Sunday, February 28, 2010

The Land of Doom/Picture Book Marathon 28/28

Cue the soundtrack to "Chariots of Fire," I have finished the marathon!


This Chapter of THE LAND OF DOOM is complete. As you can see, there is still a lot to cover. Don't worry, YB and me will take up our journey again sometime in the future. But for now, we'll be going back to our regular weekday posting schedule (thank heavens!) and bringing you some new comic stories.

Book #28--the final book:


Title: AMBULOCETUS: The Walking Whale

Synopsis: Remember the craze for "Mixed Up Fairy Tale" books like The Stinky Cheese Man? Well, I want to do a "Mixed Up Non-Fiction" book. Non-fiction has always been more appealing to me than fairy tales. I think messing around with the genre could be a lot of fun.

So, this is a book about the Ambulocetus, a real animal from the Eocene era (and yes, I am on a pre-historic mammal kick, thanks for asking.) This was an early ancestor of the whale, but it lived the life of an otter/alligator, in Pakistan. This would be a dry, informative, natural history book, but with a twist; the ambulocetus talks back. He's a sassy ambulocetus who constantly argues with the narrator and tells jokes, slowly taking the book over and making it his own.

Here is a phrase that has never been typed in human history: "Sassy Pakistani Whale-Otter-Gator."

And with that, I'm stumbling off the the finishers corral, to pour water on my head and maybe enjoy a Blue Bunny ice cream treat.

We'll do a post-race summary on Tuesday, and take a look back at the highlights. I'm taking Monday off.

10 comments:

Myrna Foster said...

My son would love this one.

Publishing would be the slowest video game ever. LOL
When I sell a poem to a magazine, sometimes I don't even know the publishing date until almost year after the sale.

Lizzie said...

Congratulations for:
a) completing your book-a-day task as well as crafting a comic that could serve as a How To book in its own right
b) recognising the untapped potential of mermaids and mermen, cavemen, lumberjacks and a whole raft of minority groups just DYING to have a childrens book written about them
c) pitching a book about Vampires that I want to read
d) using the phrase Sassy Pakistani Whale-Otter-Gator

Now go and have a sit down and a piece of cake.

Robert W. Leonard said...

I really enjoyed this series. I forget who pointed it out to me, but I've followed along with every post. Thanks for sharing! :)

Debbie Barr said...

I love that you turned it into a video game. One of those video games where you turn off the TV and let it run for a few hours (or days), because parts of it would simply be WAITING forever. ;)

Perhaps this week I will try to use the phrase "Sassy Pakistani Whale-Otter-Gator" in a sentence... then again, I'd like to keep my friends....

Anonymous said...

I want a Sassy Pakistani Whale-Otter-Gator! I would name him Mr. Miandad . . . OH MY GOSH, you should do this book and name the walking whale Mr. Miandad! PLEASE!?

Ron McCutchan said...

Dang, Nathan, lurking on Space Station Nathan just makes me miss working with you all the more. Congrats on the 12 Robots and on the myriad ways you keep your creativity pumping. Keep on pushing the prehistoric mammals--the son of a friend is (or at least was) in Egypt working on ancient whales..

Anonymous said...

I'm going to have to get used to your not posting on weekends again. I keep checking out of habit whether you have posted yet and I have to remind myself that you're taking tomorrow off. For goodness sakes. But anyway..

Great job! You deserve a break after writing all those wonderful picture books.

P. S. I love the Sassy Pakistani Whale-Otter-Gator! You are truly a genius.

Will Strong said...

I've been following you blog for a while now and I've got to say that it's one of my favorites. The Land of Doom is especially fun.

I'm a Utah author/illustrator too (not quite published yet). I'd love to meet sometime.

Greg and Leigh said...

Holy cow you made it....we are totally impressed and exhausted for you!! We thoroughly enjoyed cheering from the side lines. Now take a break and lets go skiing!!!

Lizardbreath McGee said...

Brilliant. (This adjective is meant to apply both to your comic and to the picture book idea.)

Also, prehistoric mammals are even more fascinating than modern mammals. Chalicotheres are my personal favs.