Writing
The Chameleon
Jun - 16 - 2010
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.Read the entire post
Digital Release of The Fiddler's Gun: Letters
May - 21 - 2010
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...Read the entire post
No Man's Land
Mar - 23 - 2010
I’m in a part of the story right now that has never been crystal clear in my mind...Read the entire post
Through the Creator's Eyes
Mar - 18 - 2010
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...Read the entire post
Feeding the Gnome
Feb - 14 - 2010
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...Read the entire post
Finding Critcism (II)
Feb - 06 - 2010
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...Read the entire post
The Long Road Ahead
Jan - 30 - 2010
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.
The Kindle Version
Dec - 07 - 2009
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...Read the entire post
Article at Curator Magazine
Nov - 21 - 2009
“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...Read the entire post
Rabbit Room Interview
Nov - 13 - 2009
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? ...Read the entire post
It's Final!
Oct - 04 - 2009
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...Read the entire post
A New Letter
Sep - 14 - 2009
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...Read the entire post
Back to Work
Sep - 10 - 2009
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.
Not an Update
Jul - 27 - 2009
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.
The Future of the Printed Word
Jul - 22 - 2009
“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...Read the entire post
Why Independent?
Jul - 21 - 2009
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...Read the entire post
Working Toward Ten Thousand Hours
Jul - 16 - 2009
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...Read the entire post
Short Fiction: The Wander Beyond - Chapter Two
Jul - 14 - 2009
A free copy of Ellis Island and Other Stories goes to the reader that picks out the reference in this chapter to another of Mark Helprin’s short stories. Just email me your guess via the contact page or post it as a comment on the story.
Still have a few bookmarks left and they can be yours for the asking. See the Free Bookmarks link in the sidebar for details.
Another Letter Found
Jul - 12 - 2009
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...Read the entire post
New Short Fiction
Jul - 08 - 2009
It was marginally inspired by a short story called “The Schreuderspitze” written by Mark Helprin that didn’t go quite where I thought it was going.
“The Wander Beyond” still falls well within the bounds of a short and is in no danger of becoming anything resembling a novella, but since it is a bit longer than the other pieces, I thought I’d post it serially. So the first ‘chapter’ is up and the rest will follow in the coming weeks. Hope you enjoy it.
New Life for a Dead Letter
Jul - 04 - 2009
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.
Finding Criticism
Jun - 30 - 2009
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...Read the entire post
A New Letter
Jun - 29 - 2009
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
Jun - 24 - 2009
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.
What's a Salzburger?
Jun - 17 - 2009
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...Read the entire post
Origin of the Story
Jun - 10 - 2009
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!”...Read the entire post
Short Fiction
Jun - 09 - 2009
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
Jun - 08 - 2009
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.
A Captain's Log
Jun - 01 - 2009
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.
In Search of Pierce Pettis
May - 28 - 2009
Back to Basics
May - 27 - 2009
Stop Pillaging My Childhood
May - 26 - 2009
Read the post here.
Letters to Peter
May - 13 - 2009
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 discoverRead the entire post
Manuscript Away
May - 09 - 2009
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...Read the entire post
A Question of Demographics
May - 04 - 2009
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...Read the entire post
The Final Edit (until the next one)
May - 02 - 2009
An Adventure in Self-Publishing
Apr - 30 - 2009
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... Read the entire post