stuff), and Marietta would like either Amy or the Chaotix (because detectives!). Lawrence might like Shadow cause he might think Shadow is cool.

A: I got really carried away with drawing this one haha. I think Milly would actually like Blaze the most, but I had to go the Eggman route.

More next time!

M@MM Book Launch at Parnassus Books and Fairytales Bookstore!

To celebrate the launch of Mayhem at Misfit Mansion this past month, I had the pleasure of having my first ever kid’s comic workshop at Parnassus Books! We all created a monster and a one page comic together, and then everyone had the opportunity to create their own monsters and comics. The comic prompt was “what your monster does for their morning routine!” Check out some of the creations below— it was so cool seeing how talented and creative everyone was!

I also had my first big signing event at Fairytales Bookstore, where we drew some Misfit Mansion characters and answered some book questions! We had so many people show up, thank you to everyone who attended these events, it was incredible (I even got a beautiful piece of fan art!!)! If you’re in the Nashville area, please go and support these indie bookstores! And thanks to both of them for having me. You can click here to order signed copies of Misfit Mansion and its sequel on Parnassus’s online site.

If you are a bookstore or library interested in an author visit (in person or virtual), please feel free to reach out. While I can’t afford to pay travel, I do offer virtual! You can also keep up with upcoming author events by subscribing to my newsletter.

(Next week will be September’s Q&A, please look forward to it, and thanks everyone for sending questions in!)

Fan Art Feature #5

More wonderful fan art from this past month! Thank you everyone who shared these with me. If you’d like to submit your own art, you can email it to me at kaydmailbox@gmail.com !

Mayhem at Misfit Mansion - Concept Art

Here’s a bunch of character art I made while writing M@MM! I didn’t have any extra pages in the back of the book to share these this time, which I’m a bit sad about, but fortunately I do have plenty of space here!

Designing slightly older characters for a sequel was a lot of fun, since I could take the original designs and add to them. I wanted the characters to still be easily recognizable, so I kept the color palettes for everyone fairly similar. Some were easy to design, while others took a few tries!

Pippa took the longest to design. I wanted to incorporate her ability to change emotions into her feather patterns using an eye motif. I thought her opening her wings to reveal a face was the most visually interesting, so I went with that version!


Q&A #18 - August Questions

Here comes another big round of Q&As! Thanks to everyone who sent these in. Some questions are being saved for next time, so if you don’t see yours here, it might show up in a future post!

Misfit Mansion

Q: What do you think Larkspur’s personality would be like if he wasn’t locked up in a basement?

A: Probably very curious and more sociable than he is now. I think he would have liked to see more of the world, which is probably what he did for the year he was gone. Larkspur’s pretty introverted though, so he likes being at home too!

Q: What does Iris like to do fun?

A: She likes being a part of everything! But her favorites are playing active games, watching tv and eating snacks. She’s watched an impressive amount of movies and also likes watching commercials. Iris also tries hard to include the shyer housemates in these activities.

Q: We already know that dreamons are born from human dreams, so what do you think where the dreams that manifested both Iris and Larkspur?

A: This is recently answered in MM2, but Halloway had a pretty simple dream about a field of larkspurs, while Mathias dreamed about the girl he drew.

Q: Where exactly is Dead End Springs and Perdita located?
A: They're both loosely set in rural North America but the towns are 100% inspired by the Professor Layton games haha. So kind of just an amalgamation of random places. They're not set in the same universe though. Oddity Woods also takes place in an earlier time period than Misfit Mansion.

Oddity Woods

Q: What’s Wyatt’s favorite food? If he has one.

A: In the woods, anything he can find. On a serious note I think he’d like most foods and isn’t that picky! Marietta on the other hand would be an extremely picky, “eats chicken nuggets only” type.

Q: Why did Lawrence change his hair after his parents disappeared?

A: He wanted to play the “cool mysterious innkeeper” character, so he gelled it back! He stopped doing this after the inn collapsed though.

Q: Why is Capella's shirt so big? I think it's cool though!

A: Big dress! She hides her hands because she’s always holding knives.

