By the Book

By Sandy Long

Calling the Piper’s Tune:
new publishing options

Getting a book published these days is about as easy as rolling a 500-pound boulder up a ski slope. Especially a first book. But alternatives are appearing that enable authors to see their work in print, or on-line, even to hear it in an audio format. Such is the case for Pennsylvania author Robert David Stetten’s first book, “Calling the Piper’s Tune,” a new historical novel set in a northeastern PA anthracite coal mining village, or “patch town,” as such company communities were called. Stetten self-published the book through 1stBooks Library. The four-year-old company is one of a new brand of publishers utilizing “print on demand technology,” whereby books are stored in electronic computer files, allowing for printing to occur only as orders are placed.

	Contributed graphic "Calling the Piper's Tune"

The main character in “Calling the Piper’s Tune” is Thomas Hasting, operator of a failing coal mine, who must attempt to save the miners and the mine he dearly loves from certain doom. Hasting is gratingly spineless as he quavers under the witchy force of his greedy self-serving mother (owner of the mine) and the brutal unethical rule of his mine superintendent, “Rick, the Bear.” Hasting has trouble just standing up to his two brothers, a priest and a politician.

As the story progresses, Hasting is driven to measures that ultimately earn him the strength to tackle his demons, although each of his three protagonists is killed off in freak accidents that strain the credibility of the story line. The mine superintendent crashes his buggy; the mother has a rather fortuitous (for everyone else) heart attack; the politician, passed out in a drunken stupor on his mother’s couch, perishes in a fire. In the end, Hasting even manages to find the nerve to ask a patch girl to marry him.

Stetten seems overly fond of the exclamation point, which appears with exhausting frequency. On the first page, in six paragraphs, this special mark of punctuation occurs seven times! The effect is to wear down the reader, so that when the big news comes — a tunnel collapses, a mine fire erupts — it is somewhat anti-climactic. Similarly, overuse of the word “damn” has the same dulling effect. By page five, we have had “damn well, damn fool, damned if, damn game, damn thing, dammit to hell, Goddamn firedamp.” This sort of problem is easily remedied under the advice of a good editor. One of the risks of self-publishing is going forth without such guidance. According to its website, 1stBooks Library does not provide editing services.

That said, I found myself swept into the sense of place that Stetten develops and sustains with rich and abundant details of mining life. All the horrors of a miner’s existence are here. Stetten, a university professor who lives in the heart of the coal region in which the book is set, has a firm grasp on his subject matter. He makes the story come alive through intrigue, romance and a strong sense of the bitter contrast between the poverty of the miners and the shameless gluttony of the mine owners. I was impressed with the mining information packed into the book’s 142 pages. Reading it enhanced my knowledge of the subject.

Readers with an interest in the history of anthracite coal and its effects on the lives of people who settled this region of the country will find this an enjoyable and informative book. Paperback and electronic formats of the book are available from 1stBooks Library, 2511 West Third Street, Suite 1, Bloomington IN 47404, or through www.1stbooks.com. If you are an author looking to publish, the site contains all the information you’ll need to get started.