The Not Quite Right Reverend Cletus J. Diggs

The Not Quite Right Reverend Cletus J. Diggs & The Currently Accepted Habits of Nature

This was published as a limited edition novella by Bad Moon Books in 2008.  It’s the first in an ongoing series of books and stories about Cletus, and as debuts go, it didn’t do badly.  It sold out the 100 copy run of the limited and also the three more expensive, more exclusive editions and did so in short order.  I need to find it a home in a more affordable format…

The title is partly born of something the Physicist Richard Feynman once wrote : “We shouldn’t really say ‘Laws of Nature,’ because what they really are are the Currently Accepted Habits of Nature,” a line that stuck with me.

The setting, Old Mill, North Carolina, is a combination of my impressions of several small towns along Highway 17 between Elizabeth City, where I work, and Hertford, where I live.  We live near The Great Dismal Swamp, and we live in a rural area of the south.  I drew the characters from those around me, those I remember from my childhood in small town Illinois, and a bit from my imagination.

Cletus is a Jack of all Trades; mail-order minister, journalist, private investigator, and common law lawyer, to name a few.  He’s used to getting mixed up in strange situations.  Even he isn’t prepared for it when his buddy Jasper comes to tell him there’s a guy sticking boots-first out of the fishing hole – and that’s not the half of it, as it turns out.

What follows is a macabre blend of reported aliens, swamp witches, strange religious cults, genetic tampering, and albino twins that twists in and out of Old Mill, it’s history, and the swamp that surrounds it.  I hope you’ll enjoy this, if you get the chance to read it.  I have a very few copies for sale.  The original cover price stands – no aftermarket mark-up for being sold out.

You can get a copy for $50 plus $3.00 shipping (In the US – out of CONUS buyers e-mail for rates).   Supplies are very limited, so if you’re interested in this piece of collectible redneck glory, order soon.