In celebration of the freshly toured and newly released Calamity Jack, I am pleased to have the three Hales drop by for an interview.

OK I am a little more than pleased. I’m giddy with excitement that Shannon Hale, one of my favorite writers of all time, has condescended to visit my little blog and that she has brought her two talented sidekicks along with her.

So…On with the interview.

WoD: Shannon, Book of a Thousand Days is my favorite of your stories. After I read it, I was amazed that so much of it took place in a small tower with only two characters present for most of that time. And yet, in that confined space, with that confined cast, it was such a compelling read. I’m wondering, though, did you ever with that book, or with any of your books, hit times when you thought, “This can’t work. It’s ridiculous. I need more characters/scenery/action/humor/angst/whatever to make this work. This book just stinks!”

Shannon Hale: Wow, thanks, Sally. This book is very dear to me. There were definitely times (read: daily) when I thought to myself, This is crazy. You can’t write a book where there are two characters locked up in darkness for the first half! But the challenge of it intrigued me. Most of my books have big, epic landscapes, which I love. But the idea of trying to whittle down the story to the essentials was very inviting. Like writing a one-act play. After reading Maid Maleen (the fairy tale I based the story on) I was determined to start the book already in the tower. I knew it was risky, and maybe that choice has turned off some readers, but I also knew that having that space as the start would allow so much more movement later in the story and get it to where I wanted it to go by the end.

And to be honest, the risks and doubts come with every book, and often. Every time I start a new book, I think, This is impossible. How do you write a novel?

WoD:  Heh heh. That’s heartening to those of us who are struggling with trying to start novels of our own. You succeed in making it all look so easy. Do you have the most trouble with beginnings, middles, or endings on your books? Or once you get your start does the rest of it just flow effortlessly from your fingertips?

Shannon Hale: It’s really amazing, I don’t know what other writers complain about. I just sit down and the story flows through my fingers onto the computer screen as easily as a sigh. (Ah, if only…) They’re all battles, but the trouble spots vary with each book and each draft. First drafts are the hardest for me though. Once I have that, I have clay to mold. Rewriting is a lot more fun.

 WoD: I would have guessed that you like rewriting. Your writing is fun to read, so I could tell you like to polish up the words to make sure the pictures you paint are just right. So, how long does it take you to write a book, on average, from idea to final draft?

Shannon Hale: 1-7 years, depending on the book and the daily time I can devote. I usually have two books going on at once so while my editor has one, I can be working on another. Yeah, I’m a little obsessive.

WoD: And obsessive people are so much fun to work with. Dean, when you and Shannon write together, do you sit together and brainstorm, or do you write one scene and she another?

Dean Hale: We brainstorm a lot, way before we even begin writing. We seem to do our best work when I’m trapped, like on a long car trip, or after something exceptionally heavy has fallen on me.

WoD: Heh heh. Who has final word on a scene if there’s a disagreement?

Dean Hale: Shannon does, mostly. From the beginning we had to decide someone was the boss, so we wouldn’t get mired down in turf wars and inevitable knife fights. Shannon is the boss at home, so that setup came naturally.

 WoD:  And I am thankful for that, because my favorite part of Calamity Jack was the romance. Whose idea was that? I bet you and Nathan thought the giant ants were enough to carry the story.

Dean Hale: Oh, no, the romance was all mine. I wrote this beautiful 12 page scene of Jack and Rapunzel talking about their feelings, but Shannon said that didn’t leave enough room for the giant ants. Giant anything takes up a lot of space. And yes, that was all a lie. Except for giant things taking up a lot of space. That’s true.

Shannon Hale: I remember in Rapunzel’s Revenge, you wrote the first draft of the last scene, that big romantic climax, and you scripted a very affectionate hug. I was like, nuh-uh. Step aside and let the lady handle the romance.

WoD:  Jack is such a sweet, clueless fellow who always seems to mess things up, but that’s what makes him attractive. He’s far from arrogant—he’s not sure of himself at all. He knows he’s screwed up and he is afraid that the smart and capable Rapunzel won’t be able to love him. When you write these graphic novels, or any of your books, do you have theme in mind? Are you trying to teach a lesson?

