MHCC instructor can add author to his resume

An MHCC author and instructor has released his second published book, the two vastly different in genre and style.

Zach Hudson teaches both reading and writing part-time, and just recently won the campus part-time faculty award for excellence in teaching.

Hudson has been writing for a very long time but just recently started publishing.

Published in July, his new work is a children’s book called “The Banjo.” It’s about a little boy named Peter who wants to join the school orchestra, but does not have the money for any instrument. The school doesn’t give a crap, and neither do his parents. However, life throws him a bone when he sees a banjo at a yard sale.

The man at the sale decides to give it to Peter in exchange for some help with boxes. Peter ends up falling in love with the banjo and learns to play it without any sheet music or lessons. He is then befriended by the school principal, whose father played the banjo to her when she was little. She becomes the ?rst person to really listen to Peter and support him. It’s a heartwarming tale about a boy ?nding a love for music and learning that he is not just learning an instrument, but an entire culture connected by music.

Hudson said the ideal age of readers would be from eight to 11. He also has a love of the banjo himself and has been playing for years.

Hudson had written the book a few years prior, but had nowhere to go with it. “The market is just so ?ooded and it’s hard to get anything noticed,” he said. One day, while talking to his parents, he broached the subject and they offered him some funding help. The book became a father and son affair with his father, Jere Hudson, illustrating the book for him.

“One thing that I learned working with my dad is how much work goes into one illustration. It took him days just to make one,” said Hudson.

The book comes included with nine traditional banjo tunes by musicians from Appalachia and the Paci?c Northwest. “They are all fantastic musicians,” said Hudson.

This book is in stark contrast to Hudson’s previous work: a humorous black-and-white graphic novel called “Minions of the Happy Aisles,” about two groups of people looking to steal a mysterious artifact on an island. It was Part One in a series he hopes to continue.

The chief reason for the switch is Hudson’s three kids, which is where the idea of a children’s book grew from. Another is that in such a small production line, personal contacts are everything. Many of the contacts Hudson had made warmed up to the idea of a children’s book, more than a graphic novel.

“I found the graphic novel so hard to market that I wanted to do something completely different, and this has worked a lot better,” he said.

It doesn’t end there. Hudson has many ?nished novels that have not been published, as well as three or four kids’ books, and Part Two of his graphic novel. One of his un?ni

shed books features animals playing instruments. “The problem isn’t the writing with these books, but getting them out there,” he said.

Hudson doesn’t really put his writing style into one genre. His graphic novel is humorous, while his children’s book is more touching; some of his unpublished novels are much more serious.

Hudson’s books are available for purchase online at amazon.com or, to view more inside pages from “The Banjo” and hear two tracks from the CD, visit http://fivestringpress.com/.