Author: kenwheaton

Not an hour goes by without some excited fan approaches me shyly and says, “Excuse me, Mr. Wheaton, but when can I buy this ‘First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival‘ novel I’m hearing so much about?”

And then I say, “Can’t you see I’m dining on fresh champagne and old snails with intellectuals almost as smart as I? Why must you interrupt me during my repast?”

Okay. That hardly ever happens. But, to answer your question. THE OFFICIAL RELEASE DATE FOR ‘THE FIRST ANNUAL GRAND PRAIRIE RABBIT FESTIVAL‘ IS DEC. 29.

BUT WAIT. THERE’S MORE!

This gets a little tricky. I’ve been told that books show up in stores and ship from Amazon a week or two BEFORE the official release date. Which means “The First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival” could be in stores or in your house before Christmas. While I think it would make an excellent gift to put under the Christmas tree, the Hanukkah bush, the Festivus pole or what have you, I can’t guarantee 100% for sure that the book will be there. And the first rule of customer service (are you listening cellphone companies and airlines?) is: Don’t lie to the damn customer!

So there you have it. Dec. 29 is the official release date.

What can you do to help? Join the Facebook group and invite all your friends to join the Facebook group. Also, if you want to pre-order on Amazon, by all means, pre-order on Amazon. A sale, as they say, is a sale.

Blurbs! Who doesn’t love them? I love ’em. I have four of them for the First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival. I will reveal them — one a week starting today. Three of the blurbs are from folks who’ve written books and who were kind enough to take some time out of writing more books to read mine and say a kind word or two about it.

But I think the best way to start this off is with a quote from Helen Stephenson Pursell, the real Queen of the real Fifth Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival (or, as it was called, Festival Du Lapin).

“Ken Wheaton’s fictitious story of a real small community in Grand Prairie, Louisiana, will keep you entertained and laughing out loud! Wheaton thoroughly describes the tradition and passion for the Cajun French way of life. Strap on your waders and get ready to trudge through some of the most colorful characters in the South.”
–Helen Pursell, Fifth Annual Festival Du Lapin Queen

How’s that for keeping it real?

Now, I can’t emphasize enough that The First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival is a novel — one for which I did pretty much zero research. I made it all up. And Helen’s blurb isn’t a result of me interviewing folks. Nope. Her blurb came about the old-fashioned way: Facebook.

Helen graduated Opelousas Catholic two years after I did. She was in my brother’s class. I couldn’t tell you the last time we’d talked to each other. (It was probably high school.) But, as happens on Facebook, we became friends at some point. And, as luck would have it, she was paying attention when I posted the title of the novel on the site. Which prompted her to reply, and I’m paraphrasing, “Holy crap. I was the queen of that festival.”

Which is funny. And sort of typical of where we grew up. When I told the story to my editor and agent, they replied, and again I’m paraphrasing, “Holy crap. That’s funny. And it would be cool if we got her to blurb it.”

So, there you have it. That’s how one blurb was born.

Another thing I love about the cover of The First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival is the copy on the back. And not just because I didn’t have to write it (I can’t tell you how much I hate doing summaries of my own work, or marketing type things for my own work.) I think Kensington nailed it, offering something that might get someone to pick up the book and staying true to my–gag me–Vision. Here it is.

Welcome to Grand Prairie, Louisiana–land of confounding accents, hard-drinking senior citizens, and charming sinners–brought to hilarious life in a bracing, heartfelt debut novel simmering with Cajun spice …

Father Steve Sibille has come home to the bayou to take charge of St. Pete’s church. Among his challenges are teenybopper altar girls, insomnia-curing confessions, and alarmingly alluring congregant Vicky Carrier. Then there’s Miss Rita, an irrepressible centenarian with a taste for whiskey, cracklins, and sticking her nose in other people’s business.

When an outsider threatens to poach Father Steve’s flock, Miss Rita suggests he fight back by staging an event that will keep St. Pete’s parishioners loyal forever. As The First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival draws near, help comes from the strangest places. And while the road to the festival may be paved with good intentions–not to mention bake sales, an elephant, and the most bizarre cook-out ever–where it will lead is anyone’s guess . . .

And there are real live quotes from real live people, too. But you’ll have to wait to see those.

Behold, a sneak peak at the cover (and spine) of The First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival. I received it over the weekend and I have to say I’m pretty damn pleased by the illustration, which was done by Tim O’Brien, and the design by Kristine Mills-Noble.

Considering the name of the book and sometimes overbearing pressure to go after the women’s market, I was having night sweats about pastel pinks, little white bunnies and, horror of horrors, a face full of comic sans font work. This easily exceeded my expectations and seeing it makes the whole thing seem that much more real.

This scan doesn’t quite do the thing justice as it lost some of the vibrancy of the color. The blues and blacks are deeper and richer.

By the way, for those of you who’ve been to the real Grand Prairie . . . yes, we’re all aware that the illustration doesn’t look like the real thing. But would you pick up a book that showed nothing more than Highway 103 cutting through some soybean fields? I didn’t think so.