With The Labors of Hercules Beal, Gary Schmidt brings back an old character, Danny Hupfer (first seen as a youth in The Wednesday Wars) to teach a few things to new character Hercules Beal, who lives on the far end of Cape Cod with his older brother, Achilles, after the death of their parents. Just twenty-six days after his retirement from college teaching, I talked to Gary about the labors of both Hercules and himself.