The Fiddler’s Gun: Be a Part of the Revolution
The Rabbit Room is two years old now. Because of your support and encouragement, most excellent readers, we’re ready for the next phase of the experiment: The Rabbit Room Press. I’ve dreamed for a while of publishing Rabbit Room editions of classic works (by the likes of George MacDonald and G.K. Chesterton), as well as nonfiction anthologies by various Rabbit Room contributors. But first, it’s my great pleasure to announce the upcoming publication of our flagship novel (Eric Peters’s epic space novella Revenge of the Birds notwithstanding).
But we need your help. We live in a unique time in music and publishing history–a time when you, the reader/listener can directly and tangibly help publish books and albums by artists you believe in. Now’s your chance. Please read Pete’s post below and help us bring something good into the world.
–The Proprietor
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Andrew and I sat on our parents’ porch one Christmas and made a resolution. We’d talked about writing books for years but we made up our minds that evening that the time had come to shut up and do it. So, like brothers have been doing since Cain and Abel, we made a competition of it. There was no prize other than bragging rights but that was because the purpose wasn’t to win. The goal was to encourage and push one another to do what we’d been putting off for too many years.
That year a strange cast of characters came to visit and they refused to leave until their story was told. It began with an orphan girl with a funny name and before I knew it she was in the middle of a revolution. There were tall ships, cannons, rowdy privateers, a nation at war, and through it all, that orphan girl among them, trying to find her way home.
I’m happy to report that I won that competition.
I’m less happy to report that I’ve taken considerably longer to publish mine than my brother did.
What better way to publish a novel about the War of Independence than to do it independently of the mainstream publishing industry? Let’s keep that question rhetorical because it’s quite likely that there are, in fact, better ways–but the outcome of that line of thinking is the Rabbit Room Press.
I’ve spent the last year pulling all the pieces together (you can read about much of the progress at TheFiddlersGun.com) and now we’re in the home stretch. 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.
For the better part of a decade, the lives and troubles of characters like Fin Button, Armand Defain, and Bartimaeus Gann have been unfolding in my mind. They’ve grown, evolved, lived, loved, and sometimes died as I watched and struggled to put their stories into words. They’ve made mistakes and lived to regret them. Some have grown wise, some numb, others twisted, but I’ve come to cherish each individual creation in a way that only a creator can.
I’ve devoted so much time to this fictional communion because I believe in these characters and love the stories they have to tell. I believe that they deserve to be known by others, to be cared for, mourned, hated, or loved by readers as they see fit.
To that end, I’ve worked diligently to do right by them. I’ve written, rewritten, edited, revised, thrown pages in the trash, re-rewritten, re-edited, edited again, and again, and again. Numerous times I’ve paced the floor of my living room reading the entire manuscript aloud, every word, listening for pace, for rhythm, until my voice is hoarse. In time I let others read it and edit it and then took their notes and reactions back to the forge to further refine it, to hammer it smooth. And now it’s done. The story is told, the type set, the cover drawn, and the inky-aproned printer stands ready at the press and waits.
I knew from the beginning that by publishing independently, I’d be leaning on the shoulders of others. Some irony in that, don’t you think? Thankfully, I’ve been blessed to find myself in the company of good people to lean on–people who have gone the extra mile and done more than what I asked, or what I paid them for, or what they could merely get by with.
So here I stand at the end of the journey facing the giant monetary investment required give that inky-aproned printer the nod and see him goad his press to life. And once again I hope to find shoulders to lean on. Humbly, I invite you, dear reader, to be a part of the finale.
My hope is to find one hundred patrons to ease the burden of the initial print run of book. This isn’t a way for me to make money, it’s a way to help The Fiddler’s Gun over the final hurdle, a way to be a part of something that I believe you’ll be proud to have helped create.
You may choose to wait until it officially releases on December 1st and order from the Rabbit Room Store ($13.99). But if you’d like to help, if you’d like to be a patron, here is what I propose:
In return for patronage of $30 you’ll receive:
- (2) signed (trade paperback) editions of The Fiddler’s Gun (personalized upon request)
In return for patronage of $50 you’ll receive:
- (2) signed (trade paperback) editions of The Fiddler’s Gun (personalized upon request)
- (1) edition of the Letters to Peter Companion limited to 100 signed and numbered copies (available only through this patronage offer)
- your name listed on the acknowledgments page of The Fiddler’s Gun (must respond before October 26th)
- priority shipping as soon as The Fiddler’s Gun arrives from the press (late November 2009)
For those who choose to offer their patronage, head into the Rabbit Room store and become a part of the story. You have my thanks and it’s my great hope that once you’ve met these characters and traveled with them through the age-old days of revolution, you will find your faith in me was well-placed.
Cover design by Evie Coates
A.S. Peterson has crafted a work of compelling historical fiction which begs the question, “Can this really be a debut novel?” With dogged fidelity, Peterson captures the spirit, manners, and social conditions present during the American Revolutionary War. We meet colorful, credible characters who navigate the high seas of life and love, dependence and independence, war and peace, truth and consequence, and despite forays into dark places, The Fiddler’s Gun is beautiful, lyrical, and redemptive.