Q: When Marietta takes her magnifying glass from the cabinet, there's the outline of another object that isn't there. Is that object with her father?
A: Oooh maybe!

Q: And is Whistle the ghost of the dog in the picture of the police force that her father has? Is the car attendant that one guy in the picture of all the cops during Marietta’s flashback?

A: So many secrets.

Q: Are Gloria and Detective Doubts a thing? Or do they just take family pictures together?

A: They are in a “will they won’t they” situation, but also they’ve been close friends for a long time. They are basically family.

Q: What inspired you to create Owen? Was he just a random side character and also how did you come up with the design?

A: I originally wanted a rival character for Marietta who would show up throughout the comic, but when I was actually writing the inn chapter, I thought it would be more impactful to show the result of the Conductor’s contract. Owen was meant to be a character you feel you can trust, someone around Marietta’s age who is different from the shadier guests at the inn, and someone Marietta might warm up to quickly, as he also gives detective vibes. I feel bad since he seems to have a lot of fans…

Q: Will you finish the little Oddity Woods camp comic you made and if not then what happens next?( I think they're really funny and cool!)

A: Thanks! I get this question a lot. Unfortunately I have been way too busy with other comic things to continue it, and I don’t know if I ever will, but I will post it here for other people to enjoy. This was basically a silly alternate universe comic I was posting on my Patreon long ago where the characters went to summer camp. This comic is NOT canon and shouldn’t be used for theories!!! As for what happens, I can’t really remember. I don’t think I wrote that much of it… but I do remember the Conductor shows up as a mythical urban legend-type monster at some point.

Q: Are the people of Oddity Woods really familiar with some sort of sign language? I just remebered that when Anita said not to hurt anyone, Capella and Arthur were both able to understand her.

A: I think a lot of people there do, not for any big lore reason but because I think it would be cool if more people knew sign language.

Q: Did Lawrence and Harris remember Anita when she turned up at the dinner party? Or was she just a friend of their moms that they didn't know very well?

A: They didn't know her very well personally, and I don't think she visited much in the past. Anita's job as a wildlife manager has been really busy lately with all of the monsters running around. Harris is also too young to remember her and I think Lawrence probably thought he was too cool to hang out with his moms's friend anyway haha.

Star Knights

Q: When Cygnus fought Stello, would Stello have been willing to actually attack Cygnus with his sword, since he’s such a kind soul? Or was he just trying to tire her out to take her star crown?

A: Probably the later, though I think he was just trying to disarm her! Stello could never hurt anyone.

Other

Q: If the cast of the three books ( OW, MM1, and Star Knights) met up for a hide and seek game, out of each book, who would be the best/worst at hiding and/or seeking and who would be the best at it out of all of them? 

A:

  • Star Knights- Best at hiding: Astrid (tiny), Worst at hiding: Cygnus (her feathery clothing would stand out, and she’d probably start talking if it took too long). Best at seeking: Corva and/or Tad (can fly and jump around), Worst at seeking: Stello (I think he’s so easygoing he’d probably stop to enjoy nature and forget what he’s doing).

  • Misfit Mansion- Best at hiding: Dahlia (can fit anywhere because no bones), Worst at hiding: Iris (knows the best spots but always forgets to hide her tail) and Kel (always hides in the greenhouse). Best at seeking: Agnes (She knows every spot in the house!), Worst at seeking: Mathias and Larkspur (Mathias would try but isn’t familiar enough with the house yet, while Larkspur would just give up before the game starts.)

  • Oddity Woods- Best at hiding: Wyatt (used to it) or Whistle (can disappear!), Worst at hiding: Lawrence and Capella (both talk too loud). Best at seeking: Marietta (no contest!), Worst at seeking: Leo (would say they’re counting and then leave).

  • Top players would probably be Dahlia or Marietta! I don’t know if anyone could find Astrid though.

Q: How would Tad, Iris, and Marietta react to meeting their creator(you!)?

A: I would probably be pretty boring to them haha.

Q: As someone with adhd I wanted to know: Are any of your characters (from any of your books) neurodivergent? Iris and Wyatt really stuck out to me as nd while I was reading which made me wonder.

