Photos from the Calamity Jack party! Otherwise known as the Shannon, Dean and Nathan Show!

If you have never been to an event that features Shannon and Dean Hale and their trusty sidekick and illustrator extraordinaire, Nathan Hale (no relation), you are missing a show!

Folks who came to the event hosted by TKE at the Anderson-Foothill library were rewarded with a fabulously funny afternoon. Nathan Hale, seriously talented artist and illustrator of Rapunzel’s Revenge and Calamity Jack gave a multimedia presentation starting with how he got into illustrating all the way through how his original first drawing of Rapunzel and how he actually laid out Calamity Jack.

And then, oh yes, and then Shannon Hale, New York Times best-selling author of six award-winning young adult novels, and Dean Hale, her super-human husband and co-author of Calamity Jack, presented their interpretive dance: Cooperation. The room was filled with fans and everyone got a chance to meet all the contributors, get their books autographed in a rainbow of colors, and snack on Screaming Brownies and some Pixie Dust.

You had to be there, but if you weren’t and even if you were, here are a few pictures that help describe the scene.

Click on the photos to see in a larger view. Photos by Stuart Jensen

Full house

Cooperation

Happy Birthday to Us

It’s TKE’s 31st Birthday! And not only that, it’s also the one year anniversary of my hiring. Hard to believe, isn’t it? So I thought, in honor of the day, I’d do a little retrospective on the highlights of my first couple of months at TKE:

• Our 30th Birthday with Diane Ackerman, September 10, 2007: This was the first event I worked at TKE — talk about a whirlwind! As exciting as it was to come into the store during its 30th year of business (buy local!), it was even more exciting to meet one of my favorite nonfiction authors of all time. Not only was it fantastic to meet her and hear her talk about The Zookeeper’s Wife, but I literally got chills when she was nice enough to sign and personalize my very dog-eared copy of A Natural History of the Senses.
• Pam Munoz Ryan came, September 17, 2007, to sign copies of Paint the Wind, after spending a day at local schools. This was the first time I was attached to an author for an event, which means I was introduced into the fine arts of book prepping — PostIt-ing books for kids in line, getting stock ready for her to sign, etc. Ask any events bookseller, it really is an art.
• September 22, 2007, was my first Shannon Hale event, for Book of a Thousand Days. If you’ve ever been to one of our events for Shannon, you know exactly how overwhelming they can be. Definitely a lesson in crowd control!
• October 11, 2007, was the first time they ever left me alone to run an author event; it was also the first time I introduced an author. To understate, I was nervous. Fortunately for me, it was the lovely and talented Alexandra Enders, in town to promote her debut novel Bride Island. She was sweet, the crowd was great, and everything went well. Phew!

Since then there have been too many events to count, all buckets of fun. You may think I’m just saying that, but it’s true. Ask any events coordinator: All the madness of setting up the event, finding a venue, publicity, making sure you have the right books, making sure the books get to the venue on time, staffing, and the million other details that need your attention — all of that fades to nothing as you watch an audience and an author connect.

Rapunzel Roundup Pictures

Lots o’ Goodness

• The Rapunzel Roundup was awesome; two out of three Hales, plus one Zarr, agree! Pictures to come soon.
• Powell’s likes Carol Wiley Cassella as much as I do.
• Joyce Hinnefeld, who you will soon be hearing about if you haven’t already since her debut novel In Hovering Flight is the number one IndieNext List pick for September (a reward richly deserved for a great read), is psyched about indies.

The Next Big Thing: Rapunzel

Rapunzel’s Revenge, written by Shannon and Dean Hale and illustrated by Nathan Hale (no relation), is already making waves! Estella’s Revenge has featured it in their latest zine, with the following glowing recommendation:

In my house, it is very rare that my 8-year-old and 12-year-old daughters will agree on anything, let alone both agreeing with each other and with both of their parents. This miracle happened recently, however, by the time we all finished Shannon and Dean Hale’s most excellent graphic novel.

And Al Roker has picked it for his kids’ book club — a mighty coup.

Salt Lake, you are lucky we’re here. We’ve already planned a huge party to celebrate the release! Shannon, Dean and Nathan will all be there, plus six more fantastic local authors: Ann Cannon, James Dashner, Jessica Day George, Mette Ivie Harrison, Kimberly Heuston, and Sara Zarr, each of whom has a new book out. So mark your calendars for August 23rd at the Foothill Library, and keep your eye on the blog for posts leading up to the event, featuring each author and their new book!

[where: The King's English Bookshop, 1511 S 1500 E, Salt Lake City UT]