Walt Wangerin, Jr. strikes again.
Janner Igiby lives in Glipwood, a nothing little village in the land of Skree, on the edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. Manhood is on the horizon, but Janner finds it hard to feel much hope for the future. Skree is ruled by foreign oppressors, snake men called the Fangs of Dang, servants of a shadowy emperor named Gnag the Nameless. The Skreeans are weak and weaponless. They’re even tool-less. Any Skreean who needs to use a hoe has to borrow one from the Fangs (and fill out the requisite paperwork). And from time to time, the Black Carriage arrives in Glipwood to carry young Skreeans toward an unknown fate across the Dark Sea.
I am not a fan of Civil War literature; in fact, I have always thought of it as one of those weird sub-genres for obsessive types. They’re almost like Trekkies with their re-enactments and maniacal devotion to detail. It’s just not my thing (although I’m secretly jealous that they get to dress up and shoot cannons).
A Randall Goodgame song is like a great independent movie. Characters deliver lines like they were lifted from a break room, a truck stop, or a downtown diner. Seemingly incongruent scenes are juxtaposed and plot isn’t obvious; in fact, narrative–a good story–is often more evident than linear plot lines. An indie movie, like a Randall Goodgame song, seems to tell itself. Rather than being rudely yanked by a chain through a sequence of contrived events, with a Randall Goodgame song, I have the sense that I’m being allowed a willing, but vicarious sneak peak into the real lives of his real characters.
Sara Groves irritates me just a little bit. With each album she makes, she moves from strength to strength and is always raising the bar with the quality, depth, and lyrical ambition of her work. And as a fellow artist, that’s just a little irritating since it means the rest of us are going to have to work harder if we hope to keep up.
I am outside on my front porch. The yellowed leaves are methodically falling from the black walnut in the yard, my breath is chalky visible in the recent cold snap, and lately I have been exploring the unpleasant nuances of the dark night of a soul - my own, to be exact. It is a strange passion we live out on this over-glorified orb of rock hurtling through space at some rate that I’m sure would astound me were I to know what it was. It is an odd series of days, I am realizing, when you question your own faith more than you question your own doubt. And, indeed, it is these nagging questions which have prompted me to share my thoughts on Andrew Peterson’s 2003 album, Love and Thunder.
11-year old Reuben Land, a character in the 2001 book Peace Like a River, provides narration that is clear-eyed and insightful, yet retains the magic, wonder, and innocence of youth. I found it easy to entrust my imagination to the author’s clever method of telling the story through the sensibilities of a pre-teen boy. An author with lesser skill would have either made the boy too smart-alecky for his own good or impossibly cute.
I just finished a book that upon closing it, I felt like it finished me in a sense. A quiet meditative book that reached down and stirred the deep waters in me. It’s Marilynne Robinson’s 2005 Pulitzer prize winner Gilead, given to me by my friend Andrew Peterson.
Eric Peters’s body of work addresses a diverse range of topics, but hope is a recurring theme that gently percolates in the midst of it all. And yet, somewhere between the 2001 masterpiece Land of the Living, and Scarce, the flavor of hope that Peters’s work emits has evolved closer to a tone that is more resolute than what came before. And though the complexion of hope has a broad range, the lyrics from Scarce–while intermittently contrite and timorous as in previous efforts, are now strengthened and bolstered by roots that have grown deeper, radiating an underlying grit and security.
Having read The Great Divorce many times over the years, I’ve found this classic from the great C.S. Lewis to be full of startling clarity and depth on the differences between Heaven and Hell. The only thing both have in common is that both begin in the human will; we can either let Heaven enter us and rule in us to blossom into love and goodness, or allow Hell to infect and reign in our hearts by the daily refusal to submit to Heaven.
Even if you haven’t heard Room to Breathe, its still likely you’ve heard Andy Gullahorn. He’s what I’d call a heavy lifter by trade. He writes lyrics, plays guitar, arranges vocals and adds production help to the work of artists like Jill Phillips and Andrew Peterson.
Allow me to preface this by telling you that I am a great despiser of gushing reviews. I’d much rather write (or read) a scathing dismemberment of the latest Brett Ratner film or Terry Goodkind book than suffer through four hundred words of overblown hyperbole about even the best of things. But when asked to write some thoughts on Frederick Buechner’s Godric, no amount of distaste for high praise was able to intervene. I hope you’ll take what I say with the understanding that I do not say it readily or lightly.
Pete,
I cannot think of anything I wouuld rather be a part of. I can’t wait to read the book, of course, but bigger than that I am happy as a clam to support this endeavor because of all the Rabbit Room has given me. From AP’s music, to books recommended, movie reviews, chuckles, and serious theology-the Rabbit Room has been a great gift to me. Good luck, and God bles,
Dieta
Thirteen days to scrape up the scratch. It might be posssible. Either way I have no doubt, based on Pete’s writings I have read, The Fiddler’s Gun will be an exciting journey and a worthy flagship novel for the Rabbit Room Press.