A: Yeah honestly I think so! While I can’t say I originally wrote them with it in mind, recently I have felt like both Iris and Wyatt are probably neurodivergent. I for sure want to research and be more intentional about it in future works, but I think it’s cool people can see themselves in the characters.

More next time!

Misfit Mansion - Development and Concepts #3

With about a week and a day left until Mayhem at Misfit Mansion is out, here is the final part of the MM development series! I hope this has been an interesting read for fans of the book.

Pitching & Final Changes

Once the story outline, sample pages and character designs were completed, it was time to pitch the book to publishers! When Home for Horrors was picked up, there were a few changes I was asked to make. The first was to start the story from Iris’s point of view, and to cut the part with the three-headed dog. I was also asked to make the characters look slightly older. Here’s a first pass at some redraws.

Some of the designs here are still a little different from the finals, like Agnes’s hair clips and Kel’s shirt pattern. I ended up going back and redrawing the cast again a few months later. I think I must have changed Kel and Dahlia’s outfits again when working on the final pages!

Creating the Book

I’ve written a little about how I make pages in another post, but here’s a closer look! I always start with a typed script and “thumbnails”, which are very rough drawings of the page layouts. These are submitted to the publisher first, so they can offer any edits before I move on to the actual drawn pages. I also like coloring the characters in with a solid color so that it’s easier to see who is who!

Example of a script page.

Thumbnailed pages.

Thumbnailed pages.

One requested edit was to change the direction Iris is facing on page 14 within the fifth panel to match the direction she’s moving in the fourth. That also meant flipping her in some of page 15’s panels as well. After edits are applied, I move on to the line art!

The final part is to drop in flat colors, and then add shading and highlights. This step usually takes me the longest. Once it’s complete, I resubmit everything back to the publisher, and make any further edits until both sides are happy.

Cover Design

This step happens about half way into drawing pages. I always design 6 small ideas to show my publisher, who then decide which idea they’d like to go with. Here are the covers I pitched!

The publisher went with #3! We also ended up having to change the title from “Home for Horrors” to “Misfit Mansion” as requested by the marketing team. Sometimes this happens!

After the pages were done and the cover was finalized, Misfit Mansion would go on to be in bookstores about a year later, in 2023! In total, it took about 6 years from the earliest concepts to the final book. I’ve come to love this book a lot, and I’m grateful for all the love it's received! I truly hope readers will enjoy the sequel when it releases next week.

To end, here’s a bunch of art I made throughout the years of working on MM! Thanks everyone for supporting my work!

Fan Art Feature #4

Amazing fan art from this month! As always, thanks for sending/sharing these with me, they are all wonderful!

Misfit Mansion - Development and Concepts #2

Here’s part two of the MM development series! While the last post was about initial concepts, this one goes over the first and second drafts of Misfit Mansion, which was titled “Home for Horrors” at the time. These versions were similar to the final but had different story beats and plot differences. Text-heavy post incoming!

First Draft

Home for Horrors followed Iris, Kel and Agnes and their foster home for monsters, which was hidden outside the town of “Forget-Me-Not Ridge.” The house was sealed by a door demon named Latchkey, who is only weak to silver. When Mathias tried entering the house to prove to his “friends” that monsters are real, his silver pendant repelled Latchkey’s powers, allowing the horrors inside to escape. It was then up to Iris, Kel and Agnes to find the escaped horrors and bring them home. This version of the story had small episodes centering around the escaped horrors, including a three-headed dog, a dullahan (headless horseman), a crow mage, and a living doll. Also, shapeshifting blobs!

Some of the escaped horrors + a group of kids Mathias is trying to befriend.

First character sheet.

Plot Outline:

  • Three-Headed Dog Chapter- Iris runs into the woods to find the escaped horrors, while Mathias runs into a ghost boy looking for his missing three-headed dog. Mathias is then chased by said dog, but Iris manages to save him by uniting the ghost boy and dog, letting them both pass on into the next life.

