Events! Avast!

One of my favorite things to do is talk about the Wingfeather Saga with young readers. They ask the best questions. One little boy asked me a few weeks ago if the end of the Wingfeather Saga would include an explosion of some kind. (Answer: No, unless you count me blowing your mind. Ha.)  Another little girl asked me if Janner, Tink, and Leeli represented the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Answer: No. Absolutely no.) The headmaster at a school in St. Louis ran out to the parking lot as I was leaving and said breathlessly, "Wait, wait. Mr. Peterson, one of my students had a very important question that he didn't get to ask you.""Yes? Yes?" I asked."If a Fang of Dang and a toothy cow battled," he panted, "who would win?"Young readers take these stories more seriously than anyone else, and if they meant it as a compliment I'd take it as one. But they don't. It just comes naturally for kids to engage their imaginations, to treat stories with care and great seriousness. To be the one with whom they're imaginatively engaged is a great joy. So I wanted to let you know about a few upcoming events regarding the Wingfeather Saga.Here's the info from my website:Saturday, October 24thNashville, TN

Meet Your Local Author Book Tour

Between the hours of 10:30 am - 4:30 pm Andrew will be rotating between 3 different bookstores in the Nashville area in a group with other local authors. His group will spend an hour at each store signing books, talking, meeting readers, etc. There will not be a public speaking forum.

11:00 AM:   Lifeway StoreNashville - located at 10th and Broadway across from Union Station Hotel in downtown Nashville1010 Broadway, Nashville, TN 372031:00 PM:   Lifeway StoreMount Juliet - located to the right of Belk at the new Providence MarketPlace Shopping Center400 South Mount Juliet Road, Mount Juliet, TN 371223:00 PM:  Davis-Kidd Bookseller2121 Green Hills Village Dr.Nashville, TN 37215----------------Thursday, October 29thVenue: St. Mary's School /PRIVATE EVENTJohnson City, TN 37601(This one's private. I just include it so you'll know I'm not sitting around that day.)---------------Tuesday, November 3rdVenue: The Covenant School34 Burton Hills BlvdNashville, TN 37215Doors Open: 8:00 AMConcert Starts: 8:00 AMThis one is a short chapel service, in which I'll play a few songs and read from the book.---------------------Wednesday, November 4thChattanooga Christian Middle School Career Day(This one's private too. What will I be doing on the 4th? Not sitting around, that's what.)---------------------Tuesday, November 10thHigher Grounds Beans and BooksLocated On The Corner of Hampton and Sumter1306 Hampton StreetColumbia, S.C. 29201Phone: 803-217-3247Thanks for reading. Oh, and the answer to the boy's burning question about Fangs and toothy cows doing battle?Toothy cows. Every time.AP

Encyclopedia Update: G

The Encyclopedia of All Things Aerwiar has been updated from  "Gargle and Slurp"  to "Green Hollows".Next up? You guessed it: H.

Toothy Cow Bones Discovered in Oklahoma, Boy Trembles

Keystone Dam, Oklahoma -- Hunter, a boy in Oklahoma on a nature walk with his grandparents, discovered the remains of a toothy cow this week. Long thought to have been extinct (or fictional), the toothicus bovinius primarily inhabited the Skreean forest region once known as Glipwood Forest. The toothy cows terrorized man, woman, child, and pet during the First Epoch, but sometime after the Glozing of Skree in 2/345 the king of Skree sent rangers to tame the terrors of Glipwood Forest. After the Great War in the Third Epoch, when Fangs invaded Skree, toothy cows flourished once again in the Glipwood Forest until the Clobidian Age, when they disappeared again without apparent cause. It is unclear why a toothy cow bone was found in Oklahoma, on a different plane of reality.Imagine, then, poor Hunter's shock when he made his discovery. "I was just sorta standing there, when all of a sudden I saw this bony thing and I knew it was a toothy cow. Somehow, I just knew." He was unable to comment further, so violent was his trembling. Hunter's grandparents expressed relief and gratitude for their grandson's safety. "He avoided a grisly fate in the maw of a toothy cow by a mere several thousand years," said his grandmother. "Or a simple rupture in the fabric of reality," his grandfather added. "God was really looking out for him."Before he fainted, Saul Grimblethunk, Head of the Department of Fictional Beasts, recommended immediate evacuation for travelers who happen upon toothy cow bones.

A New Interview About NORTH!

Hello, dearest readers. Here's a link to an interview that just went up on a website called Title Trakk, about North! Or Be Eaten, songwriting, the Rabbit Room, and the KGB.Also, all three parts of my piece about my visit to Kalmar are up in the Rabbit Room.Also, I ate six pieces of my Italian buddy's homemade pizza tonight, and I'm about to go into a coma.AP

A Visit to Kalmar: Part I

I just posted part one of a three part blog about my recent visit to Kalmar, Sweden, the town of my great-grandfather's birth. That name seems familiar, somehow. Hmm.It's up in the Rabbit Room, and you can read it by clicking here.

A Video Book Review by an 11-year-old

A New Review from Drew (it's True!)

Thanks to Drew from Concord Baptist Church in Chattanooga for the review of North! Or Be Eaten on the church blog. Here's a snippet: "It was a page-turning story, each chapter closing with an irresistible invitation to begin the next.  Even in the midst of heavy burdens, Peterson peppers the story with glimpses of humor and hope."

A New Review, Some Pictures, and a Most Excellent Question

Thanks to Rebecca LuElle Miller for the thoughtful review of North! Or Be Eaten on her blog. Thanks also to all of you who have emailed and/or called to share specific ways the story was a blessing to you. I'm more grateful than I can express in this blog. I hope you'll keep spreading the word about the Wingfeather Saga so I can dig in to the rest of the series in earnest next year after my new record is finished.Also, if you wouldn't mind posting a quick review of the book on the Amazon page I'd appreciate it. Those reviews evidently carry a lot of weight with potential customers. (Of course, if you hated the book, then by all means avoid Amazon.)I leave you with a few pictures from the book signing/reading at a great bookstore here in Nashville called Davis-Kidd Booksellers, at which I was asked a wonderful question by a little boy on the second row: "Mr. Peterson, will book three end with an explosion?"In case you're wondering, I read the chapter titled "Growlfist the Strander King". (Click the images to zoom.)