Shannon Hale: Themes are essential, and they come naturally with each draft. There are certain themes that just work with a story, enrich it. But I never try to teach a lesson. Didactic fiction doesn’t work. I hope that readers get what they need and teach themselves their own lessons.

Dena Hale: No, no lessons or themes, at least not in the moral sense. We have an idea of the journey we want a character to take, but mostly just try to find the characters, and if that’s working, the human-condition stuff comes with it. Also, I wanted to say “didactic,” too, but since Shannon beat me to it, I’ll have to shoehorn in a different nine-dollar word in the next question.

 WoD: I was amazed that you could get across such deep characterization (nine-dollar characterization, I guess you could call it, Dean) with so few words. How many words are in the novel? And does this mean a picture really is worth a thousand words?

Shannon Hale: The illustrations really take the place of a prose novel’s narrator. Nate is a storyteller, which is why we love him. His pictures and expressions are so wonderful. I’m not sure how many words it is, because our scripts have the dialog as well as the action descriptions. The final Calamity Jack script is 23,000 words, but most of that is description for Nate that the reader will never see.

Dean Hale: What she said. We also wrote character and world briefs, talking about the nature of Jack’s world and his internal journey. Then, magically, Nate took all that and infused the art with story-appropriate gravitas. There. There it is. “Gravitas.” Way cooler than “didactic.”

 WoD: Umm. I’m not so sure. Gravitas is cool, but didactic is pretty doggone tough to beat. But, moving on before we get into a fight about this…speaking of dear Nate, I have some questions for him, too.

Nathan, I’ve never read a graphic novel before. I really enjoyed Calamity Jack. I am so curious about how a collaborative book like this comes together. Shannon has just told that she and Dean do give you action descriptions. What does that look like? For instance, the text for The Great Sandwich Caper on page six, doesn’t tell anything about the caper itself. That story is told entirely through the pictures. Do you make up the story there, or do Shannon and Dean?

Nathan: It changes from panel to panel. That scene you mentioned was written out by the authors. Other times, they’ll just say “They Fight.” And leave the action to me. There are authors who go into detail on every panel and what should be in it, Shannon and Dean were pretty easy going and let me have free reign on many scenes.

 WoD:  How long did it take you to illustrate this novel?

Nathan: Just under a year.

 WoD: Yikes, that’s a long time. But I can believe it when I look at the details in those pictures. Which do you like best: drawing giant ants or drawing people kissing?

Nathan: Ant people are easy, I can draw one of those without even sketching it out. People kissing is a little trickier—you really have to plan it out. For the kisses in CALAMITY JACK, I looked at a lot of old movie posters from the 30s and 40s trying to find good poses for “Adventure Kisses” for lack of a better phrase.

WoD: Mmmhmm. Adventure Kisses. heh heh. That must be a guy thing. OK  This has nothing to do with Calamity Jack, but I just want to tell you I loved your twelve days of Christmas song on your blog. In fact, your entire blog is totally cool. How many hours a week do you spend on it?

Nathan: Oh thanks! My blog is a new thing. I actually started posting on a daily basis after JACK was finished. I now do a cartoon every weekday. Really it depends on how busy I am at the time. I put a lot of hours into THE 12 DAYS OF ROBO-CHRISTMAS. Most days I try to spend about 65 minutes or less on each post.

WoD: 65? Not 60 or 63? You’re an author as well as an illustrator. Which is easier; illustrating books you’ve written or ones written by others?

Nathan: Illustrating my own stories is a lot easier—I know exactly what I want to do and where I want to go. Collaborating is more challenging, I have to illustrate to the author as well as the audience. But collaboration leads to some cool things that I never would have come to on my own.

WoD: And you have certainly all three come up with some very cool things in Calamity Jack, the graphic novel. Well done! And thanks to all three of you for dropping by.

If you’d like to learn more about the three creative Hales, please visit them on the web. Here they are at home:

• Shannon
• Dean
• Nathan

I am happy to say that my first look at a graphic novel turned out to be a positive experience.

