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Independence Day Special

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2011-07-02T00:23:03-05:00

It's been nearly 228 years since Fin Button, Jeannot Botolph, and the ragged crews of the Rattlesnake and the Esprit de la Mer helped bring an end to the American Revolution. I visited Ebenezer, Georgia last month to pay my respects and I'm happy to report that the church that Peter built is still standing. The oldest continuous congregation in the country still meets there every Sunday.

I gave a couple of copies of The Fiddler's Gun and Fiddler's Green to the Georgia Salzburger Society, the descendants of the immigrants who settled the town, and as I drove away I broke into a sweat at the thought of those people, so intimately familiar with the area's history, cracking my book open and reading it. After all, I'd rearranged dates to fit my needs, I'd renamed important town characters to suit my ear, I'd even sent pirates to pillage their church. These folks might end up really angry with me. I hope not, though. I hope they see through all that and recognize that I was trying to honor their legacy in my own small, and no doubt flawed, way.

The books are also my humble ode to the great, audacious, and unlikely heroes that attended the birth of our country. So in celebration of Independence Day, they are just $7.00 each (for a limited time) in the Rabbit Room store, or you can buy the Fin's Revolution Bundle (both books) for $12.00.

If you're ever in the Savannah area, drive up the road and visit Ebenezer and the orphanage museum. Raise a toast to independence. And tell them Fin Button sent you.

Ben Franklin's Pirate Fleet

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2011-04-13T13:29:14-05:00

When I wrote Ben Franklin into Fiddler’s Green and implied his involvement in Fin Button’s adventures, I had no idea that it would turn out to be true. But the National Geographic Channel aired a documentary last week suggesting just that. It seems Mr. Franklin employed a veritable fleet of pirates and privateers, often with the specific intent of freeing captive American sailors. I nearly fainted when I read that because it seems lifted right out of the pages of the book. Amazing.

Could the Revolutionary War era privateer being excavated in the show be the Rattlesnake? Alas, I don’t have cable TV so I didn’t get a chance to watch it and find out for myself. Here’s hoping that the episode will find its way to Netflix soon.

Check out the details here.

Dawn Marie Reviews Fiddler's Green

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2011-03-18T14:13:00-05:00

Famed literary critic Dawn Marie only reviews about one book each year. She’s a busy woman, but when she reviews, people listen. She’s like Oprah--without the free cars. I consider it a distinct honor that her most recent selection is Fiddler’s Green. Watch her review. Be moved.

Now Available: The Fiddler's Gun (Second Edition)

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2011-03-12T13:46:14-06:00

Back in December, the demand for The Fiddler’s Gun was a lot bigger than I expected and the book sold out completely right as Fiddler’s Green was hitting the bookshelves. That’s a good problem to have, but it’s difficult to sell the second book in a series when the first is no longer available. Yikes! So for the past couple of months I’ve been scrambling to get an improved second edition off to the printer.

Good news! The books came in today and they’ve now been shipped out to the distributor. If you ordered from the Rabbit Room store, your book is already in the mail.

So the question everyone has been asking is this: “What’s new in the second edition?” . . .

Now Available: Fiddler's Green

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-11-29T18:04:35-06:00

Fiddler’s Green is now in stock and shipping from the Rabbit Room store. I couldn’t be more pleased with the final product. It looks, feels, and smells fantastic and I can’t wait for readers to open it up and trip through its pages. I’ve signed about 400 copies in the last 24 hours and they’re being shipped out to patrons across the country (the world even). Until my hand wears out, all orders from the Rabbit Room will be signed. Get yours before the carpal tunnel syndrome sets in.

If you haven’t read The Fiddler’s Gun yet, check out the Fin’s Revolution Bundle that includes both books plus a digital version of The Fiddler’s Gun: Letters.

If you’d like to read it with your book club check out the special bulk pricing of the Fin’s Revolution Book Club Bundle (includes 10 copies of both books plus the digital version of The Fiddler’s Gun: Letters, custom bookmarks, and discussion guides) or the Fiddler’s Green Book Club Bundle (10 copies, custom bookmarks, and discussion guide.)

If you’re just looking for a few to give as gifts this Christmas, there’s also a Fiddler’s Green gift pack available (5 copies).

The book will be available to bookstores nationwide on December 7th and Amazon will start shipping theirs around December 15th. If you want it sooner (and signed), the Rabbit Room is the only option (and my preference, of course, since artists make much more from Rabbit Room purchases than they do anywhere else.)

I hope you all enjoy the book. Merry Christmas! . . .

A Weekend in Kentucky

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-11-21T16:56:48-06:00

Last weekend, as part of the Authors in the Schools program of the Kentucky Book Fair, I had the pleasure of visiting Elkhorn Middle School to talk to their eighth grade students about reading, writing, and storytelling. After reading a chapter from the book we had a delightful discussion about the creative process and the reasons why we read and write. It was a real pleasure to meet and speak with the students and I was pleasantly surprised by the insight they brought to the conversation. When asked why we read fiction, one boy answered, “Because even though the stuff that happens might be fake, there’s still something true about it if it’s a good book.” That’s one smart 8th grader.

The day after, I had the honor of being one of the authors hosted by the Kentucky Book Fair and had the opportunity to meet and talk with readers from across the state. I shared a table with two young adult authors, Emily Ecton and Jessica Verday, and spent the day signing books, regretting that I can’t actually play the fiddle I made, and trying to find my car keys which were lost for most of the afternoon. It was a lot of fun and meeting Emily and Jessica was delightful.

I love talking to kids about storytelling so if you’d like to set up a school visit in your area, please get in touch with me so we can work out the details. I’d love to come . . .

Pre-Order Fiddler's Green

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-11-08T17:41:46-06:00

The presses are rolling, the binders are binding, the box-packers are box-packing, the--you get the idea. The good news is that the wait is almost over. Fiddler’s Green is on the way. The books will be delivered next week and the Rabbit Room store will begin shipping them out to patrons immediately.

If you missed the chance to become a patron, never fear, pre-sales are now open and will begin shipping out after the Thanksgiving holiday. The book will be available December 7th from Amazon and bookstores nationwide. Bookstores are unlikely to stock it unless you ask for it, though, so don’t be shy, let them know you want to see it on the shelves.

And just in case you’re not convinced, read what Sarah Clarkson, author of Read for the Heart had to say about the book. Then head over to the Rabbit Room store and secure yourself a copy.

“Fiddler's Green is the sort of story that sated all my desires as a reader. I wanted adventure, and the fiery Fin Button and her intrepid crew whisked me away on an impossible quest. I wanted keenly described, colorful lands full of adventure, and this tale sails into foreign ports and castles, follows knights and pirates from dungeon to high sea battle. Most of all, I wanted the sort of story that would sail me deep into the regions of the soul, and this tale took me right there, filling my heart with the haunting music of the Fiddler's Green. With Fin, I was invited into a beauty that offered a glimpse of redemption, and a step down the road that will take me home. Keen in insight and imagination, redemptive, and epic in scope, Fiddler's Green is a book to be savored again and again.” . . .

The Stephens Hill Horror

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-10-31T15:45:33-05:00

Author's Note: I've always been a fan of H.P. Lovecraft. I love his weird words and the strange way he's able to evoke things that are both awe-inspiring and horrific at the same time. His stories, even the bad ones and those that are merely repeats of others, stick in my mind for days after I read them partly because he never lets the reader see everything, he leaves you with glimpses, impressions, reactions. You have to let your mind fill in the blanks and what your own mind comes up with is often more disturbing than anything he could have written.

When I decided to write a 'ghost story' about my brother's house and its location on Stephens Hill I succumbed to my desire to write in the style of Lovecraft. Anyone who's a fan will recognize the structure, word choices, and even a certain (slightly altered) name. As much as I like the way the story turned out, it's so clearly Lovecraftian that I can't really claim it as my own and prefer to think of it as an homage to a master of the genre.

--The Stephens Hill Horror--

. . .

Join the Revolution

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-10-10T21:32:40-05:00

Fiddler’s Green is the end of a story that began a long time ago with a map and a buried treasure. You may recall that I buried my family's Christmas presents in the woods one year, giving out maps so they could find them, and how that was the genesis of the idea for The Fiddler's Gun. But that's not the map I'm talking about. The real map was nothing more than a faint outline in the mind's eye. It was a fleeting vision of a young woman--an American revolutionary named Fin Button.

Over the last ten years, I've trusted Fin's lead and followed her into some strange and wonderful places. I tried my best to keep up and she always kept a few steps ahead, always confident that she knew just where she was going. And like any good map should, she beckoned me toward a fair and hidden place and bade me dig.

I spent most of this year digging, not with a spade but with words. And now that the treasure chest, Fin's story, has been unearthed, and dusted off, and carried out of the wilderness, I'm honored to announce that it's time to start handing out keys so you can all see what's inside. . .

Ban The Fiddler's Gun

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-09-29T10:57:19-05:00

[Note: September 25 - October 2 is Banned Books Week]

Some ten or fifteen years ago, I called home to see how my parents were getting along and Dad told me the town was in an uproar over a book called The Giver. There was a movement afoot to have the book banned in the school system and as one of the little town’s most respected preachers, he’d been called to appear before the school board to deliver his own arguments on whether or not the book ought to be left on the shelves.

Now, having grown up in this town and having had to defend myself regularly from such questions as “Why you always readin’ them books?” and “Them books got good pictures?”, I have to admit that I was a bit shocked to learn that someone else was actually reading. The fact that they had then decided to ban the book was far less surprising to me.

Then it occurred to me that I didn’t know which side of the issue my dad would be arguing for. I had suspicions, though. My parents are great people in a million ways but when I was growing up, they were incredibly suspicious of secular culture. We weren’t even allowed to listen to Christian rock music because there was an outside chance that Petra was as evil as Journey. I’m not kidding. They did come around as we got older (Beat the System was the first vinyl I ever bought), but when I heard about this book-banning business I instantly relived those old suspicious days and my hackles went up. . .

Perfected in Weakness

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-11-02T14:12:41-05:00

(Note: This is adapted from my portion of the "Perfected in Weakness" session at Hutchmoot 2010.)

It's popular in our culture to think that we are defined by our strengths. If you go to a job interview, what do they ask you? They want to know what your strengths are, right? If someone wants to describe who they are or what they do, what do they say? They rattle off a list of strengths. I graduated from MIT. I work for NASA. I've been married for 12 years and have four kids. I hold the world record at Donkey Kong. We play up the things we're proud of or those things we think make us valuable in the eyes of others.

We don't mention our weaknesses. We downplay them. We hide them. I think we're trained to hide them for most of our lives. And in some measure, it's rightly so. It would be a depressing world if we described one another by our weaknesses, wouldn't it? Hi, my name is Pete Peterson and I'm lazy. I can't do math. I judge people before I know them. I secretly think I'm better than everyone else and my love of sweet tea and sandwiches is probably killing me . . .

