I was sitting in the back of my high school Spanish class drifting into another world. I probably should have been paying attention but I had other things on my mind. I was thinking of a story, one with a Knight and a sword.
My mind went to Ephesians 6:10-18, it’s a passage about the armor of God. The idea really started there. ‘What if in my story, an all-powerful God gives a knight armor to help him on a dangerous mission’. At first I called this God Shaddai, stealing one of God’s names from the Bible. Then, being highly creative and wanting to be slightly less on the nose, I turned the name backwards and Iaddash was born.
In that classroom, I drew my first sketch of what would soon become Kahsa. That picture is lost to time. But there are a few that survived from that era. Here are some of my first sketches of the crew.
Yes, that’s right Agape had a gun. A laser gun to be precise. Eventually I dropped the whole laser gun idea. My brain was running purely on Star Wars in those days. Agape no longer has a gun. And lasers no longer exist in the world.
I shared my idea with plenty of my classmates, making more doodles. And this continued into college where I actually started to write my first draft of the story. I’m looking at that first draft right now. I didn’t get very far and compared to what would eventually be the finished project, it wasn’t that good. Initially, Kahsa would steal the knight’s armor from Agape, and Bark and Agar were very different people named Batsi and Akar. Akar, interestingly enough is the Hebrew word for troubler. I guess I thought Agar sounded a bit cooler though. Despite the barely started draft, this idea just wouldn’t die.
At some point I wrote a multi book outline and shared it with one of my best friends in college, that treatment ended up becoming the foundation of what I’d eventually write. At one point we were roommates and I put about 40 thumbtacks into our wall to outline the second book, he was also my RA at the time. Good thing Covid hit and we needed to leave campus or else I would have owed the college more money! After publishing a short story and a book of poems, I felt confident to make the Knight of Iaddash dream a reality. And so I did!
When Reading Isn’t Enough
When I imagined The Knight of Iaddash, I imagined it first as a movie, replaying scenes in my head and talking through the character lines. That’s kind of how my brain works. In college I realized that didn’t seem to feasible so I wrote it as a book! While writing it, I only used about half my ideas, so I split it into two parts. If you read the end of book 1, you know something huge happens. That wasn’t in the original plans but I did make the first completed draft. It really was a perfect decision to take the story to even greater heights in the next book (which is still releasing it this year btw!).
After writing the book I had plenty of friends look over it, I hired an amazing editor, got a talented artist, and planned on releasing it. But the story continued on in my head. I wanted other so have a similar experience that I had when imagining the story. I want them to hear my characters and to be a part of the action. Then I heard Cory Rosen’s production of Dr. Jekel and Mr. Hyde. So the two of us chatted, and we put together a proof a concept.
One day, I’m gonna share the proof of concept. However, at that point I only snagged Cory for the music/recording and was stubborn enough to try to do the rest myself. As a result, we had 3 people voicing a scene, one of which was myself. This was our test run. If you’ve watched our trailer you know that Cory is a much better audio producer than I am, so I am very glad to be working with him!
Compiling the Cast
After our test run, Cory and I entered our preproduction phase. The first book was released around this time as well. We found a cast, held tryouts, and the kid that watched all of those behind the scenes clips of The Clone Wars and other animated shows was really happy! Doing something like this was always one of those unreachable dreams, and yet, here we are. We’re doing it, and it’s really fun!
The cast read throughs were a lot of fun as well! Everyone brought different ideas and perspectives to the table about what they thought their character might sound like and it was really cool to hear their interpretation. They play their characters very well too! If you need proof, check out our kickstart trailer below! We’ve got an incredible cast!
And now we’re here. We’ve got a cast, we’ve got a trailer, and we’ve got a kickstarter as well. The goal of this kickstarter is to raise $5,000 dollars. That’s how we pay our cast and move forward in its production. If we reach $10,000 we’ll hire someone to help Cory with the sound design, and if we reach $20,000 I’m gonna green light book 2’s audio production!
Without our cast, this project cannot be made, so if you would like to support us to raise the necessary funds, please watch this super cool trailer and consider supporting us on kickstarter. The lowest tier starts at $5 and gets you season 1 ad-free!
CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT US ON KICKSTARTER!
At the time or writing, we are nearly at 50% funded, thank you to everyone who has already supported us. We wouldn’t be able to do with without you.
Inside the Mist
This project will inevitably mean different things to different people. For some it’s a really cool project to listen to or to be a part of. As for me, this project reminds me of God’s grace. So much regarding Iaddash has been shaped by my faith. The themes I put in this book are formed from lessons I’ve learned in life. And, I’ve seen God’s hand at every step of this process. He’s given me plenty of friends to support and critique the first two books in the drafting phase, he’s used book two to help me process through the covid pandemic, he brought Cory and I together both as friends and as collaborators in college, he’s provided the cast, I’ve worked with many great artists, and now we’re here! I’m trusting him that if he wants this project to be a reality, then he’ll provide the funds. I’m also praying that this story might inspire others to tell their own stories, and to think about the beauty and challenges of faith. I ultimately hope Christ uses this to point other people towards his love.
What you create matters. And your voice mattes as well. I hope that God will honor our efforts and I pray I can be a good ambassador of the faith he’s given to me, whether this project is big or small.
Glory to God!
Kenny
The Back KAB 
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