Looks beautiful, A.S. Peterson, E.V. Coates. Hooray for initials.
Can’t wait to read it.
Love the look of the book — excited to read it soon!
There’s really no such thing as true independence; the only question is where we choose (or are forced) to lean.
Thanks for giving us a chance to hold up your arms.
Do you feel like a proud papa about to show off his baby to the whole world? You should. It just took a little longer than 9 months for this one.
But, you know, you’re killing me with the whole “Book One” thing. Patience is not my strong point. “But I just need to know” tends to be my famous last words. Oh well, I guess I am going to get some additional lessons in patience before I find out Fin’s whole story. Really glad that installment one is in sight.
The cover is really better than I could have imagined! Evie is awesome. That’s all. I’m excited your book is coming soon, because I am finishing all of the stuff I started this summer. Can’t wait. Somehow, I’m seeing you in one of those aprons working feverishly around a printing press. This is the coolest thing ever! =)x2
Man, the cover alone is enough to get me!
I’m so proud of you! The cover looks amazing! Its been so long since I read the first draft - I can hardly wait to read the finished piece.
Count me in!
Well done! God has blessed you with gifts of creativity. The cover is absolutely marvelous! And I know that what’s behind the cover is a story that everyone needs to read. Count us in for $100.
A toast to the launching of the Rabbit Room Press! I’m glad you’re taking the leap into publishing. It’s so appropriate, and seems like the natural thing to do. As though it really couldn’t have turned out any other way.
Pete, the book cover looks great. I especially like the lettering for the title. Did Evie do the calligraphy? I have read small bits of your writing here, so I know that the longer bit that is inside the cover will be even better than the exterior. I hope the book has great success!
I love the whole idea of the Rabbit Room Press, I love the cover of the book and I’m proud to be a patron.
Can’t wait to read it!
By the way, will you let us know if you’re getting close to the first 100 before October 26? I’m waiting on some things to come through, but I really want to get in on this!
Also, can you help us resolve the Pete/A.S. dichotomy?
I am a revolutionary.
I will certainly let folks know when we get close to the 100 mark.
Pete is just a nickname I picked up in the Marine Corps and while everyone calls me Pete, it would just look silly to see “Pete Peterson” on the cover of a book (no offense to any authors actually named Pete Peterson.)
Thanks for the great response so far, folks. I’m humbled and excited.
I hope to talk a bit more about this in an upcoming post but I need to mention here that The Fiddler’s Gun is not a children’s book. I would strongly caution parents against buying it for their kids until they have read it for themselves or read reviews.
Don’t worry, it’s not full of sex and drugs or anything but it does deal with some darker issues (it takes place during a war after all) and parents should be aware.
[...] compadre A.S. Peterson’s debut novel will release soon (end of November!). The cover was revealed yesterday to well-deserved applause (Evie Coates, another Rabbit Roomer, designed). I love the cover, it [...]
Pete. . .see, I’m not the only one who wants to know about your name! BTW, I think it’s awesome that you are a Marine. My Dad was a Marine till the day he died at age 96. He was buried in the Veteran’s Cemetery in Killeen, Texas. His name was “Horace Julius” or “H.J.”, but he went most of his life (and most especially in the Marine Corps!) as “Mike”. =) So, my quest to know people’s given names when they use nicknames, or abbreviations of their names, is really rooted there. “A.S.” does look better on the cover, although I’m sure “Pete” would have been just fine. I hope you reach the 100 mark really soon, and honestly, I do believe we all will be so taken by your first book that we’ll be on the edge of our seats waiting for the second installment. Congratulations! It’s almost here. Praying God’s abounding favor on your efforts as you continue to work diligently on your dream.
Congrats, Pete, er, I mean A.S.!
I can’t provide patronage now, but I will definitely be ordering a copy come December!
Methinks the “A” may stand for Artham. Does anyone know if Pete types with sock covered hands?
While I’m disappointed at the loss of common-name-ness, it’s great to get a behind-the-scenes look at the author (my grandfather picked up the nickname “Bob” in the navy — sang “Bobby Shaftoe” one too many times, I’m told).
Steve, you may have a point. Who knows how it was originally spelled? Then again, Andrew is the A.J. in the family… or is he?
I hope I can scrape together the cash to pre-order this. If not it’ll have to wait until it’s released. Either way I’m very eager to read it!!
So I was wondering if there is anywhere that we might be able to read an excerpt from the book, anything from a handful of pages to a chapter. Im really not much of a reader(sadly) and I’d love to know ahead of time if this is going to be something that piques my interest.
Nate, I may put up the first chapter or so at some point closer to the release date. We’ll see.
Pete, do the Letters to Peter offer a good representation of the writing style and the subject matter of the greater book?
I’d have to say no. The letters are, obviously, all written in first person and with the voice of the character writing them. The book on the other hand is written in third person (limited, for you writer types) and has a voice that you don’t find in the letters.
The letters also deal with what are generally more light-hearted and comical situations that don’t have any real bearing on the larger story.
done, and done.
I’m so excited to see the finished project - way to go Pete! Best wishes to you…
This looks fantastic! Count me in!