Fiddler's Green: Advance Review Copies

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-09-19T13:47:59-05:00

A while back I offered to give an Advance Review Copy (ARC) of Fiddler’s Green to anyone who sent me a picture of themselves posed with The Fiddler’s Gun stocked in their local bookstore. I probably should have put a cut-off day on that offer but since I didn’t, Debi sniffed it out and got her picture sent in last week so I’m adding her to the list. Congrats, Debi.

My thanks to all of you who told your local bookseller how much you loved the book and bribed them to stock it. I hope you’ll do the same for Fiddler’s Green this December. It’s people like you that have made the book such a success and I’m grateful. Word of mouth is the best advertising a book can have.

I’m officially closing the door on the free ARC copies, though. The rest of you will just have to wait until the release date. If you sent in a picture, be patient, I’ll be shipping your copies once editing is complete, probably sometime in the next month. I hope you’ll stop by here and let everyone know what you think after you’ve read it. . .

Fiddler's Green - Wordle

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-09-14T12:04:43-05:00

Everyone knows what Wordle is, right?

It’s a fun little website that creates a word cloud out of whatever text you feed into it, making words that occur the most often the largest. I thought it would be fun to feed it the entire manuscript of Fiddler’s Green. So I did.

Independent Publishing: Part Two

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-09-16T16:41:03-05:00

You don’t have to spend much time around the publishing world to hear the term Print-on-Demand (POD). It’s a process in which books are digitally printed as they are purchased rather than printed in bulk and stored until sold. For a publisher who only intends to sell a few copies it’s a convenient option. That convenience comes at a price, though. The quality of POD a book is notably sub-par offering very few options for paper color, paper weight, cover stock, cover coating, size, etc. And on top of this lack of creative flexibility, a POD book will often cost as much as $10-15 to print leaving very little margin for an author or publisher to make a living.

From the inception of the Rabbit Room Press, it was pretty clear that Print-on-Demand wasn’t the direction we wanted to go. I think it’s incredibly important that the physical book be as well-conceived and well-designed as the writing on its pages. I want to create things that are as beautiful to hold and look at as they are to read. That’s something I couldn’t achieve with current POD technology. . .

Memory of a Midnight Sea

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-09-13T11:55:25-05:00

Last week you may have seen this news story pop up:

USS Dubuque Seizes Ship Captured by Pirates

You can probably imagine my interest in the report but my association goes deeper than simply being an author who writes about pirates. Almost twenty years ago, you see, I was U.S. Marine Sergeant “Pete” Peterson and I served on the USS Dubuque for a while.

Luckily, the time I spent on the De Puke (as we called it) was almost entirely taken up by sleeping, playing Spades, and reading Michael Crichton novels rather than fighting pirates or saving the free world. I remember a tattered copy of Jurassic Park making the rounds from jarhead to jarhead throughout the berthing area and it ignited all sorts of lively debate about how well Steven Spielberg had (or hadn’t) interpreted it. Crichton was considered high literature to us in those days. If I remember correctly, a copy of Congo was being passed along not far behind it.

This was in the early to mid-90’s and there seemed to be a new war or conflict springing up every other week. Young as we were, we were anxious for pirates to fight, or an embassy to evacuate, or a “peacekeeping mission” to join. Day after day, we’d run through our drills and study our battle plans and then we’d stand outside the hatch at night smoking our cigarettes as the sea rolled past . . .

Independent Publishing: Part One

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-09-07T14:38:10-05:00

One question I'm asked all the time is: "Why do you publish your books independently?" I wrote a few posts about this last year but with the new book in production (and a lot of new readers) I think it's worth revisiting.

The primary factor in the original decision was the problem of genre. If you've read The Fiddler's Gun, think about it for a minute. What genre would you put it in? Young Adult? Historical? Adventure? Literary? Women's Fiction? Is it a book for boys? For girls? Is it Christian fiction?

See what I mean? You're probably thinking, wait a minute, it's all those things, it's a book for everyone. But from the standpoint of a publisher whose job is to market and sell books, that poses a big problem. For instance, what shelf would you say The Fiddler's Gun belongs on in the bookstore? . . .

New Book, New Site, New Artwork

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-09-05T14:54:32-05:00

Now that there’s a new book on the way, I thought it was only fitting (and necessary) to revamp the website. Take a look around and be sure to check out the Fiddler’s Green page where you’ll find the newly unveiled synopsis of the book.

The manuscript itself is going through its third round of edits and an early review draft has been sent out to a chosen few for feedback and the option of providing endorsements for marketing purposes.

In other news, Evie Coates and I have been meeting for the past couple of weeks to talk up the new cover design and the work she’s done so far is fantastic (see the end of this post for a peek.) She’s finished most of the border that frames the cover (like the first book) and it’s almost as if she reached right into my brian and pulled out exactly what I’d been imagining. . .

Memoir of an Ending

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-09-04T20:10:36-05:00

I spent a number stressful days last week trying to write the last chapters of the next (and final) installment of the Fin’s Revolution tale: Fiddler’s Green. I’d put off those chapters for a long time because I needed to be patient and mull over Fin’s entire story and make sure that all the necessary events and emotions came together in just the right way. After writing all day on Saturday, I laid awake until three or four in the morning with a whirl of descending character arcs and plot resolutions spinning through my head. When I woke at seven the next morning my brain still hadn’t stopped. So I got up, got dressed, shirked church and sat in the coffee shop writing. At about 3pm on Sunday, I wrote the final sentence of Fiddler’s Green.

An ending is a strange and delicate thing. In storytelling terms its importance is equaled only by its opposite: the beginning. The bits in the middle tend to be easier to shape because they’re open ended and the writer can, in some measure, both pre- and re- form them throughout the narrative...

Faith and Fiction Roundtable: Godric

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-08-28T13:51:36-05:00

Godric by Frederick Buechner is one of my all time favorite books. In fact, I don’t think it’s too big a stretch to say it’s one of the great works of our language. It’s a thing of astonishing depth and beauty and anyone that aspires to write should make time to read it. Outside of Shakespeare or Milton, I don’t think I’ve ever read a book so meticulous in its language, so thoroughly winnowed to the kernel of meaning. Wendell Berry often talks of the writer’s craft as an economy of words; a writer’s job is to sweat over his words and spend them with thrift. And that, I think, is where Buechner’s Godric so amazes me. It’s a short book, not even a novel by current standards, yet each word is placed just so and taken as a whole they carry the weight of volumes.

I was delighted, then, to learn that Godric was this month’s Faith and Fiction Roundtable selection (hosted by My Friend Amy). Each month a small circle of bloggers are selected to read the month’s book and discuss it. A portion of the discussion is then posted on each blog and links are provided to the rest of the conversation. It was a pleasure to discuss one of my favorite books with these folks and I hope you’ll visit each of their sites and maybe even join in the conversation yourself. If nothing else, I hope you’re moved to read one of the great novels of the 20th century.

This month’s Faith and Fiction Roundtable is:

Unfinished Person
My Random Thoughts
The Fiddler's Gun
Shelf Love
Book Addiction
Books and Movies
Wordlily
My Friend Amy

Pete: I love the idea that Reginald's perspective is God's perspective, God's re-write via the lens of Christ. I'd always looked at it as a depiction of the church's white-wash of history (which seems to be the way Godric himself sees it), but I have a feeling your insight is much more in line with Buechner's intent. Thanks for showing me that.

I can't wait to read this book again. Sadly, it's one of those that I never seem to have my own copy of because I'm continually giving them away to someone who hasn't yet read it.

Spit and Polish

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-07-26T13:49:49-05:00

For the past few months I’ve spent time writing Fiddler’s Green nearly every day. I like to plant myself in the back corner of Pantera Bread (because it rocks), or my neighborhood Starbucks (where they know my name and give me free stuff), or the burrito shop down the road (chips and fruit tea all day long) and once I’ve settled in with something tasty to eat or drink or both, I crack open the Macbook and get to work. Some days it might be an hour, others it might be six or more. And there’s a lot of hand-wringing going on because now that The Fiddler’s Gun is in readers’ hands, expectations have been whetted for the next book and the conclusion has got to satisfy.

I’m humbled by how emotionally invested many readers have become with Fin and her story and I don’t want to let anyone down. So the writing has been a meticulous process of trying to make sure that everything is firing in just the right direction in order to complete the story arc and deliver the emotional impact that I’ve been imagining in my dreams for over a decade. It’s worrisome work at times. And wonderful...

The Chameleon

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-06-16T13:44:49-05:00

There’s an aspect of writing that I often struggle with in which I find that my own style is reshaped by whatever or whomever I happen to be reading at the time. I’ll write a passage one day and when I peruse it the next I’ll discover that, like the skin of a chameleon, it’s taken on the rhythm, structure, or vocabulary of someone else.

For instance, I began writing The Fiddler’s Gun almost immediately after reading Frederick Buechner’s Godric and in the end I had to completely rewrite the first few chapters because they had the same archaic and often yoda-like sentence structure as Godric. It was fun to write but it certainly didn’t fit the tone of the book. It wasn’t really my writing–I was parroting, riffing off of a better author. I find that this sort of thing happens to me all the time and often wonder where the line is between influence and imitation...

Faith and Fiction Round Table: Peace Like a River

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-06-06T13:39:47-05:00

It was a pleasure to again participate in the Faith and Fiction Roundtable with a number of other websites and bloggers. This month the subject was Leif Enger’s beautiful novel Peace Like a River (one of my favorites). The discussion is divided up among the different participating websites and blogs. Be sure to work your way around the ‘table’ to read the entire discussion.

My Friend Amy--Introduction
Devourer of Books--Expectations
Wordlily--General Impressions
A Lovely Shore Breeze--Davy Part 1
The Fiddler's Gun--Davy Part 2
Melanie's Musings--Other Characters

Davy Part 2

Hannah: This conversation about Davy (Amy, Caite) is reminding me of Bones. I've been re-viewing the show via Netflix Watch Instantly, and I'm seeing parallels between Reuben's feelings toward Davy and his situation and Brennan's feelings about her father's situation during his murder trial. Sure, she knows he's acted wrongly and deserves to be punished. But that doesn't eliminate her sorrow over the thought that her father might be taken away from her again, as Amy said. There's more to it, but the words are only coming in a jumble right now. I think another piece of this is that in the beginning of the book, Reuben's perspective is that of a child, very absolute, his big brother can do no wrong. Sure, between the lines we see he's troubled and probably not headed down the best path, but I still see him, at least a little bit, through Reuben's black and white eyes.

Melanie: Since we see Davy through Reuben's eyes, he seems...

