A primer on Rob Peecher’s fiction

As an independent author writing and selling books for fun, I often find myself tweeting or Facebooking links to my books with smart marketing phrases such as, “Please read my books!”

Last week I posted something about my books on Facebook, and a friend said something like, “What are your books about?”

I realized that while I might eat, sleep and breathe my books, a lot of people – if they aren’t paying particularly close attention – may not know anything about them.

So if you’re new to the world of Rob Peecher’s fiction, I thought I’d provide a primer.

Currently I have two separate series I’m working on: The Jackson Speed Memoirs and the Moses Calhoun Potboilers.

Jackson Speed

The Jackson Speed novels are set during 1800s America and hold themselves out to be the memoirs of a great officer from the War Between the States.

However, readers learn from the memoirs that Speed was truly a coward and a womanizer. His only motivations in life are getting into the dress of some Southern Belle and saving his own skin (often as not, from an enraged husband).

Jackson Speed, as a character in a novel is very similar to Harry Flashman of the classic George MacDonald Fraser series of Flashman novels. In truth, the more I write the less Flashmanesque Speed becomes, but I’ll never be able to deny the similarities between Jackson Speed and Harry Flashman.

The first Speed novel “Jackson Speed: The Hero of El Teneria” is set during the Mexican-American War and introduces readers to a young Speed who is just starting out on his path of roguish adventures.

Meticulously researched and footnoted, the Jackson Speed novels are a labor of love for me. I’m able to meld together the two things I most enjoy: Storytelling and History. I would hope these novels would appeal to most history buffs who enjoy fiction and I would also hope these novels would appeal to most rogues who enjoy history.

Moses Calhoun

Through the course of my career in newspapers I spent a long time covering what journalists would call the “cops and courts” beat. I had a pretty amazing career in newspapers in terms of the access I had to local police as well as the some of the stories I got to cover.

The Moses Calhoun short stories are a sort of manifestation of some of the things I witnessed covering the cops and courts beat with a little Southern Gothic thrown in for literary fun.

The stories are sort of like Robert B. Parker meets Flannery O’Connor.

Moses Calhoun is a grizzled, hard-boiled sort of deputy sheriff who returns to his hometown after a divorce and there he finds his town is overrun with meth heads and corruption.

These stories are very short. I like to write them in a few sittings. As I said, a lot of them are very loosely based on things I’ve seen.

Other Stuff

Outside of Jackson Speed and Moses Calhoun, I’ve published two other books.

“Four Things My Wife Hates About Mornings” is a collection of the columns I’ve written at The Oconee Leader.

“Iron Curling Ale” began life two decades ago as a short story I wrote while I was in college. Some time ago, I began rewriting the story. It’s still very short – just 20,000 words – but it was also a labor of love. It has a lot of drinking and drug themes, the language is very rough and it’s not going to be to everyone’s tastes.

“Iron Curling Ale” is the story of a drunken, cross-country road trip. It’s a tragically beautiful love story, and I’m a big fan of this book.