  • Dullahan Chapter- Iris, Kel and Agnes go into town, finding a dullahan woman terrorizing the mayor. She’s angry he’s been telling fake scary stories about her during the festival. Iris and friends pacify the situation, and the mayor promises to stop painting the dullahan in a bad light. Iris and Mathias also decide to team up to find the escaped horrors using some of Anemone’s equipment, which Mathias secretly takes from her.

  • Crow Mage Chapter- The harvest festival begins, but is threatened when a crow mage and his crow lackeys turn all the vegetables into monsters, angry that humans have never shared with them. They’re only stopped when some of the kids dress up as scarecrows, the crows’ one weakness.

  • Living Doll Chapter- This chapter featured Dahlia, but she had the power to turn fiction into reality. During a scary movie night, Dahlia appears and makes the movie real, causing chaos. Iris and Mathias work together to survive the night, which only ends when Anemone appears and destroys one of Dahlia’s favorite dolls. Iris then invites a distraught Dahlia to live in at the house with her.

The story followed some similar plot lines to Misfit Mansion, like Iris hearing Larkspur’s voice throughout, and his eventual attack on the town, but it was pretty different in how the characters developed.

  • Kel and Agnes didn’t have as much of a role aside from supporting Iris.

  • Mathias worked with Iris early on and wasn’t as antagonistic. His main goal was to befriend a group of town kids by proving monsters exist, since they always thought he was making it up. He eventually decided it wasn’t worth befriending them, as Iris was a better friend anyway.

  • Iris and Halloway have a moment of understanding before Larkspur escapes.

  • Anemone tricks Iris into taking her to the house, where she destroys Latchkey and frees Larkspur. Anemone also later regretted her ways at the end after seeing Mathias in danger.

Ultimately, this draft was way too long and clunky, and needed a lot of editing. I thought longer about it while working on Star Knights, and eventually came back with a new version in mind.

Second Draft

This time, I focused more on the core of the story, and got rid of the episodic format, cutting the dullahan and crow mage parts, and changing Dahlia’s scene to be in a toy store. Agnes and Kel were given more important roles and had their own character arcs, Mathias was more antagonistic, and the story focused more on Iris’s search to find a family instead of the missing horrors. This would be the draft that was sent to the publisher, although it was still slightly different from the final!

Along with the book summary, I needed to provide examples of finished pages. Below are sample pages of the book’s original opening scene, where you can see some of the differences.

I also did thumbnails for the three-headed dog encounter, available to read below!

Next week will be the third and final part, where I’ll talk more about creating the final book.

Misfit Mansion - Development and Concepts #1

Less than a month before Mayhem at Misfit Mansion is out! To celebrate, I’d like to share the creation process behind the first book, and how it developed over time. Misfit Mansion went through quite a few different versions over the years before being pitched as its current self, so this will be a multi-part series!

“Lily of the Dead Valley”

Back when I was working on Oddity Woods as a webcomic, I was brainstorming ideas for potential book pitches. The main two were A. a story based on “Journey to Stars,” which became Star Knights, and B. a story about a monster hunter that wound up in a world of monsters, titled “Lily of the Dead Valley.” I ended up moving forward with Star Knights instead, since I ran into a few roadblocks with the second idea, but I’d come back around to it while working on SK.

The monster world was called Dead Valley, and had a wide array of monster inhabitants. The monster hunter was a hooded girl named Ava that somehow fell into Dead Valley, and had to team up with “Lily” (Iris’s original name) to return home, learning that monsters were actually good in the process. These are sketches from around 2018.

The earliest version of Iris was a vampire.

Less vampire and more monster. She was friends with a werewolf girl.

Hoodie with a pattern— I didn’t want to draw this in every panel, so the pattern got scrapped!

Ava’s face was hidden by a hood for most of the story.

Early Iris with a devil tail. I think the guy on the top right was her brother?

I wasn’t sure what this monster world should look like, so to make it a little easier on myself, I ultimately decided to change the setting to the real world. The story then became about a human summer camp at odds with a monster one.

A moth girl named Juniper, she was a little snooty, and didn’t like Lily.

A ghost and kelpie camper! I liked the kelpie, so I reused them later.