Digital Release of The Fiddler's Gun: Letters

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-05-21T13:36:09-05:00

I know a lot of folks were disappointed that The Fiddler’s Gun: Letters was kept to a print run of only 100 copies. To be honest, I didn’t expect to enjoy the project as much as I did. It took on a life of its own during the writing, providing a couple of fun story arcs and what was, for me as a writer, an enjoyable way of getting to learn more about my characters and explore their lives in ways that didn’t make sense within the context of the novel. What I was left with in the end was a little book that I really loved but had, unfortunately, committed to a limited printing of only a hundred. Well, I told myself, I’ll release the digital version a little later and folks can read it that way.

One of my prime complaints against digital books, however, is that they require a certain sterility of design due to the limitations of the software and hardware that they are read on. It is true that the final worth of a book is found in its writing, in its words, and that’s not something that’s significantly altered by a font or a page margin. I really felt though, that part of the charm of The Fiddler’s Gun: Letters was in its design...

A Voyage on Stranger Seas

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-05-19T13:06:46-05:00

Thanks to all of the readers out there telling your friends about the book. You are the reason The Fiddler’s Gun has been such a success. But don’t stop! Let your local bookstores (especially independent bookstores ) know that if they aren’t stocking The Fiddler’s Gun then they are, as a reader told me lately, ‘missing the boat’.

And remember, if you send me a picture of yourself posing next to the book stocked on the shelf in your local store, you’ll get a free advanced reading copy of The Fiddler’s Green later this year.

Speaking of The Fiddler’s Green, it’s almost finished. Just a few days ago I sent Part I: A Voyage to Stranger Seas to my editor. While she’s going through it, I’m finishing up the last few chapters of the second half of the manuscript. I think it’s shaping up to be...

Hutchmoot 2010

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-05-12T23:01:44-05:00

After a lot of planning and hand-wringing by members of the Rabbit Room team, we’ve finally unveiled what we hope will be a meaningful event for years to come. It will take place on August 6-8th this year and we’ve christened it, the Hutchmoot. The goal is to provide a weekend of conversation, community, tasty food, good music, and great literature.

I’m excited to be a part of a session called “Perfected in Weakness” along with two wonderfully insightful writers, S.D. Smith and Travis Prinzi. We’ll be talking about literary themes of triumph through weakness and humility and I’m confident that it’ll provide folks with some good meat to chew on. Recommended reading for the session is the work of Walt Wangerin and J.R.R. Tolkien. I’m pretty sure there are some applicable angles in The Fiddler’s Gun as well.

The part of the weekend that I’m most excited about, however, is our special guest and keynote speaker, Walt Wangerin, Jr.

In my mind, meeting and hearing Walt Wangerin, Jr. speak is tantamount to meeting J.R.R. Tolkien or C.S. Lewis in the flesh. Wangerin’s work has been a giant inspiration to me. His National Book Award-winning The Book of the Dun Cow is one of my favorite books of all time, as is its sequel The Book of Sorrows. Wangerin is a master of elegant prose and complex character, and he’s a diligent miner of deep spiritual truth through imaginative fiction.

If you’re coming to Hutchmoot 2010, I look forward to seeing you there.

Visiting the Battle Ground Academy

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-04-26T20:21:35-05:00

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of speaking to a group of students at the Battle Ground Academy in Franklin, Tennessee. It was an honor to be able to talk with them about both The Fiddler’s Gun and the challenges of creative writing. I often worry that the generation coming up has abandoned the joys of reading and writing but the students I met were an inspiring surprise. They reminded me that the precious creative spark, though sometimes dim and lost among the ashes, is kindled yet and smoldering. I don’t know that there’s any greater joy an author can experience than to see the sparkle in eyes of his readers and my thanks goes out to the Battle Ground Academy for allowing me to see it in their students. If you or a school in your area are interested in hosting an event, contact me for details.

Bookstores Near You

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-04-18T14:25:28-05:00

The Fiddler’s Gun is finding its way into bookstores around the country thanks to a lot of you kind readers. Keep up the great work.
Here’s a picture of Matt at the Stately Raven Bookstore in Findlay, Ohio:

And another of Paula at The Book Place in Tulsa, Oklahoma:

They’ll both be receiving advanced reader copies of Fiddler’s Green later this year. If you want to get your hands on it early as well, talk to your local bookstores, get them to order a copy (or 8) and then send me a picture. Thanks for reading!

Spread the Word

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-04-06T16:19:06-05:00

The Fiddler’s Gun is now available to bookstores nationwide. Until now, distribution has been limited to the Rabbit Room Store (still the preferred sales point) and Amazon, but now that Rabbit Room Press is distributing through Ingram Book Company, stores all over the country have the option to stock the book.

That’s good news...

But...

Bookstores need to know about the book and know why they should stock it. They won’t order it if they don’t know it’s out there. So if you’ve read the book, I’ve got a mission for you. Get out there and tell your favorite local bookseller. In fact, don’t just tell them to stock it, insist! And don’t stop there, help them sell it too.

To encourage you to do just that, I’ll offer you a reward. Send me a photograph of The Fiddler’s Gun prominently displayed, cover out (instead of spine out) on the shelf at your local bookstore and I’ll add your name to the advanced reader list for Fiddler’s Green. That means that you’ll receive a free advance review copy a couple of months earlier than the rest of the world. How ‘bout them apples? Extra points if you include a picture of yourself posing with the book in the store.

Book Clubs and School Visits

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-03-30T16:51:56-05:00

Kate and Amy’s Book Club will start their discussion of The Fiddler’s Gun in two weeks. If you haven’t read it yet, there’s still time to get started. For full details, including how to get a copy for a rock bottom price, see my previous post here.

In a little over a week I’ll be visiting the Battle Ground Academy in Franklin, Tennessee to talk to students about both the book itself and writing in general. The art of storytelling is something that’s near and dear to my soul and I look forward to sharing some of that passion with students. If you’re a librarian or teacher and you’re interested in hosting a similar event at your school, contact me and we’ll set up the details.

In other news...

Faith’n'Fiction Roundtable

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-03-27T15:45:53-05:00

This month I participated in the Faith ’n Fiction Roundtable discussion of Tobias Wolff’s In the Garden of North American Martyrs, a collection of short stories. Wolff is an incredibly perceptive writer. Throughout the collection he deftly draws an array of characters that are complex, interesting and often mystifying. The conversation is moderated by book blogger My Friend Amy and different parts of the discussion can be found by visiting the blogs of the other participants.

The Quirky Redhead
My Friend Amy
Strange Culture
Stuck-In-A-Book
Rebelling Against Indifference
Wordlily

I hope you’ll read along and join in the conversation...

Amazon Breakthrough Novel

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-03-24T15:43:59-05:00

A few months ago I entered The Fiddler’s Gun in the competition for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. There were initially 5000 entrants in my category (Young Adult) and last month I learned that the book made the first cut and was in the top 1000. That was fun and a bit encouraging but I didn’t give it too much weight because the top 1000 is still so far from anything remotely remarkable that it wasn’t worth bothering over.

Yesterday they announced the books that have moved into the Quarterfinals (top 250) and I was much more excited to learn that The Fiddler’s Gun made this cut. The judges based their decisions on the first three chapters and you can click here for their critiques and download the chapters and read them for yourself (and leave your own review.)...

No Man's Land

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-03-23T16:22:49-05:00

The gnome has been faithful these last few weeks. My writing goal is 1000 words a day, a number that I find is just right for me. It’s a small enough number that I can squeeze the words out when they aren’t flowing and still feel like I’ve accomplished something, and it’s also big enough that the feeling isn’t trivial. I also find that it’s a small enough goal to leave me feeling really positive on the good days when the story is coming easy and I’m able to put out 1500 or 2000 words at a clip. Thankfully, there have been a lot of those good days lately.

I’m in a part of the story right now that has never been crystal clear in my mind...

Through the Creator's Eyes

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-03-18T12:57:43-05:00

My creative engine is a stubborn thing. Much like my poor motorcycle (Mr. Miyagi), if it sits too long, going unused and ignored, it takes a significant investment of work to get it back into shape. In Mr. Miyagi's case, he needed a new battery and a lot of elbow grease. My writing muscle, however, needed me to plant my butt in a chair and crank the gears by hand for a while. And let me tell you, when the gears are rusty, they don't like to be cranked.

Thankfully, things are running smoothly now. I'm hitting and exceeding my writing goals almost everyday and Fiddler's Green is a real joy to be writing. In an earlier post I wrote this of the writing of the book...

Join the Club!

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-03-10T18:31:02-06:00

Great news!

Ubiquitous book blogger Amy, of the My Friend Amy blog and the decidedly quirky Kate of The Quirky Redhead blog have joined forces to launch what will probably be recorded in history books as “the most quirky and friendly facebook book club in the history of quirky, friendly facebookery.”

I intend to write these history books. So you can’t say it won’t happen.

Further proof that this collaboration is founded in fine good sense is their choice of The Fiddler’s Gun as their launch title. I have it on good authority that Kate has even acquired a number of copies that she’s mailing out to members for a well-nigh unbelievable low price. If you are reading this, and you haven’t read the book then straightaway you’d best join the action, get your copy, and enjoy the coming discussion. Don’t worry, the discussion proper won’t start until April 15th so you’ve still got time to get your nose into the book, download the discussion guide, and formulate your opinions.

If you have read the book. Thank you, you are my hero. And as a good and proper hero I’m sure that you are at this very moment zeroing in on the link below with your mouse, dutifully intent on joining the fun. If nothing else, drop by and let others know what you thought of Fin and her story.

Hope to see you there. Here’s the link:

Kate and Amy’s Facebook Book Club

Video Review

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-02-17T17:18:00-06:00

Janna Barber is a regular guest contributor at The Rabbit Room and she was a bit skeptical about reading The Fiddler’s Gun. Find out what she thought in the end. Here’s her video review.

If you have trouble viewing the review, you can click here to watch it at YouTube.com.

Read the Reviews

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-02-16T16:54:22-06:00

I’ve added a page to the site for reviews (you’ll find it in the sidebar right under “About the Book” ). Go browse through them and see what readers are saying about The Fiddler’s Gun. If you’ve reviewed the book and don’t see yours listed, let me know and I’ll be happy to add it.

I need you readers out there to help spread the word. If you’re interested in writing a review for your website or know of a review site that you think would enjoy the book, get in touch with me via the contact page. Don’t be shy.

Even if you don’t have a website, you can still help. At the bottom of the “Read the Reviews” page you’ll find the opportunity to leave your own review in the comments. Make it as long or as short as you like. And don’t forget to leave a review at Amazon.com or Goodreads as well. But don’t forget that the best reviews of all are those you give to friends over dinner or a hot cup of coffee. If you’ve enjoyed the book, don’t keep it to yourself, let people know.

