Blake Hoena's Blog, page 19

Captain Boomerang's Comeback

Saw a preview copy of Captain Boomerang's Comeback today. Below is one of the first illustrations in the book. Friends were joking that I look like the guy on the far right. I'm not so sure, at least not anymore, since I've let my goatee grown out to a full beard. We do share the same bad hair cut, though.

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Zombie's on Skateboards!

Did that catch your attention?

Well, the editor for my recently-completed story Amplified really liked what he read, so he asked me to write another book in the Tony Hawk's 900 Revolution series. Probably book 9 or 10.

Without giving away too much, I'm thinking the crew will be transported into a post-apocalyptic setting, where they'll see what the world would be like if the Collective, the bad guys, succeed and they fail. Still just sketching out the idea, but need to get a synopsis in to the editor soon, so more details to come.

Oh, and of course, in a post-apocalyptic world, there will be zombies. I'm thinking 28-Days-Later type of rabid monsters vs the sloth-like undead from Dawn of the Dead. And since we're dealing with extreme sports, there will need to be skateboards and BMX bikes.

Carly's Angels

Carly's Angels now have a page on Capstone Kids. Check it out and read bios of the girls as well as see a goofy pict of me in a hat. The funny thing is that I'm also wearing a hat on the Eek and Ack page, and I'm not a hat person. Not by any means. Well, except when I need to cover up one of my famously bad hair cuts.

Amplified

Stone Arch Books created a website for their Tony Hawk's 900 Revolution series. Check it out. There are character bios, author bios (mine will eventually be up there), a book trailer, and a trivia game. A sneak peek (as in chapter 1) of Amplified is one of the game's prizes if you're able to answer enough questions correctly.

Tony Hawk

As in Tony Hawk the skateboarding king — I am writing book 5 in Stone Arch Books Tony Hawk's 900 Revolution series. Here's the publishers description of this new line of books:

At the dawn of the new millennium, Tony Hawk landed the first-ever 900, finally capturing the Holy Grail of skateboarding. At that moment in time, everything changed. A mysterious force shattered his board and scattered the pieces across the globe. Today, a talented group of teens unite in an eternal quest to bring the board – and its power – back together again. Adventure, action sports and sci-fi rolled into one super-hot series!

The working title for my book is call Amplified, as it involves a young, female singer, and the story will take place in the Twin Cites. The characters will be visiting some familiar haunts: First Ave, Wabasha Street Caves, Raspberry Island, and Brackett Skate Park.

Review - Carly's Angels

"With a nod to the 1970s television show Charlie's Angels, Hoena features three girls, known collectively as Carly's Angels, who interview, write, and take photos for their school newspaper. The mysterious Carly, who is only seen in silhouette but is really the editor-in-chief, gives them news scoops. In this story, the three investigate the sudden arrival of super-sized bees and discover that the science club has dumped their failed toxic slushie formula into the school pond. . . . Carly's Angels reads like a television script with cartoon-style illustrations [and] the environmental theme is commendable."

—School Library Journal

Review — Cosmic Bounty Hunter

First sentence: On the faraway planet of Apokolips, a spaceship rumbled to a halt, kicking up a cloud of dirt and debris on the landing pad. Acquired: Received a review copy from Stone Arch Books. Reason for Reading: This book is too hard for my ds to read on his own and will be read aloud by dh as a bedtime book. But I like my superheroes too and wasn’t going to miss out on the fun! I like Superman fairly well. He’s not my *favourite*, but he’s cool. I hadn’t heard of any of the bad guys in this story: Lobo, Kalibak and Desaad but I enjoyed this book the most of the 3 books I’ve just read in this series recently. Action packed from start to finish. We even have Lois going at Clark for scooping her on the front page once again to start the story off. It doesn’t take long before Clark leaves Lois and Jimmy behind and the super action to start as Lobo is creating a havoc that Superman must put a stop to. Lobo (a bounty hunter) has been hired by the ruler of Kalibak and Desaad’s planet to capture Superman with a new invention and bring him back to the planet. But when K & D interfere and Lobo finds himself captured and headed for Apokolips’ dungeons too, he and Superman team up to turn the tables. Lobo is a great villain here, he’s actually a lot of fun for the full of himself biker-type. A great entry in the series. Written and illustrated by comic industry professionals, the story and characters all have an authentic feel. Each chapter has at least one full page illustration, some even have two, the pages of pure text are broken up for the reader by using comic book style graphics, in colour, for all the sound effect words. This nicely breaks up a two page spread of text which may otherwise seem daunting to reluctant readers. One of my favourites in the series.

—Back to Books

Review — Cosmic Bounty Hunter

Bounty hunter LOBO hired to bring in Superman. Wow! Majorly offbeat character—gotta admire Hoena for tackling this. And he pulls it off! Like the other titles in the DC Super Heroes series, this one is a lot of fun!

—Robert Marsh, author of the Monster and Me series

Review — Jack and the Beanstalk

Great retelling and cool artwork. It made the list of top 20 books preferred by struggling 4th and 5th grade readers. Renaissance Learning puts out a “What Kids Are Reading” study each year where—oddly enough—kids share the titles of the books they most enjoy reading. This book made the 2011 list. And for good reason.

—Robert Marsh, author of the Monster and Me series

Review — Eek and Ack vs the Wolfman

Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year—so I’m already inclined to like this book. But it’s also funny. And it’s got a Wolfman. And a cross-dressing alien ballerina. What’s not to love? Great fun!

—Robert Marsh, author of the Monster and Me series