Calamity Jack is about a young man who has schemed all his life, taking from others, figuring if they are stupid enough to be had, then they deserve what they get. He’s a handsome fellow, and easy to like, because he’s more of a misguided youth than a hardened criminal. Still, he shows us what happens to children who start out with funny pranks and practical jokes that don’t cause any lasting damage. If they are not turned around, they end up justifying their selfish behavior and doing more and more damage to others.

Jack is finally forced to turn around. It’s a painful time for him. Being a little overconfident from a life of winning against chumps who have been easy marks and being desperate to do something to make his mother proud, he takes on an opponent that is too big and bad for him. After a conflict with disastrous results, he leaves town with his tail between his legs.

After he meets Rapunzel he returns to his city with big plans to show her what a “man about town” he is. Instead, he is faced with the devastation that his life of petty crime has caused. But he is given a chance to right the wrongs and become the hero he’s always wanted to be.

What I loved about this character was that he wanted so much to impress his mother and his girl. I think he’s a very real reflection of what men want. They want to be respected. They want to protect the women they love. And if they screw up in their zeal to impress and protect their women, we can forgive them, I think. After all, their hearts are in the right place even if the men are misguided.

The authors also make it clear that the women don’t always need to be protected. Sometimes they need to be allowed to help. Sometimes they have wisdom and strengths the men would be wise to draw  upon.

What amazes me is that the authors were able to make me see these characters as real people in such a short space with so few words. I cared about Jack. I liked him. I wanted him to succeed. And I’m shocked that I could care about a comic book character on that level. The pictures and the text worked together to give us a sympathetic main character to cheer for. The pictures are wonderful, conveying great emotion for the characters and the text, though sparse, gives enough for us to know exactly how they all feel.

And who can’t relate to the young man who wants to be loved and respected, but who keeps screwing up? Which ones of us haven’t sometimes, even often, felt exactly like Jack felt?

I think the three Hales did a wonderful job of giving us relatable characters and of conveying lots of lessons in a a fun, easy-to-swallow format. It is better to tell the truth than to lie, it is better not to swindle people, when you screw up you don’t have to despair—the people that love you will forgive you. All of these messages were there. But the thing that made the characters real were their longings—their conflicts and struggles. And because they were real we could sorrow in their troubles and rejoice in their victories. And that’s how readers grow. Not by being told that it is better to tell the truth than to lie, but by seeing a character fail and fail and fail and then, finally, succeed.

Today we take off on a KidzBookBuzz.com blog tour for a fun graphic novel—Calamity Jack, written by Shannon and Dean Hale, and illustrated by Nathan Hale.

This is the first graphic novel I’ve ever read—well I used to read comic books when I was a kid. What’s the difference between a graphic novel and a comic book, you may ask? I think that graphic novels are bigger. That’s the only difference I can see.

When I first heard about graphic novels several years ago, I was not very excited about them. I like big novels that I can get lost in for several hours at a time. I like to make up my own pictures in my mind. So, I admit, I’ve been a snob about graphic novels. The only reason I broke down and read Calamity Jack is that I adore Shannon Hale’s novels and I figured if she co-wrote this graphic novel it must be worth checking out. I’m glad I did. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Jack and Rapunzel (the star of a previous graphic novel, Rapunzel’s Revenge, by the same trio).

I’ll talk more about the book tomorrow and the next day. In the meantime you can visit the authors and illustrator at their websites.

• Shannon Hale
• Dean Hale
• Nathan Hale

Or you can go visit other bloggers on the tour:

Reading is my Superpower, firesidemusings.blogspot.com, Through the Looking Glass Book Review , Booking Mama, Cafe of Dreams, Becky’s Book Reviews, The Hungry Readers, The Friendly Book Book, My Own Little Corner of the World, Book Blather, GreenBeanTeenQueen, Book Crumbs , Abby (the) Librarian, Dolce Bellezza, Homeschoolbuzz.com, The Book Cellar, Carrie’s YA Bookshelf, Bookshelf Monstrosity, Everyday Reading, Frenetic Reader, KidzBookBuzz.com, Maw Books