Thanks for reading and thanks for reviewing.

Feeding the Gnome

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-02-14T13:42:32-06:00

In Stephen King’s book On Writing, he refers to the creative force behind his work as the little gnome that he keeps in the basement. When King sits down to write, the gnome, if he’s been treated well, passes his stories up through the cracks in the floorboards and, a page at a time, a book begins to take shape.

If you haven’t read On Writing, you should. It’s a great book, both a memoir and a manual. One of the most enduring things that I took away from it was this concept of the gnome in the basement, a grimy little guy down there in the dark that’s slaving away at all hours, stockpiling his little tales, and essays, and notes so that when the lazy tenant upstairs comes knocking, he’s got something to offer up. The key to the keeping of the gnome is that the little guy needs to be well-kept.

If I fatten my gnome on junk food and reality TV, guess what...

Finding Critcism (II)

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-02-06T15:50:43-06:00

In the last couple of months I’ve been asked by several people how I go about finding criticism. I’ve talked a bit about this before and you can read my previous post on it by clicking this link. But here I want to discuss an angle of the subject that I didn’t cover in that post: online criticism.

When I first began my revisions of The Fiddler’s Gun, I dabbled in a few online critique groups and systems and they weren’t completely without benefit. The process usually consisted of posting a chapter or an excerpt and then sitting back to let anonymous people tear into it. While it certainly did open my eyes to a few issues, the greater lesson I learned from it was that criticism by strangers is only useful to a point; it has a glass ceiling. The ceiling exists at the point that your prose is more or less grammatically correct, properly formatted, devoid of easy cliches, and doing a good job of showing, not telling.

This ceiling marks the place where an acceptable mastery of the objective nuts-and-bolts craft of writing has been achieved and your work as a whole begins to hinge more clearly on the subjective art of storytelling. Any anonymous internet person can point out why your subject and verb don’t agree but in order for someone’s artistic opinion of your use of pace, symbolism, voice, or rhythm to mean much, you’ve got to understand where they are coming from. That’s not always easy to do via the internet.

Here’s an example...

Looking for Librarians

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-02-06T15:23:07-06:00

I’ve had a strong, positive response from librarians that have read The Fiddler’s Gun and I’d really like to have it placed on the Accelerated Reader list for schools that participate in the program. In order to make the list, the book needs to be recommended by verifiable librarians and schools.

If you are a librarian or a teacher I’d like to send you a free copy of The Fiddler’s Gun to consider for a recommendation to the Accelerated Reader program. You can contact me by clicking here. Please include the school’s shipping address so I can mail it to you there.

If you’ve already read The Fiddler’s Gun, you can follow this link to enter your recommendation for inclusion in the AR list.

If you’d like to set up an author visit to discuss the book at your school, I’d love to work with you. Contact me so we can work out a date, schedule, and format that works best for you and your students.

The Long Road Ahead

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-01-30T13:42:11-06:00

The last couple of months have been incredibly busy for me. The release of The Fiddler’s Gun and the Christmas season at the Rabbit Room kept me ragged and tired for the month of December and January was filled with the rigors and long hours of my ‘day job’ where I’m away from home and often too tired at the end of the day to get my mind in the right place for serious writing.

With the arrival of February, there’s an end in sight. I’ll be back home in Nashville soon and hope to have a few weeks, if not a month or so, to really buckle down get some work done. Fiddler’s Green, currently at around 50,000 words, is about half-written. With my typical writing goal of 1000-1500 words a day that means I’ve still got well-over a month of non-stop, butt-in-chair work to do just to get it all down and ready for rewrites, revisions, and edits. My hope is to put it in your hands by Christmas so I really need to get busy and I might have to bump that word goal up into the 2000 neighborhood.

Experience has taught me that the absolute enemy of a writer is inconsistency. Writing, and more accurately, long form prose, requires a schedule. It’s a labor that relies on a well-exercised muscle and when that muscle falls into atrophy it’s no quick task to bring it back up to operating level. For the past months, I’ve rarely put the writing muscles to use and now that I’m sitting here trying to flex them again, it shows.

The words you are reading right now are, in some ways, little more than procrastination. In other ways, however, they are the stretch before the marathon.

When I get back to Nashville, I intend to run. Time to write. And I’m looking forward to it. The road leads through some dark and beautiful country and the miles ahead may leave my feet blistered and swollen. Wish me well, Fin’s gone far astray and I’m anxious to bring her home.

Delivering Letters

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-01-30T12:48:01-06:00

I’m happy to announce that The Fiddler’s Gun: Letters has finally gone to print. I approved the proof on Friday and the presses are rolling. The book is a collection of sixteen letters and other documents that detail some of the further adventures of Fin Button during the course of the events recounted in The Fiddler’s Gun.

If you followed the “Letters to Peter” feature on the site, some of this material will be familiar to you but it has now been edited, expanded, and bound in one volume. Who is Wilberforce Octavian Albemarle III? What is the mystery of the Boot Snuffler? And what is the Baker’s Grail? These letters hold the answers.

Also, included is a sneak peek at an excerpt from Fiddler’s Green.

This special companion to The Fiddler’s Gun is being printed in a limited run of 100 signed and numbered copies. Each of my Tier 2 Patrons will receive their copy in the mail, free of charge. The remainder will be for sale, exclusively at the Rabbit Room store and when they’re gone, they are gone forever (though I do hope to make a digital version available at a later date.)

Here’s a look at the introduction...

The Puckerbrush Book Club

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-01-25T18:28:41-06:00

The Puckerbrush Blog and Online Book Club is getting ready to read The Fiddler’s Gun. If you haven’t read it yet, visit the site and find out how you can purchase a copy at the special book club price. If you’ve already read the book, you are still welcome to join in and participate in the discussion. Participants will each receive the special bookmarks and digital copies of The Fiddler’s Gun: Letters included in the Book Club package. Be sure to download the Discussion Guide as well.

I’m looking forward to engaging with the club once they’ve finished the book.

Click here to join.

Book Club Package

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-01-17T14:59:44-06:00

Quite a few readers have mentioned that they would love to introduce The Fiddler’s Gun to their book clubs so I’ve put together a package for any club that’s interested. If you think The Fiddler’s Gun might be right for your group, contact me and tell me a little about the club (including your website if you have one), and I’ll send you a free review copy (limit one per club).

Here’s the rest of the package I’ve put together:

Discount pricing - Book Club Bundles in quantities of 5 ($10 ea.) and 10 ($8 ea.) are already available from the Rabbit Room Store but if you have members that aren’t local we can set up a specially discounted purchasing plan just for your club so that each member can order the book individually at the discounted price.
The Fiddler’s Gun: Letters - This special companion to the novel is being printed in a limited edition of 100 signed and numbered copies. But book clubs reading The Fiddler’s Gun will receive the digital version for free to distribute to their members.
Custom Bookmarks - Once the books have been purchased for your club, you’ll also receive a package of The Fiddler’s Gun bookmarks specially printed with the name of your club.
Discussion Guide - Once you’ve read the book, the discussion guide is available for download by clicking here.
Author Participation - Interested in a Q&A chat session, an interview, or participation on your website? Just contact me by clicking here and let me know what works best for you. I’ll do my best to accommodate whatever will serve your club the best.

If you’re part of a club and have any other ideas, I’m all ears. Just drop me a line and I’ll be happy to consider your suggestions.

Now Available

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-01-13T20:30:26-06:00

I’m happy to announce that The Fiddler’s Gun is now available at Amazon.com. I’d certainly prefer that everyone bought it from the Rabbit Room Store where artists receive a 75% royalty on sales, but I suppose that not everyone is familiar with The Rabbit Room (yet) and I’ve decided to forgive them.

But wait! There’s more: Amazon.com also has the book available in Kindle format for you e-reader types (like me). You can now own The Fiddler’s Gun for your Kindle for a meager $8.99 and start reading it in less than a minute. Unfortunately, Kindle owners won’t be privy to the fine glossary of nautical terms in the printed book, nor the finely textures pages with deckled edges, nor the beautiful cover artwork by Evie Coates, nor the expertly designed interior layout. Those special touches are reserved for the real book geeks (also like me).

If you’ve already read the book, I’d be eternally grateful if you would take a minute of your time to visit the book’s Amazon.com pages and leave a customer review to let the vast internet masses know what you thought of it and why they also ought to read it without delay. Of course, if you thought it was rubbish I’d be more grateful if you lied and said otherwise. I’m not condoning lying, mind you, just nudging you toward a looser interpretation of the rating system.

Click here to post your review in the Kindle Store.

Click here to post your review in the Amazon Store.

OTEOTDSOD: Audio Book

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-01-05T21:39:49-06:00

Right now you are asking yourself, “OTEOTDSOD? That’s one heck of an acronym. What madness could it possibly abbreviate?”

Allow me to enlighten. On The Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness--possibly one of the greatest book titles of our time and certainly one of the longest and most hilariously redundant. This first book of my brother’s Wingfeather Saga is now available in audiobook version on iTunes for the ridiculously low price of $3.95. Yup, that’s eight hours of British-accented Wingfeather goodness for just four bucks!

What are you waiting for? Get ye to this link and find out why children all over America are drawing Toothy Cows, fearing Fangs of Dang, and dreaming of Booger Gruel.

Pubcast Interview

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2010-01-04T22:46:34-06:00

I did an interview last week with fellow Rabbit Room writer, Travis Prinzi. Travis is the ridiculously intelligent mind behind The Hog’s Head (.org) website where he’s dedicated his smarts to exposing the Harry Potter books for the deep and wonderful stories they are. Don’t mistake it for just another fan site, it’s much more. The Hog’s Head is Potter for scholars, Travis foremost among them. He’s also the author of Harry Potter & Imagination and Hog’s Head Conversations.

In the pubcast we talk a bit about the origins, publication, and future of The Fiddler’s Gun. Follow this link to listen.

New Review

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-12-30T08:16:11-06:00

There’s a new review of The Fiddler’s Gun up at Becky’s Book Reviews. Here’s an excerpt:

“What did I enjoy about this one? So very much! I love historical fiction. Usually. And this was no exception. A bit violent at times, yes, but what else would you expect in a sea-adventure filled with pirates?! It was exciting, compelling, hard to put down. It's anything but boring! I cared about Fin from the start. And her companions--especially Jack, Knut, and Tan--became important to me as well. The characters definitely felt human--felt flawed--which is a good thing. I would definitely recommend this one. (Especially if you enjoyed The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.)”

Check out the entire review.

