Dune Molar

Meet the Spy!

We interrupt the grey landscapes to bring you...another Hazardous Tales narrator intro! That's all three narrators! You can see the full set at www.hazardoustales.com.

Sales with these books are different than my others have been. I've never worked in the non-fiction/educational market before (not as an author anyway.) All of my previous books have been very commercial. Fantasy/fairy tales/fiction--sure there's aspects of learning in those books, but not like these.

The publisher and I are very curious to see where these get shelved. Yes, they are non-fiction, but they are cartoon non-fiction, with a thick layer of joke frosting. Me, I'd shelve them with the graphic novels.

In any case, it will be fun to see how it goes with these books. If you haven't seen them, you should check them out, get your library to order them. And if you have read them, tell a friend or post a review online. These little books are odd ducks, they are cool ducks and they are funny ducks, but they really are odd ducks--word of mouth will really help them swim.

We now return to the grey landscapes. I'm really enjoying them.

U Canyon

This one has a touch of "Southwestern Motel Art" to it.

Ghost Porch

Grey Pool

Guess who is now several pages deep into Hazardous Tales #3 final art. That's right it's me! I can't say much about what book #3 covers. But I can tell you the color. Green. Oh yeah.

If you can't tell, I'm having trouble sticking to anything resembling a posting schedule here on the blog. I'm going to try a simpler, more soothing, more...geometric set of posts to get myself back in the habit.

Prepare yourself for some text-free, grey, landscape squares.

Uniform Research

So, why did the Provost page take so long to post? You ask. Well, here's why:

Research!

With the Hangman, I just made stuff up. But I couldn't fabricate stories about the actual British Redcoat uniform. I found myself curious about what each of the elements on the uniform were for. I got lost in the research! That's a fascinating outfit!

On top stands my LEGO re-creation of the Provost. LEGO doesn't make a 1776 Grenadier's cap. They do a nice Tricorn, an Admiral style Bicorn, even a Napoleonic Shako, but I had to make due with the modern Bear-skin Palace Guard hat. That was the closest.

Meet the Provost!

It's another introduction to one of the Hazardous Tales narrators--there are three. Can you guess who the last one will be?

When I started this page, I thought it would be very boring compared to the Hangman's. But two hours of online research and nine library books later, I discovered it was far more interesting than the Hangman's totally made up outfit.

I learned all about the history of the Grenadier's cap--which is basically a furry miter. That's right--miter, like the Pope wears! This hat eventually turned into the bear-skin hat you see on modern Buckingham Palace Guards. They are still made from bear skin to this day--and are quite expensive (especially for the bear!)

Meet the Hangman! Hazardous Tales Launch Day 1

Now that we're finished launching Frankenstein (don't worry, he'll be back for Halloween) it's time to launch the Hazardous Tales books!

The books in the Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales series are narrated by three characters; the spy Nathan Hale, a British Provost, and this guy--the Hangman. Time to meet him.