Ava is accidentally signed up for the wrong summer camp— one for monsters instead of monster hunters. Hiding her identity, she eventually befriends Lily, and ultimately comes to learn that hunting monsters is wrong. This idea didn’t go anywhere as I never went to summer camp as a kid, and so I had no idea how to write a summer camp story… I decided to channel the experiences I did have as a kid in order to figure out what Misfit Mansion would actually be about— found family and belonging.

“Home for Horrors”

In 2019, the story became about a foster home hidden in the woods. When conceptualizing the house, I originally wrote the caretaker as a woman, but I wanted to write a father/daughter bond between Iris and the caretaker, so they became Halloway instead. “Lily” was changed to Iris, as it matched her color scheme more. Instead of a random monster, I wanted her species to have an effect on the story, so she became a dreamon, or a “dream imp” back then.

Very quick concept sketches to figure out the new characters, including a female Halloway.

This version was a lot closer to the final Misfit Mansion, but there were still many differences plot-wise! I’ll save it for part two, but I did want to briefly mention another story I was working on at the time.

“Doll House”

This was a very small and undeveloped idea I was writing in 2018, but I couldn’t figure out the story, so it ultimately got scrapped. It followed a mage who was trapped in a haunted house of living dolls, and had to help himself and a trapped soul escape, which lived in a small cage he carried. This idea doesn’t have much to do with Misfit Mansion, but I liked the designs and ended up recycling them to create Mathias and Dahlia. This version of Dahlia also had a giant stuffed bear butler, which I still kind of like.

Beta versions of Dahlia and Mathias. They didn’t have names at this point.

Beta Dahlia and her bear butler. She was more antagonistic in this story.

Random side character, I liked the beanie and gave it to Kel later.

Next part, more story notes and pitch pages!

Q&A # 17 - July Questions

Happy July! There’s a little less than a month before Mayhem at Misfit Mansion is out, so I’ll start this Q&A out with some MM questions. Also, as a head’s up for those who need it, there’s brief discussion of death in the third and thirteenth question.

Misfit Mansion

Q: Does Iris enjoy reading? What kind of books does she like?

A: I think she is more of an outdoors-y sports person, but she likes comic books. It was hard for her to get the latest ones when she was stuck in the house, and Halloway was bad at remembering which ones she already had, so she has a bunch of random volumes. She decided to make up in her head what happened in between each one.

Q: Does Larkspur have any particular things he enjoys cooking? Does he ever use Iris as a taste tester?

A: He tried but she kept eating stuff before it was done and now she's banned from the kitchen. For food, I think he likes challenging himself to make more complicated meals.

Q: Trigger warning: death. Sorry if it’s a little dark, but what would have happened to a dreamon (Larkspur) if the dreamer (Halloway) had died? And vice versa. 

A: This is actually something I’ve thought about when I was thinking of concepts for a third book. To be clear, I don’t know if there will be third book (the publisher would have to request it), but I did wonder if maybe dreamons without dreamers could gain full control of their powers, and potentially shapeshift on their own. A dreamon passing away would probably be very emotionally painful to the dreamer. I also wondered if there’s a way to break a dreamon/dreamer bond without one passing away, and what that would mean. Would there be effects on them both in that case? There’s definitely a lot to think about. For simplicity’s sake, and because I don’t want it to be super dark, it would be very sad but nothing horrible would happen to the other.

Q: What inspired you to create the characters Iris and Mathias in book 1?

A: I can’t quite remember where the concept of dreamons first came from (I’m planning to rummage through all of my old MM concept stuff soon and post it!), but a core part of the story has always been overcoming bigotry/ learning to understand people who are different from you. I grew up in a community that taught me to hate groups of people who were different from me, which caused a lot of fear and judgmental beliefs within myself as a kid. When I was able to leave that community, I realized how hateful it was, which is in part why I wrote Star Knights and Misfit Mansion— to push back against that narrative. Mathias was raised to believe that horrors are dangerous, but because Iris is the only one in his life who has showed him kindness, he is able to change his beliefs.

I’ll talk more about them and their designs in an upcoming post!

Q: In the first book, Halloway says that dreamons are brain children. Does that mean Mathias is Iris’s dad?