Fin Button Needs Your Help

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-12-20T14:45:31-06:00

I’ve scrounged up an idea for a book trailer for The Fiddler’s Gun and I need your help to pull it off. If you’ve read the book, I need you put the ol’ webcam to use and record your own review of it. It doesn’t have to be a critical review, just tell me what you liked about it, or describe your favorite character, or a scene you enjoyed, or just tell the camera why you think people should read it. You can even read portions if you want, it doesn’t matter. Just get on camera and have fun, be expressive, go overboard, get as crazy as you like. In fact, the crazier the better (extra points to anyone that dresses up as a character.)

Then email the file to thefiddlersgun@gmail.com, or upload it somewhere that I can download it from (you cannot download video from YouTube,btw), or you can send it to me on a CD if you need to (email me for the address). Once I’ve got enough reviews I’ll add some music and

Book Club Bundles

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-12-14T05:35:48-06:00

A lot of people have asked me how they can help get the word out about The Fiddler’s Gun. The best thing you can do is to talk about it, blog about it, mention it in your twitter and facebook updates or buy a copy for a friend. A few people mentioned another option, though, and that’s Book Clubs. If you are a member of a book club, or know someone that is, that offers a great opportunity to share the book with other people.

So with that in mind, I’m offering two version of a Book Club Bundle in the Rabbit Room Store. The first is a bundle of (5) signed copies of the book at a discount off $4.00 of the cover price. The second is a bundle of (10) signed copies at a discount of $6.00 off the cover price, that’s nearly half-price. Each bundle-type comes with priority shipping.

This is also a great option for teachers of American History or Literature. If you are interested in buying for your class or your school, please get in touch with me via the contact page. I’ll be happy to work out an agreeable deal for ordering in bulk if you need more than (10).

Book Club Bundle (5)

Book Club Bundle (10)

Review at My Friend Amy

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-12-10T20:33:18-06:00

There’s a new review of The Fiddler’s Gun over at the book blog My Friend Amy. Here’s an excerpt:

“This is an adventure story and it’s a love story. There are pockets of beautiful writing that will still your heart and characters that are impossible not to feel for. And it’s also a bit of historical fiction! Truly, The Fiddler’s Gun is reading at its best.”

Click here to read the entire review.

The Fiddler's Gun: Letters

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-12-08T12:50:18-06:00

Most folks should have received their copies in the mail by now. I hope you are all cozying up in a chair by the fire and getting to know Fin, Peter, Jack, Knut and all the rest. If you’re a Tier 2 Patron, though, you might be thinking, “What about that Letters to Peter Companion book I was supposed to get!”

Never fear. It’s coming. I ran into a bit of a delay in getting them printed but they will be on their way just as soon as possible. I like to think that the delay is fortuitous in the end because the book, titled The Fiddler’s Gun: Letters, isn’t something that would be terribly informational until one has read the larger story in The Fiddler’s Gun itself. So hopefully...

The Kindle Version

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-12-07T12:22:03-06:00

Several folks have asked when The Fiddler’s Gun will be available on the Kindle. The answer: soon, very soon. I spent the weekend working on it and I thought some folks might be interested in the process.

When you create a book for print, the final digital incarnation that gets sent off to the printer is a .PDF file. A PDF displays the book precisely as it will appear in print, each page blocked off perfectly with header and footer, page numbers, the whole kit and kaboodle. What you see is what you get. In a perfect world, eBook readers would be able to display this PDF file and things would be a lot simpler.

The reality is much different...

Review at QuirkyRedhead.com

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-12-09T12:19:00-06:00

Kate Hinson at The Quirky Redhead Blog has a review up of The Fiddler’s Gun.

Here’s an excerpt:

“This book is not a light, entertaining read that you toss aside once finished and never think of again. It is so much more. There is depth, emotion and characters that you will care about. There is excitement, battles and mutiny. Though full of all these things, it also explores the simple yet universal desire to find a home, a place where you are chosen just for who you are. And that is something that anyone should understand.“

Head over to her blog and check out the whole review.

The Fiddler's Gun: Outbound!

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-11-30T16:46:15-06:00

Today an 18-wheeler pulled up and delivered a pallet load of fresh, crisp new copies of The Fiddler’s Gun. After ripping open a box I breathed a huge sigh of relief. There were no printing errors, the paper weight and color was spot on, and the rough-cut edges look great. After doing a rather longish happy-dance and passing a few out to friends, I loaded them up in the truck and brought them home.

First thing tomorrow morning I’ll be shipping the first copies out to my generous patrons and by the end of the day I hope to have filled all the pre-orders as well. I can’t wait for folks to get their hands on the book and I look forward to hearing your thoughts after reading. I hope you’ll laugh. I hope you’ll cry. I hope you’ll stay up past bedtime to read one more chapter. And when it’s over I hope you’ll trust me when I tell you that the best of Fin’s story is yet to come.

If you haven’t ordered your copy yet, they are on sale exclusively at the Rabbit Room Store.

The Fiddler's Gun Inbound

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-11-24T11:40:58-06:00

Great news! I spoke with the printer this morning and the books are being loaded onto a truck right now. They should be here by Monday at the latest which means that patron’s should have their orders by the end of next week and pre-orders will ship out right behind them.

On the other hand, there’s a bit of bad news as well. There’s going to be a short delay before the companion book,The Fiddler’s Gun: Letters, is ready to ship to my Tier 2 Patrons. Don’t worry, though, they are coming, and frankly the book will be a significant enjoyment only after you’ve read The Fiddler’s Gun anyway, so it all works out in the end, right?

It’s hard to believe this ...

Audio Book?

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-11-13T13:22:42-06:00

Now that the book is done, I've got a few things going on. The first is finishing up The Fiddler's Gun: Letters which should be off to get printed and bound before the weekend is up. The second is getting the book formatted for the Kindle, which is a giant pain in the butt bascially requiring that I undo all the meticulous typesetting and design work I did for the printed version. Then there's the matter of an audiobook.

I've been kicking around ideas for recording the audio version of The Fiddler's Gun but haven't come to any conclusions. I'd like to do something a little more interesting than just a typical recording and a CD but I feel like the perfect idea is still out there waiting for me to find it. Below are some of the options I've considered. Your input is welcome, I'm interested in hearing your comments...

The Fiddler's Gun: Letters

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-11-13T13:08:52-06:00

When I wrote The Fiddler's Gun and came to the point in the story when Fin begins writing letters home, I initially thought those letters would be part of the book, part of the main narrative. That idea didn't last long though, it slowed the story down and didn't add enough weight to justify the slackened pace. So while Fin's letters are mentioned in the book, the content of them is left to the imagination.

Later, when the book was written...

Article at Curator Magazine

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-11-21T13:06:35-06:00

Jenni Simmons at The Curator magazine recently wrote a great review and article about The Fiddler's Gun. Here's an excerpt:

“I’ve stated before that I loathe reading most accounts of history – dry textbooks, facts, and such. But the grand scope of reality, I believe, is that we dwell in history framed by a much bigger story written by One greater than us all. Great books like The Fiddler’s Gun give a lifelike voice to the historic characters on whose fictional shoulders we stand. We peer into Fin’s story through the eve and eye of The Revolutionary War. There’s her best friend Peter LaMee, her foe Sister Hilde; humor, romance, betrayal, grand ships, swearing sailors, pirates, gallows, Red Coats, Tories, and the hunger for American independence. Though within the epic framework, Fin just craves acceptance and love, to be an orphan no longer – to belong.

She has the endearing, headstrong spunk of Swede Land (Peace Like a River), which sometimes...

Rabbit Room Interview

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-11-13T13:04:10-06:00

[This is an interview I did a few weeks ago with Matt Connor for The Rabbit Room (www.rabbitroom.com).]

The Fiddler’s Gun is the first in a two-part series, a Revolutionary War tale that’s “not a children’s story,” as Peterson explains.

Here in our latest Rabbit Room interview, we go inside the independent publishing process, the story line of The Fiddler’s Gun, and the hidden classic known as Burger Wars.

Rabbit Room: What’s the timeline on the book’s release?

Pete Peterson: The official release date is December 1st, 2009. I’ll be shipping out orders to my patrons as soon as I receive the books from the printer, which should be a bit sooner.

RR: Let’s start with the basics of The Fiddler's Gun. Can you tell us the genesis of the idea? ...

Time to Pre-Order

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-11-13T12:32:11-06:00

Thanks to the support of everyone who pitched in and became a patron of The Fiddler's Gun, the book is off to the printer and the presses are rolling. I received the cover galleys in the mail a few days ago and they look fantastic. Sometime in the next couple of weeks an 18-wheeler is going to roll up and deliver a pallet loaded with crisp new books. I'm anxious for folks to get their hands on the book and finally start reading.

If you didn't get your copy through patronage, you can now pre-order through the Rabbit Room store. Order them now, before they're gone. What? I can't be optimistic?

For those that enjoy reading on their Kindles, I'm working on getting the book formatted correctly so I can upload it to Amazon for sale as an e-book. I've had a couple of folks ask about other e-book formats and I'm all for it. I've got to do some research first and learn all the ins and outs but I'd love to be able to offer it as a download from the Rabbit Room. More news on that when I know more.

In the meantime, get thee to the store and order a bunch of copies of The Fiddler's Gun to use as stocking stuffers.

Cover: Finished

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-10-26T21:54:14-05:00

After an uncountable number of hours agonizing over details, the cover for The Fiddler's Gun is finished. I printed up laser proofs and sent the files off to the printer earlier this afternoon. Thanks to Evie for the gorgeous artwork and to Brannon McAllister of Portland Studios for putting the final tweaks on the design. The result is pretty awesome.

Check out the Artwork Page for a better look.

Be a Part of the Revolution

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-10-12T18:26:08-05:00

I’ve got one final meeting with Evie Coates this week before we finalize the cover design but it’s finished enough that I’m unveiling it here publicly for the first time (you’ll have to read the rest of the post to get to it--because I’m wily).

She’s done a fabulous job of conveying the look and feel that I envisioned so many months ago when we first spoke about it. I don’t think I could possibly be happier with the final artwork and it’s a real pleasure to finally let people see it. ...

Typesetting

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-10-22T17:57:55-05:00

My eyes are about to explode. For the past weeks it seems I've done nothing more than stare at my computer screen all day. A large part of the reason for this possibly eye-exploding activity has been typesetting.

I told you a few weeks ago, that due to budgetary concerns I had decided to typeset The Fiddler's Gun myself. That's not quite as self-deluded a proposition as it sounds. I've done some print design in the past on student newspapers in college, and later teaching kids to design their own newspapers at the Florida Sheriffs Boys Ranch (we even used InDesign CS3). So choosing the do-it-yourself route wasn't quite the stretch for me that it might be for others. I hadn't ever designed a book, though, so I had a lot to learn.

The first thing I did was...

The Problem of Printing

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-10-12T18:17:05-05:00

A while back I took a tour of the Lightning Source facility in LaVergne, Tennessee hoping that I might use them as the printer for The Fiddler’s Gun. After sitting down to talk with a representative and looking at all the services and products they provide I’ve decided to go elsewhere. It came down to price and quality.

