Work In Progress

Just poking my head above ground for a minute. This blogging-free month has been a busy month for Hazardous Tales #4. Here's a sample of one 2-page spread in progress:

If all goes as planned, this book will be out next spring.

How is everyone liking DONNER DINNER PARTY? Do me a favor and post your reviews on your favorite review-posting locations--even if it's just a hand-written note on your fridge!

Hap-Hap-Happy Birthday!

Can you name everyone in this party?

Nathan Hale's HAZARDOUS TALES is now one year old! Thanks to fans, bookstore owners, librarians, teachers, and especially you--the reader--it's been a great year!

We're going to celebrate the best way we can--which is working hard on the next book. In fact, the next book is taking so much work, we're taking a break from the regular weekly posts you've come to expect here at hazardoustales.com. Don't worry, we'll be back with regular Monday posts in September!

If you are new to the series, take a look back at the site's archives. There are loads of great posts, Historical Hats, This Week in History, Hazardous Holidays and a few mini stories. Take a look! And come back in September for more.

Thanks, and have a great August!

(this is the post over at the hazardoustales.com blog) I may have a few odds and ends to post here at the Station through August, but mostly, it's book 4 crunch time. Yikes.

Last Preview, First Review!

One last preview of Donner Dinner Party, before it comes out next month. This is from the back of the book. Every member of the Donner Party is here. The darkened squares are the ones who didn't make it. Follow the key at the top to find out how they died.

Yesterday, we got our first review for DONNER DINNER PARTY, care of the San Francisco Chronicle!

Donner Dinner Party By Nathan Hale
(Amulet; 130 pages; $12.95; ages 8-up)

Heading up to Tahoe on Interstate 80? A tidy graphic novel recounts the mess at the summit in the winter of 1846-47. Quick summary: Things go from bad to worse for a wagon train headed from Illinois to California, and there is nothing left to eat but each other. The narrator is Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale, who foresees another gruesome chapter in American history right before the British hang him in 1776. (With the same name as the real-life author, he ties together the "Hazardous Tales" series.) Although it's based on somber truths, irreverence rules with Mad magazine edge and snarky asides. Still, the main themes are intact: arduous journey, bad choices, hubris, hunger, cold and an infamous end.

Susan Faust is a librarian at San Francisco's Katherine Delmar Burke School. E-mail: books@sfchronicle.com

Diggy is the new Taco

Hey gang,

The world has landed on me this month. I have a positively crushing deadline with Hazardous Tales #4, and a few new things have been added to the stack. One you'll find out about this week, the other (and it's very cool) will be announced later this year.

In any case, pardon the delays. We'll get back on track ASAP.

Donner Dinner Party Ad 2

We're so close! It's almost out! I've had a few early readers say it's the best Hazardous Tales yet--can't wait to see what others think.

Hazardous Tales book 4 banner

Boy, oh boy. It's been a busy couple of weeks. Busy weeks lead to spotty posts. I'm deep in crunch time for Hazardous Tales #4--that's the WWI one. 

This week we've been working on the cover. Each Hazardous Tales book has a different set of flags on the mast head. When you are doing a WORLD war, you can't just have two flags--you need a whole bunch. Here we have the Allied Powers on one side (US, Russia, France, and UK) and the Central Powers on the other (Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Germany). In all fairness, the US flag should be the one in the back, they didn't join in until the end, but we always have the stars and stripes up front on the cover, so it'll have to stand as is.

The pacing on DIGGY SHARK must seem positively GLACIAL. Picture books are a fast read, when you chop them down to a page a day it gets slooooooooow. Already in this post there have been three times as many words as there are in the entire DIGGY SHARK story.

Diggy and co. will be back tomorrow (hopefully).

DONNER DINNER PARTY sample page: "Make room for Grandma!"

Hey gang, only a few more weeks until NATHAN HALE'S HAZARDOUS TALES: DONNER DINNER PARTY launches. Here's a sneaky peek at page 10!

Diggy Shark 13