A: Dreamons can show up for many reasons! Halloway sees Larkspur as his child because he had wished to be a dad. Mathias’s wish was different, which we’ll see in the second book.

Oddity Woods

Q: When Mary met Wyatt why did he tremble and stammer when he saw the magnifying glass?

A: “Weird living girl has magical item, huh?????”

Q: How much time will have passed between the first two books?

A: The second book continues right after the first! I wanted Marietta to have different clothing throughout the book, so I decided a long time ago to change up her outfit with each chapter. I draw a bit differently than I did when I drew the Labyrinth Inn chapter in 2017, so the characters may look a bit different, but they're the same age.

Q: How did you come up with Wyatt’s design?

A: I like science-themed characters haha. I've had him since 2012. I drew him thousands of times until I felt the design was right. It was a lot harder to figure him out than Marietta. I think the eyes gave me a lot of trouble and they still do sometimes!

I kind of want to do like a progression of every year drawing these two just to see the difference over 14 years.

Q: Does Wyatt ever wonder about his family outside of the woods?

A: Probably, among other things. Like, is there a family even out there?

Q: Just to be clear, Wyatt has been missing longer than Owen and Velia right? It seems like Owen remembered more than him.

A: Hmm I'd say for this one, there may be another reason Wyatt's memory loss is worse. I think the woods definitely have an effect on living people, especially if they've made a contract, which is why Owen was forgetting stuff. But if that means Wyatt has been there longer or not... we'll see.

Q: Even after the Conductor takes your soul, you can still be found wandering the woods as a monster right? I think that it would really freak Marietta out if she saw Owen as a monster.

A: Haha yeah. That would be bad.

Q: Are there any reasons as to why Wyatt hates ghosts so much even though he loves every other paranormal creature?

A: It's probably safe to assume (from the flashback near the end of the inn chapter) that he might have had a bad encounter with a ghost once!

Q: TW: death. Did Whistle die violently? He's a poltergeist so I thought maybe... poor little guy.

A: Most poltergeists do die from a violent or sudden death, and the memories of their pasts and refusal to accept death is what gives them powers. Perhaps Whistle died "violently" or perhaps he just has his memories from before. Dogs can't be vengeful so he is a little different!

Star Knights

Q: Other than if the wish turns evil or if you break the mini crowns on the head, do the Star Knights have other weaknesses?

A: It would depend on the type of animal! Like, maybe amphibians like Tad and Stello can’t deal with dry places like deserts, or maybe Cygnus can’t cast water spells well if it’s extremely cold outside, since they would freeze. Corva’s weakness is shiny objects.

Q: What was the relationship/dynamic between Corva and Cygnus before Cygnus became a Star Knight? 

A: Best friends, Cygnus was kind of a crybaby when she was younger, but Corva’s always been good at cheering her up. Cygnus liked pretty things, so Corva would find stuff for her in typical crow fashion. I think Cygnus probably had a crush first as they got older. She didn’t confess until after the events of the book though.









Oddity Woods - Concept Art #1

Today I’m posting a little bit of concept art from book 1 of Oddity Woods! These were from around 2014-2016, when I was working on OW as a webcomic. I wanted each chapter to be an individual mystery, like a mini Agatha Christie story. When writing the Labyrinth Inn chapter, I knew I wanted to do a “whodunnit” type story, though I had some other ideas at the beginning.

The first one wasn’t about an inn, but a town where the people were cursed to become wendigos when the clock struck midnight.

Marietta and Wyatt would figure out how to free the town of their curse and find the first Grave Key. I ended up scrapping this idea because I didn’t find the story very interesting, and moved more into a murder mystery direction instead.

Early concept art of Silvia/Velia. The inn chapter went through a lot of different versions, but it was always about a character getting revenge for their murder. Funny enough, I think Velia was once originally a part of the werewolf family too, along with different workers like maids, until her character was finalized as an outsider.

Early Owen had a skeleton cat and the two would have been reoccurring characters. Sorry bud. Ultimately I didn't like having so many extras working at the inn when I could have more unique guests be a part of the mystery instead, so the extra werewolves got cut!