First, let’s talk about price.

It's Final!

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-10-04T15:17:30-05:00

I did another happy dance this week. The proofread is done!

I got the manuscript back from the proofreader and went through it to review the changes and was pleased to discover that they were few, far between, and all minor. So I accepted the corrections and, voila, the text of the manuscript is now finished. Complete. Hard to believe.

The next step is typesetting. I had hoped to hire a freelancer to do this for me but it was way outside of my budget. All is not lost however, I have some design background and I’m no stranger to...

A Letter Completed

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-10-04T14:33:01-05:00

You may recall that while in Amelia Island, Florida I chanced across the first page of an intriguing letter and was led to believe that the second page was in the keeping of Vanderbilt University back home in Nashville.

When I got home I tried my best to gain access to the letter in the usual ways, but despite a flurry of paperwork and formal requests, I was denied access to the university’s archives. So I was forced to take matters into my own hands. I got in touch with some contacts from the old days in the Marine Corps and called in a few favors. Thirty-six hours later, dressed in my best burgling outfit, I rappelled out of a stealth helicopter and...

Pressing Matters

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-09-23T13:06:42-05:00

I’ve mentioned a couple of times in the past that The Fiddler’s Gun will be published by the Rabbit Room Press and I know some people are wondering what that means. Let me try to shed a little light in that direction.

The book was originally intended to be released the traditional way by selling it to an established publishing house that would fund and oversee all the editing, design, marketing, and distribution. About the same time that I was going through the long process of making that happen, my brother and I began...

Cover Evolution

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-09-22T17:07:12-05:00

I had another great meeting with Evie Coates last week to talk about the cover design. She had just spent a weekend alone, in a secluded mountaintop cabin, with her mind set to the task of creating the art for The Fiddler’s Gun. I like to imagine that she was a sort of female Moses, gnarled staff in hand, solemnly ascending to the Sinai summit to contend with the Almighty and return white-haired and shiny-faced with a divinely etched book cover that would wow readers the world over. I was careful to steer clear of any golden calves while she was gone because I didn’t want her to throw the artwork at me when she came down. Also, I generally dislike being swallowed up by the earth.

This analogy is ridiculous.

So return she did, and I’ll venture to guess that...

Happy Dance

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-09-22T16:23:36-05:00

It’s been busy around here. And by “here” I mean the immediate vicinity of my personal being and not, as is evident, the website. Consider the situation remedied, though, for I’m now blessed with a complete lack of editorial obligation.

The editing is finished. I did the official happy dance this weekend (in fact, I’m doing it again right now). The story and writing are stronger than they’ve ever been and I’m deeply grateful to Kate Etue, my editor, for the fantastic job she did of pointing out things that needed fixing, passages that needed strengthening, and a thousand and one apostrophes that needed to be turned around (it’s complicated). It feels really good to be done.

The manuscript is now hurtling...

A New Letter

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-09-14T20:20:14-05:00

While traveling the northern coast of Florida and investigating the economic tendencies of rabbits and their reading habits, I found myself on Amelia Island and took the opportunity to visit their historical museum to see what I might turn up. The curator was a crusty old salt with a jaundiced eye, a severe limp, and a shortage of fresh batteries for his hearing aid. He greeted me kindly and after a lengthy explanation that involved the appearance of an ear trumpet, I finally managed to communicate to him that my interest lay chiefly in the study of 18th century letters, logbooks, and other maritime documents.

I suspect he didn’t think much of my particular interests. He repeatedly steered me toward his vast collection of fish hooks and lighthouse replicas. I would not be dissuaded, however, and at last he showed me to a tiny closet at the rear of the museum inside which were stacked a treasure of...

Developing the Cover

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-09-10T18:12:13-05:00

Yesterday I sat down in Hillsboro Village with a couple of Fat Tires and the highly sought-after visual artist Evie Coates to discuss cover design. I commissioned the art from Evie a few months ago but since then both she and I have been so busy with other things that we’ve scarcely been able to talk, much less sit down and hash out the design in proper fashion. So one of the first things on my to-do list once I got home to Nashville was to find time to get together with her and to make sure we were on the same page artistically.

Our meeting went swimmingly (no, I’d never use that word in conversation but it’s too much fun to say no to right now). We discussed colors and composition and ...

Back to Work

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-09-10T15:13:59-05:00

Zounds! It’s been a long time since we had an update around here. At last, I’m back home in Nashville and I’m ready to dive in and get back to work. The old day job has been so busy for the last month and a half that I had to put a hold on just about everything else. Thankfully, that project is over and I’m back on track. Time to write. Time to edit. Time to publish a novel. I’m excited.

The editing is roughly 3/4 done, I have a meeting this afternoon with Evie Coates, my cover artist, and I’ll be on the phone this week with the printer to hammer out those details. I hope to be deep into type setting before the month is out.

Stay tuned, I think I spotted a musty old letter tucked away in the corner that needs transcribing, and I’m fairly certain there are a couple of short stories lurking around the hard drive waiting to be dusted off.

North! Or Be Eaten!

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-08-18T21:12:41-05:00

Allow me to beg forgiveness for the lack of updates in the last couple of weeks. I haven’t had a day off in about a month and most of those days have been 10-14 hours. Things will calm down in another week or so and I’ll be back to work with regular letters to Peter, updates on the publication process, and anything else I can think of, not to mention finishing up the edit of The Fiddler’s Gun.

In the meantime, head out to your local bookstore and buy a copy of my brother’s new book, North! Or Be Eaten. Better yet, head over to the Rabbit Room store for an autographed copy and buy with the knowledge that more of your money goes to the author when you buy there than when you buy from the corporate fat cats.

The book is fantastic (as is only proper, it’s a fantasy after all) and I couldn’t be more proud of the kid brother upon whose head I used to sit and laugh.

Printing and Editing

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-08-02T22:26:42-05:00

I’ve had my hands full lately. I’m working 10-11 hours days, seven days a week at the old day job, and I’m trying to find time to edit and get a printer lined up in the few hours of the day I have left. Though it goes slowly, it goes well.

I’m about 2/3 done with my edit and so far I’m quite pleased with all the changes. There have been a few scenes added, and a few deleted, and a few trimmed down or expanded. As a whole the manuscript is far stronger now than it’s ever been and I can’t wait to get it out there so people can read it.

I’ve had discussions with a couple of printing companies and it looks like I’m going to end up going with Quebecor. They come highly recommended, I like their prices and, after inspecting a example book made to my desired specs, I’m satisfied that the final binding and printing will be a high quality product that I’ll be proud to put my name on.

The next step is to get all the paperwork filled out and set up a Rabbit Room Press account with them. Then it’ll be a matter of getting the edit finalized so typesetting can begin. I’m aiming for a December 1st release, which seems a long way off until I consider all the work I’ve got to get done in order to make that happen.

Stay tuned, I hope to get another Letter to Peter up sometime this week as well as the next chapter of The Wander Beyond

Zounds!

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-07-28T21:39:36-05:00

Today I discovered that my email program is trying to take over the world. Its first act of tyranny was to sentence incoming requests for bookmarks to the junk mail gulag. I was able to liberate only a precious few survivors. Who knows how many others have been silenced and lost?

I’m not sure how long this has been going on under my nose, so if you requested a bookmark and didn’t get it, I must humbly ask you to renew your request. The situation is now well in hand and I’m hopeful that disaster has been averted quickly and quietly enough that we can all simply forego the rioting in the streets, the burning of cars and effigies, and the senseless looting of downtown electronics stores.

Not an Update

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-07-27T19:29:43-05:00

The dreaded day job has kicked into high gear in the last couple of weeks and it isn’t going to slow down for at least another month. The upside of this is a paycheck. The downside is that I’m spending 10-12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week doing something other than writing and editing.

While I’ve managed to keep the updates on the website coming pretty regularly, I’m afraid website maintenance is starting to eat into editing time. That’s bad.

So for the next week or two, I need to focus more on the manuscript and less on daily site updates. I know, it makes me sad too. Back to business as usual once I’ve caught up on the editing.

A Hidden Letter

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-07-26T15:38:55-05:00

This weekend a friend of mine moved into a new home and one of her housewarming gifts was an antique desk fitted with an expertly hidden compartment at the back of the bottom drawer (which she expertly found). The compartment, once opened by the pressing of a series of ingenious levers and buttons, contained a single letter dated January 10th, 1776.

Research and appraisal has revealed that the desk dates to mid-19th century Savannah, Georgia. Though this is nearly a hundred years beyond the prime of Fin Button’s documented career, the letter secreted away within the desk is undoubtedly of her authorship. Why it was kept at all, and kept so secretly, we may never know, but there are clues...

Flawless Bookmarks

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-07-23T20:41:20-05:00

Now they’ve done it. The printshop has gone and printed an order of bookmarks without a single flaw. All the art is facing the correct direction, the text resolution is sharp and clear, and they smell like fresh, purply dittos. Okay, I made that last part up. But they do smell fancy and newish. I still have a few of the old “Collector’s Edition” ones if anyone missed their shot. My broker tells me their price on the open market is skyrocketing, so if anybody wants one just click over to the Free Bookmarks page and drop me your address.

The crisp new ones will be included in every order from the Rabbit Room Store. Go on a shopping spree and buy a CD, or a book, or some sheet music, or a Karmen-Ghia T-Shirt. Actually, it’s more like buying a really snazzy bookmark for $15 and getting a free CD, book, or T-Shirt with it. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is amazing.

The Future of the Printed Word

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-07-22T02:32:00-05:00

While following a link from Nathan Bransford’s blog, I found this article from The Brooklyn Rail about the future of the printed word. It’s a fascinating reflection of what I talked about in yesterday’s post. The logical evolution of the publishing world is the emergence of small presses that serve niche markets with a trusted and high quality product. Here’s an excerpt:

“What must be a dramatic realization and spell the death of print for corporate publishers (and some in the media) is not that anyone can publish a book in this day and age, but that any unheeled upstart can publish a better-written, better-designed, and more worthwhile book better than Random House. They’re doing it all the time.

The corporate ideology has run its course in book publishing, which spells the death of print to many. But as evidenced by...

Why Independent?

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-07-21T13:02:00-05:00

Coming to the decision to publish The Fiddler’s Gun independently wasn’t easy. When I began writing it I envisioned, like most authors, that one day it would be picked up by a traditional publishing house and find its way into Wal-Marts all over America. When it was written and rewritten enough times, the manuscript went out to the major houses and received a lot of good feedback (as well as some welcome constructive criticism) but in the changing climate of the publishing industry, the idea of becoming an independent publisher began to have a strong appeal to me.

