News
- Peter Pike #3, “Revenge of the Romanovs,” has been chosen as the February read of the Museum of Art and Archaeology’s Art of the Book Club!
What’s the book about? A lost Faberge egg. And the extraordinary lengths people go to get it.
I’ll be at at the Columbia Public Library’s Local Authors Open House, Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. I’ll have the first five of my Peter Pike books for sale, including the latest, “Peter Pike and the Silver Shepherd.” See you at the library!
It’s up!

- The Loch Raven Review (https://thelochravenreview.net), Baltimore, has accepted “Benson & Hedges,” a short memoir about high school, cigarettes and bullying, not necessarily in that order, for its November issue. Thanks, LR Review! Look forward to seeing it. Here was my pitch:
School shootings. So tragic, so senseless.
Not for the kids being shot up. Not for the shooter either.
But that’s not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about hitchhiking to Baltimore Lutheran Junior & Senior High School senior year smoking Benson & Hedges 100s Menthol.
Not shooting bullies. Just crippling them for life. That’s far more sensible.
- My first TV interview on “PP&MM” with Paul Pepper! Airs later in June. Hope I did ok. It’s all one take. http://kbia.org/programs/radio-friends-paul-pepper#stream/0
- Now available at Yellow Dog Bookshop! You can buy “Peter Pike and the Murderous Mormons” in paperback at Yellow Dog Bookshop, 8 S 9th St.,Columbia, MO. Walk in; call (573) 442-3330 to reserve your copy; or give Joe & Kelsey a shout on Facebook Messenger: @yellowdogbookshop.
- Great profile of me and my new book in the Columbia Daily Tribune, written by Aarik Danielsen. Author photo by Stacie Pottinger; book cover by Valerie Cummins Kisling.
“… with ‘Peter Pike,’ he (Fandek) walks up to the precipice of accepted American narrative and points out just a little of what lies beyond it.”
Read it here: Unlikely story: Novelist writes at intersection of mystery, history
- It’s official! I’m legit. “Peter Pike and the Murderous Mormons” is in the Columbia Public Library. https://dbrl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/752603018
- I will read from “Peter Pike and the Murderous Mormons” at Orr Street Studios, May 3, 5-7 p.m., 106 Orr St, Columbia, Mo. Reception follows. Please attend if you can! (See more under May events below.)
Past events
AUGUST 2018
- Book signing, Saturday, Aug. 25, 1-3 p.m., Quincy Books, Quincy Mall (Illinois). “Peter Pike” is set in a fictionalized Quincy. Please come if you can! Quincy is full of history from ancient Indians to Lincoln debates and Victorian mansions.
APRIL 2018
- Stop by my author’s table at the Unbound Book Festival, Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., April 21, 2018, on the stage in the Kimball Ballroom, Stephens College campus, Columbia, MO. Unbound is a book festival which celebrates literature of all kinds. Nationally recognized and bestselling authors across different genres flock to mid-Mo. to discuss their work and participate in a variety of events. It’s the third annual of this event.
MAY 2018
- Book Launch Party! May 3, 2018, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Orr Street Studios, 106 Orr Street in Columbia, MO. A special guest and I will be reading from “Peter Pike and the Murderous Mormons”; we’ll have food; and I’ll be happy to sign books and answer questions. The kind folks at Yellow Dog Bookshop will be on hand with plenty of copies.