Designing the side characters for this chapter was a lot of fun, though it took some time to figure them out. I kept drawing them over and over until a design felt right. I think I liked designing Leo and Capella the most. I also wanted them all to have distinguishable silhouettes.

Everyone was finalized in 2017! The original script had a lot more going on, but needed to be condensed last minute (partially because it was too long and partially because I was hitting burn out while working on it as a webcomic). My mindset was to create something similar to a point & click mystery game, which I realized didn't quite translate perfectly into a comic. I still like it overall though! I'd love to try and write another campy murder mystery again someday.

This will be part one to a series of OW concept art posts. There’s a lot of stuff I can’t really talk about until the series is finished, but I’ll share what I can in the meantime!

Fan Art Feature #3

Some more wonderful fan art from the past few months! I’ve recently opened another email for fan art, so if you’d like to send something, please email it to kaydmailbox@gmail.com!

Q&A # 16 - June Questions

Here comes the next round of questions for June! I also received some questions regarding old concept art of Oddity Woods. I’ll try to post some stuff on that in the future. For July, I’m going to concentrate on Misfit Mansion with the next book coming out, so look forward to some posts about that as well!

Oddity Woods

Q: How much time is on the Conductor's tickets when people first take them?
A: Part of me thinks the starting time depend on the person or on how long they can withstand the ticket’s effects, but I think overall a few weeks.

Q: Are there other beings in the woods like the Storyteller and Conductor, or is it just the two of them?

A: There might have been another one, once.

Q: Are the Storyteller and the Conductor connected to the source of Marietta's magnifying glass and Gloria's compass and that weird owl? Because they all have a similar eye symbol on them, what's up with that?

A: I think it’s safe to assume things with that eye symbol might be connected!

Q: Is Oddity Woods really big or is it never ending?

A: If you walk in one direction, you will eventually find yourself looping back to where you started. We don’t yet know why this world exists, but maybe we’ll learn soon.

Q: Will book 2 have more monsters?

A: Of course! >:) Here’s a little sneak peak at something we might encounter…

Q: Why does the Conductor want to destroy Oddity Woods?

A: We don’t know why yet, but it seems like he’s doing it for someone’s sake.

Q: What exactly is the relationship/dynamic between Leo and Capella?

A: Partners in crime (and carnival-ing), they’ve been together for a long time. Capella thinks she is the leader but Leo is the actual brains.

Q: Will Capella and Leo have a good character arc in the upcoming books? Don't spoil how, but I love those little freaks and I want to see them get development.

A: They will be back for sure. We might learn more about the Chimera Carnival too.

Q: What was the Car Attendant's original plot in the webcomic? I find him really interesting.

A: I’m always really surprised how popular the Car Attendant is considering he’s only there for a few pages haha. In the original webcomic he was going to be a little more involved, but I had to cut his role down to shorten things. I don’t want to really go into his backstory yet because it is important later on. So… we will learn more about him later! I’ll post a few pages here of the webcomic’s original end to the Labyrinth Inn chapter, which involved him more. These pages are no longer canon.

Q: Do you have a favorite alternate universe of Oddity Woods?

A: I like the role swap alternate universe, because I think the outfits are cute. Marietta would be an unhinged inventor, Wyatt would be a very careful detective.

Q: Is the girl in the portrait on page 36 Gloria’s daughter?! I think it is her because Gloria’s last name is Mornings and on the missing board, the first letter of that girls last name is ‘M’!

A: Good eye. We will probably learn more soon. : )

Misfit Mansion

Q: What is the relationship between Kel and June? I kinda see June as a grandmother figure to Kel.

A: Yeah I think she could be a parental figure to him! Kel lost his parents when he was very young, so I think he values his friendship with June.

Q: How did you come up with Larkspur’s new design?

A: Rereading MM, I was surprised at how baby Larkspur looked... I wanted him to look like a teenager in MM2, so I tried hard to make him look older. It's funny because when I first pitched MM, the publisher asked me to make the characters look a little older... and for Larkspur to look a little less cute. This was the first design I made of him vs the final. He still looks cute oops.