The idea of working within a system that valued sales, marketing, and genre definition over quality became distasteful. Don’t mistake that to mean I’m averse to applying changes to my manuscript, I’m not. To the contrary, I’m anxious to change it, to make it better, more appealing. It’s the system that I dislike, a system that...

A Letter from the Smithsonian

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-07-20T12:42:00-05:00

The Curator of Postal Antiquities at the Smithsonian Institute contacted me last Thursday with exciting news. He explained that while cataloging a large number of documents received from the estate of Charles Albemarle of Massachusetts he came upon a letter that he suspected would be of particular interest to me. The letter discovered is one sent from Wilberforce Albemarle, III to his mother in the winter of 1776 and in it the person of Fin Button is largely featured. The perspective offered by this letter (dated January 7th, 1776) is a fascinating window into the events of that winter aboard the Rattlesnake and I’m happy to present it on the Letters to Peter page for public examination.

Working Toward Ten Thousand Hours

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-07-16T22:15:00-05:00

It's poker night. It’s 9pm and several of my friends are upstairs having a great time. I imagine there’s at least one cigar being smoked, a few potent potables sitting around on coasters, and a good deal of laughter.

Meanwhile, I’m at the kitchen table with my laptop, it’s quiet, I’m alone, and I’m writing. There’s a big part of me that would much rather be upstairs. I’ve heard a lot of accusations in the last few months that I’m antisocial because I don’t go out to fellowship with the other guys very often and instead choose to spend those evening hours writing.

It’s not a matter of being antisocial, though. It’s a matter of self-discipline...

An Example of Editing

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-07-15T20:53:00-05:00

Editing is going well, but it doesn’t go as quickly as I’d like. I’m basically working two jobs, only one of which pays actual money. The other is writing. I’m generally able to get two or three hours of work done on weekdays which, for me, is just enough time to get my head in the right space before it’s time to head to bed. So anything at all that manages to get done during the week is a minor miracle.

On Saturday and Sunday I try to get in 6-8 hours each day and it’s the only span of free time I have that’s long enough to let me really sink down into what I’m doing and think of things in big picture terms. It’s the long days when the good stuff tends to come. It’s also the long days that make me wonder how much more I could accomplish if I could get rid of the need to make money at a real job. Any patrons out there looking for an artist? Let’s talk.

For those that wonder what the editing process is like, I thought I’d provide a glimpse of what’s keeping my nights and weekends busy.

Here’s a paragraph as it appeared in the manuscript when I submitted it to my editor

Another Letter Found

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-07-12T14:52:13-05:00

This past weekend I was rummaging through a used book store in Providence, Rhode Island and came across some great buys.

The first book that caught my eye was entitled Naval Knots and Them What Tied ‘Em. I’m always on the lookout for a good old fashioned knot book and saw right off that this was a keeper. It was written by Heathcliff G. Sanderson who most of you will recall was the Knottier-in-Chief of the Department of the Navy in the early 19th century and coined the famous phrase, “Knot without a fight!” during the War of 1812. Naturally, I snatched this little treasure up and added it to my library.

The second find of the day was...

New Life for a Dead Letter

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-07-04T16:47:36-05:00

Until last week, it hadn’t occurred to me that the Dead Letter Office in Washington, D.C. might hold some long lost correspondence concerning Fin Button. I’d passed it over in my research because the office wasn’t established until 1825, long after the golden age of Fin’s career, and the overwhelming bulk of letters that end up there are destroyed.

You can imagine my surprise then when I received a call from a rodentially-voiced clerk of the office who reported that in the process of searching for a hidden supply of doughnuts he chanced across a brittle and yellowed letter bearing the initials “FB”.

Though the clerk could not explain the existence of a letter in his file cabinet that predated the office by fifty years, he was kind enough to send it to me for further study. Upon my own inspection I was delighted to learn of its authenticity, yet somewhat saddened to know that its intended audience had never set eyes upon it.

The letter (dated Christmas Day, 1775) has been carefully transcribed and it is presented on the Letters to Peter page so that you may read that which Peter LaMee, regrettably, could not.

Getting to Work

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-07-01T21:02:45-05:00

While I was on vacation, Kate (my editor) was hard at work. After just beginning to wrap my brain around the things I talked about in yesterday’s post, I came home from work today to find a whopper of an email waiting for me. She finished her edit!

I spent a few hours skimming through the newly edited manuscript and I like what I see. It’s marked up with scads of comments, corrections, and suggestions. I’m a happy man. I’m also a man with a lot of work in his future. I’ll spend the next couple of weeks...

Finding Criticism

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-06-30T20:07:21-05:00

Last week while I was on vacation I got an email from my editor and sat back to consider it with suspicion. I was worried that it might contain good news and let’s face it, nothing is worse than good news. Allow me to explain.

It’s easy to look around and find ten people to read your work and tell you it’s wonderful, or gosh-wow great, or really, really nice but none of that is terribly useful. On the other hand, try to find ten people to give you a thoughtful critique and offer suggestions on how to improve your manuscript. The latter is...

A New Letter

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-06-29T20:37:41-05:00

Although I was vacationing in the wildlands of eastern Tennessee last week, I was lucky enough to find, among the waterfalls, and cliff-faces, and coal mines, a strange little store named Antiques, Collectibles, Junk? You Decide.

Since I’m a big fan of deciding things, I took the opportunity to go in and put them to the test. I was greeted by Uncle Jesse (who, it turns out, is not in Hazard County, GA, and not dead, but hiding out in this store) who explained that he sold “a little bit of everything and something for everyone.” I was skeptical but I accepted his challenge.

The first thing I decided was that I would not be buying any of his collection of antique spatulas. Then, although tempting, I also decided against a large stack of neatly folded brown socks (I think they were originally white.) I continued my inspection and judgement upon the moldy little shop and easily placed each item into the “Junk” category until I came upon a small packet of letters stored in a Folgers can.

The letters were an admirable collection of correspondence between members of the Bolington family, many of which dated back over a hundred years. I read through each one with passing interest and considered that in this one case the item in question may be elevated above junk and possibly to the esteemed designation of collectible.

But when I reached the final and oldest letter of the series, I had to admit that Uncle Jesse did in fact have something for me. It was a letter of the late 18th century in which Charles Bolington chanced to cross the trail of Fin Button and saw fit to write of it to his wife, Lucilla.

I purchased the letter for a price that both I and Uncle Jesse considered fair and I have spent much of the time since transcribing it. I’m pleased to be able to present it to you here at The Fiddler’s Gun on the Letters to Peter page. Enjoy.

West Virginia Fiction Award

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-06-24T17:07:36-05:00

There's some great news this week from S.D. Smith, my good friend over at the Maple Mountain Story Club. He's been selected as a finalist for the West Virginia Fiction Award.

If you've never been to his site you should proceed with all haste to do so. He's got a unique voice and humor and always has something interesting going on.

The updates to The Fiddler's Gun are coming a bit slow this week because I'm on vacation in the mountains of Tennessee. No cell phone service and a really slow internet connection are small prices to pay for a cabin over looking the Cumberland Valley, hikes to local creeks, rivers, and waterfalls, a hot tub on the deck, and a whole lot of my mom's good cooking.

New Letter Transcription

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-06-22T22:39:00-05:00

I received a letter this week from the Clerk of Antiquated Documents at the courthouse in Savannah, Georgia. She reported to me that during a recent courthouse yard sale, they’d cleaned out the basement of the old building and found an intriguing set of documents stashed away in an old chest. The documents were an assortment of letters, shipping receipts, philosophical writings, sheet music, grocery lists, and bad poetry dating as far back as the Revolutionary War. The aforementioned clerk had spent the better part of the week delivering the documents to whatever museums, universities, and learned collectors she thought most appropriate and, having seen this website, she was kind enough to contact me regarding one particular letter bearing the signatory of none other than Fin Button.

The letter, dated December 19th, 1775, has been precisely transcribed and is presented on the Letters to Peter page.

A New Letter Transcribed

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-06-15T00:53:00-05:00

I’m happy to report that I’ve spent the weekend investigating the ruins of Ebenezer, Georgia and while traipsing amongst a thick growth of cypress near the Savannah River, I discovered the husk of an old chapel. I approached it in fascination, stepping lightly beneath its gaze of shattered windows and crept inside to see what stories lay untold within her. I emerged some time later having discovered a hidden panel in the chancel out of which I drew a musty collection of documents. One of these was a letter bearing the signatory “FB” and given its content, there can be no doubt of its authorship.

I have meticulously transcribed the letter, dated December 14th, 1775, and placed its tale on the Letters to Peter page.

What's a Salzburger?

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-06-17T05:34:00-05:00

Like most novels, the first draft of The Fiddler’s Gun has gone through a lot of changes and is a good deal different from the final version that readers will hold in their hands. I did a lot of research while getting to know the various peoples and places of the story and in the earliest drafts a great deal of that research is explicit on the page.

But just because the author knows the history of a person or a place doesn’t mean it belongs in the story. A lot of that kind of information gets cut during editing. That doesn’t mean the research was in vain, though. The individual stories and histories behind the persons and places of The Fiddler’s Gun serve to inform the tale in much more subtle ways long after the raw exposition has been excised.

It does make me sad sometimes, though, and one such example is that of the Salzburgers...

Going, Going....

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-06-18T04:57:00-05:00

All the bookmark requests I’ve received so far have been mailed. I put a couple of extras into each envelope so you can give them out to friends.

I read today in Scott’s Compendium of Collectible Bookmarks that the value of these has tripled just in the first week and their worth is expected to increase exponentially in the next few months. I’m no mathematician* but at that rate of return you might be able to retire in a few months. Get them while they last! Just send me an email (via the Contact page) with your mailing address. Each collectibly misprinted bookmark is guaranteed still warm off the presses and smelling like an old fashioned ditto upon delivery.**

*I never mastered the whole multiply and divide by zero concept
**Guarantee not guaranteed

Origin of the Story

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-06-10T05:41:00-05:00

Contrary to popular belief (trust me, I’ve polled it), I did not sit down one day and think, “Ah hah! I shall write an adventure novel of the Revolutionary War and my heroine shall be named Phinea Button!”

The real story, if you choose to believe it, is that some years ago I decided to try something different for Christmas. Simply buying gifts and handing them out wrapped in plaid paper had grown too ordinary. That’s when I thought, “Ah hah! I shall build treasure chests and fill them with gifts and bury them!”...

Bookmarks: Collector's Edition

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-06-11T05:19:00-05:00

The FedEx man dropped off a little box last week and I tore into it like a kid on Christmas morning. Bookmarks! But wait, what on earth have they done? They are printed wrong. The knuckleheads at the printshop got the front and back image turned in opposite directions so that you have to flip the darned thing over end to end to read the other side.

My first reaction was to call and complain but then I remembered how I declined the option to have a proof sent before the printing. I bet they did it on purpose.