Q&A # 15 - May Questions

Here comes a new round of questions! There were a LOT submitted over this month (thank you all so much for sending them!!!), so I’ve decided to split this one up and post the other half in a few weeks. As usual, lots of Oddity Woods questions, some I can’t really answer yet, but I’ll do my best!

Oddity Woods

Q: When will book two be released?

A: While I don’t have an exact date yet, I’ve heard it’s scheduled for some time next summer! It’s a bit of a wait, but I promise it will be worth it… there’s so much lore and mystery and drama I can’t wait to show. In the meantime, I’ll continue posting art and answering questions when I can!

Q: Will Marietta ever see her family again as ghosts?

A: I can’t say. But I think we will learn a little more about her past family soon…

Q: Who started the town fire? Or was it a wildfire?

A: The police think it was an arson, so it’s likely someone was responsible. Another mystery we may learn more about in the next book!

Q: What inspired you to create Lawrence? Besides him being the ride to places (as I saw in something you had drawn) how else will he be important?

I like writing villains who are really bad at being villains. He was going to just be a character that appeared in the inn chapter, but people ended up liking him a lot in the webcomic days and I started liking him too haha. So now he’s an important character! I’m going to save it for book two, but I’ll say that Lawrence is probably the nicest and most responsible character in Oddity Woods weirdly enough. You can have some old concept of him from 2017!

Q: Will characters like Lawrence's family, Whistle the ghost dog and Anita return along with some cut characters from the webcomic?

A: Most of the minor characters shown in book 1 will come back in some way throughout the series! I don’t think any cut characters will appear though, there’s not much room for them.

Q: I know that Harris and Lawrence are stepbrothers. Looking at the pictures, the painting, and the memory Lawrence looks uncomfortable and Harris is in more of them. Is Lawrence worried that Harris is replacing him?

A: Good eye. I think Lawrence definitely had a hard time getting used to his new family and his curse, which is probably why he acted out so much. But I think he does care for them deep down, and realized that when Harris was in danger.

Q: Are werewolves really Wyatt's favorite paranormal creature?

A: Wyatt likes all paranormal creatures equally and will equally geek out about them. Except for ghosts. He hates ghosts.

Q: I noticed when reading that it looks like Lawrence, Harris, Susi, and Arthur have fur jackets. Are they all real or faux fur?

A: Arthur’s is real fur because he sucks. : (

Q: How exactly do werewolves work in Oddity Woods? It seemed like they could choose to transform if they wanted too but I wasn't sure. Also, is Harris, Lawrences and their moms having yellow eyes related to them being werewolves?

A: Werewolves can transform at will as long as the moon is out! And yep, their eyes are yellow because of their curse. They used to have normal eyes!

Q: Does Lawrence read manga? Is he a weeb?

A: I don’t think manga exists in Oddity Woods, but like, yes.

Q: What Pokemon would the Oddity Woods cast have?

Misfit Mansion

Q: What are the Misfit Mansion characters' favorite ice cream flavors? I feel like Iris is the type of person to like really bizarre ones.

A: Yeah Iris would try any flavor once! Agnes likes vanilla, Mathias chocolate, Kel prefers sorbet, Dahlia would like bitter flavors like matcha or mint… Larkspur doesn’t like to be cold so he’d probably prefer cake or hot chocolate.

Q: Will June probably show up again as a minor character or something?

A: We’ll see! :O

Mayhem at Misfit Mansion ARC Giveaway on Instagram!

Head’s up— from now until May 21st at 12 am, I’ll be running a giveaway for ARC copies of M@MM on my Instagram page! Follow me on Instagram @kaydavault and check out this post on how to enter. There are 15 copies up for grabs (you must be 13 or older to apply, or have parent/guardian permission)!

What is an ARC? ARCs are advance reader copies created for early review purposes. These books are mostly in black and white and are not the final versions coming out in August, but they are a cool way to preview the book early! If you enter, please be willing to leave a review online on sites like Amazon/B&N/Goodreads! They help me out a ton.

I do multiple book giveaways every year on Instagram, so be sure to follow me there if you haven’t!