It’s only a first printing of a hundred and it didn’t cost much so I can’t really complain. I guarantee I’ll say yes to that proof option next time though.

But all is not lost. Like anyone who’s ever collected stamps or coins knows, flaws are not always a bad thing, not when they are the fault of the manufacturer. Yes, that’s right, the print error on these bookmarks has rendered them rare collector’s items. They will probably be worth hundreds one day, if not millions. Hundreds and millions of what? I’m not at liberty to say.

If you want one, send me an email with your address. Guaranteed in mint condition*.

*not liable for folding, crumpling, wetting, or other detriment caused by the postal service.

Short Fiction

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-06-09T16:53:00-05:00

I’ve had a fun time with the website lately but I worry sometimes that people will come to equate the snarky humor of the “About the...” pages or the psuedo-serious nature of the “Transcription” posts, or the first person perspective and voice of the “Letters to Peter” with the writing of The Fiddler’s Gun itself, which of course none of you have yet read. The novel’s voice, perspective, and style is something rather different from what is in evidence here on the site.

Some may have noticed a new webpage link in the sidebar entitled “Short Fiction”. While the pieces I plan to post there will not be direct examples of the style of the novel, I do hope they’ll offer a broader portrait of my writing and will help to earn your trust in the quality of the story yet to come.

The first short presented is one I wrote for The Rabbit Room entitled “The Taming of the Toad.” It is very loosely inspired by my experience as a staff member at the Florida Sheriffs Boys Ranch and is not, as I’ve often been asked, autobiographical. I hope you enjoy it.

A New Letter Found

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-06-08T15:23:00-05:00

This Sunday afternoon I received a phone call from a man with a thick German accent calling himself Herr Wilbur Schilling. At first I assumed he had a wrong number and nearly hung up the phone but when he told me he was a member of the Georgia Salzburger Society, he had my full attention.

He told me of a collection of aged documents that he’d found some years ago hidden between the pages of an old Gutenburg Bible. The Bible, he assured me, now rests safely in the hands of the local museum but he held onto the documents having no clear idea of what they might be worth or to whom they might be of interest. He related his elation at the discovery of this website and how, with all haste, he sought me out and then bid me come to inspect his documentary treasure.

I did so at once.

Most of the documents in his care were of little note being either unreadable or unremarkable. Most, not all. One among them, although undated and unsigned, seized my interest at once and I have transcribed it and entered it upon the Letters to Peter page of the site.

Come Join the Conversation

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-06-03T21:37:55-05:00

Like scads of other people, I went out this weekend to see Pixar’s UP and came out of the theater two hours later misty-eyed and grinning like an idiot. Anyone at Pixar hiring writers? I’ve got a big opening in my schedule if you are. I’ll be happy to pencil you in. Heck, I’d sweep the floors at that place if they’d let me.

I wanted to write a review of it for The Rabbit Room but was a little too overwhelmed by the experience to do it any justice. I did put down a few thoughts though and invited readers to do the same. Head over to the Rabbit Room and add to the conversation. And if you haven’t seen the movie yet, cancel whatever else you’ve got going on this weekend and get thee to a theater.

A Captain's Log

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-06-01T07:20:00-05:00

For years I’ve dreamed of traveling cross-country to visit the famous National Museum of Maritime and Mercantile Logbooks in Beaufort, South Carolina. It boasts the biggest collection of historical logbooks in all of South Carolina and I had an inkling that I might be able to find something there that could enlighten the story of The Fiddler’s Gun. I was not mistaken.

I hid in a broom closet until they closed and then, under cover of darkness, I snuck into the museum proper to find what I had come for. Having watched Treasure of the Four Crowns last week, I was able to easily avoid the laser alarm system and a rather ingenious nest of booby traps that guarded the logbook. I danced through the laser field like the pasty middle-aged ninja that I am and used a bag of sand to fool the weight-sensitive plate upon which the logbook lay. Then I cut the page in question from the two-hundred-year-old book and left a polite note that I would return it in the near future along with a copy of my library card.

The transcription of this newly acquired log entry can be found on the Letters to Peter page. I hear sirens outside my door.

Bookmarks

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-06-02T01:25:00-05:00

One of the challenges of independent publishing is that I don’t have the benefit of a promotional team to help generate interest in the book. It’s all up to me, or me and anyone I manage to talk into helping. So I spend a lot of time wracking my brain for ways to put the word out. The result of one such brain-wracking session was to print bookmarks.

Using the character artwork that Chris Koelle did a few years ago I put together a simple 2x6 graphic and a short pitch for the...

New Letter Transcription

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-05-24T13:14:16-05:00

This weekend I may or may not have been diving off the coast of Barbados and while I was (or wasn’t) there I may have discovered a heretofore undiscovered shipwreck containing a corroded old 18th century chest from inside of which I may have (just possibly) recovered a rather soggy and chewed at, yet mostly readable, letter from Fin Button. How it came to be inside the chest (which may not even exist) and how that chest came to be aboard a ship sunken and undiscovered in the Carribbean these two hundred years hence, I am not at liberty to reveal.

I am at liberty, however, to reveal the content of said letter, dated November 23rd, 1775, and have transcribed it for you and placed it for public viewing on the Letters to Peter page of this website.

Back to Basics

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-05-27T13:06:00-05:00

In the last couple of weeks I’ve seen some very poorly executed movies. Is there anything more frustrating than going into a theater with high expectations and watching for two hours as those hopes are slowly dashed to pieces? Why yes, I’m sure there are things more frustrating but it’s definitely near the top of any reasonable list. It’s right up there with forgetting to do laundry over the weekend and discovering on Monday morning that you’ve got to go to work in whichever clothes are least dirty. Maybe that’s just me.

In Search of Pierce Pettis

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-05-28T12:57:00-05:00

I just had the rare privilege of catching a Pierce Pettis show in Houston. Pierce is one of my favorite storytellers (through song) and one of those rare gems that few people are familiar with but everyone ought to take a chance on. I wrote a short piece about my experience for The Rabbit Room. Anyone who appreciates the precise and economical use of words owes it to themselves to check out his music. Read the post here.

Stop Pillaging My Childhood

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-05-26T11:00:00-05:00

I saw the new Wolverine and Star Trek movies last weekend. One of them was good, one of them wasn’t. I posted some thoughts and gentle mockery over at The Rabbit Room. Okay, maybe some not so gentle mockery as well.

Read the post here.

New Letter Transcribed

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-05-18T00:53:05-05:00

I’ve just finished transcribing a letter (dated November 13th, 1775) that I discovered when I dug up what appeared to be a crudely marked (yet empty) grave just outside of New Ebenezer, a ghost town in eastern Georgia. Why the letter was buried there, who buried it, and whether or not there was ever an actual body interred may be mysteries we will never uncover.

The letter does, however, shed new light on the matter of Fin’s snuffled boot. It seems a mystery is afoot.

Cover Inspiration

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-05-19T00:36:00-05:00

I had a meeting a couple of weeks ago with Evie Coates, who is designing the cover, to talk about what direction we wanted to go with the look of the book. I wanted to be sure I was able to communicate clearly what kind of design style I envision for The Fiddler’s Gun so I had some preparation to do. Before the meeting I took a walk through a couple of bookstores looking solely at cover art and noting which ones made me want to pick up a book without regard for who wrote it, what genre it was, or anything else other than ‘the look’. Here are a few covers that really jumped out at me

Letters to Peter

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-05-13T19:40:47-05:00

The studious reader will have noted the link in the sidebar entitled “Letters to Peter” and quite possibly that reader will have wondered why I write letters to myself and post them here. The answer is that, thankfully, I haven’t written myself at all, or if I have, I haven’t posted it here for eyes other than those of the addressee.

In the narrative of The Fiddler’s Gun, Fin Button has multiple occasions to write letters home to her good friend, Peter LaMee. So in the time leading up to the release of the book, I thought it would be fun to discover

Manuscript Away

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-05-09T21:25:27-05:00

After finishing my edit last week, I spent a few more days fidgeting around with the manuscript, re-reading, re-editing, and re-writing various things. I’d written quite a few new scenes during the last few weeks that I felt I should go back and revisit after some time away to make sure they fit together the way I wanted them to and to ensure they didn’t mess up the general rhythm of the manuscript.

I was especially concerned with the last chapter, which had remained almost unchanged throughout the entire evolution of the story. I made some significant changes to...

Cover Artist: Evie Coates

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-05-06T19:10:47-05:00

I’m happy to announce that Nashville artist Evie Coates will be designing the cover of The Fiddler’s Gun as well as working in a creative advisor capacity to help guide the overall look and design of the book. If you’ve never seen any of her work then get thee to clicking and go visit this link to check some of it out. While you’re at it check out her blog as well, she’s a wonderful writer (eviecoates.blogspot.com).

Evie’s primary field is the creation of assemblages and I’ve posted pictures of a few of my favorites for you. Aside from assemblage though...

A Question of Demographics

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-05-04T21:12:59-05:00

One of the issues I ran up against when trying to publish The Fiddler’s Gun traditionally was the question of market and audience. Who is the intended audience? What market is it aimed at? On multiple occasions I got feedback from both agents and editors that indicated they weren’t sure how to handle the book because they weren’t sure where to aim it. That makes a ton of sense to me because I didn’t write it with a demographic in mind. I wrote it for an audience of one: myself.

I wrote a book that I’d always wanted to read but never had. I didn’t set out to write for kids, or young women, or middle-aged men. I set out to create a world and a cast of characters and narrative that would...

Bear with me...

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-05-03T00:38:59-05:00

Looks like the site is having some issues with blog comments. I’m working on it. And by working on it I generally mean banging my computer with a shoe.

Update

I think I’ve got the comment problems fixed but I had to switch to a different comment plugin. That means all the comments that folks left are now gone. I took them out and shot them and buried them in the root directory of your browser. Sorry.

Smooth sailing from here on out, I hope, and no more bothersome commenticide.

The Final Edit (until the next one)

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-05-02T01:21:00-05:00

I think I finished the first draft of The Fiddler’s Gun about six years ago and since then it’s been through edits and rewrites many times over. I’m amazed that each time I finish an edit I feel like the manuscript is strong, lean, and well-written yet every time I pick it up again to take another look I find a thousand more things that I can improve. When does ...

An Adventure in Self-Publishing

zpeteman@hotmail.com — 2009-04-30T23:57:47-05:00

After spending most of the past decade writing, editing, and refining this book it's finally come time to publish it. Time to set it loose on the world and see how it fares.

I can hardly wait to get it into the hands of you, the reader, but I didn't spend years creating something that I love just to rush it out the door in a poorly put together package. I want to create something that satisfies, something that readers will be proud to have on their bookshelves.

I believe in the book and I believe...