April 6 is the anniversary of so many things: the Restoration of the Church, of course, and possibly the actual birthday of Jesus Christ. It’s disputed. But it is also the date of the historic Battle of Thapsus, when Ceasar defeated the last holdouts of the Senate who were being led by Cato. And the day that Mehmed II began the siege of Constantinople that led to that great city becoming Istanbul. Truly something to sing about. And it is the date in 1930 that Ghandi concluded his epic, salt-making march to the sea.
But enough of that. April 6 is the five-year anniversary of BCC Press. That’s right, on April 6, 2017, the best blog in the Mormon universe announced our plans to become the best press in the Mormon universe as well. And we published our very first book: Steve Peck’s Science the Key to Theology.
Over the last five years, we have published 40 more books of fiction, drama, poetry, memoir, and serious academic prose. Our books have won 5 Association for Mormon Letters Awards and been nominated for another 11. We have added audiobooks to our mix, and we have created new series—one to publish Mormon scholarship and one to reprint classics of Mormon letters. And we have changed the world of Mormon scholarship. And we did this all as a group of unpaid volunteers whose only objective has been to find good books and turn them loose on the world.
But here’s the thing. We are just getting started. We have big plans for the future. Really big plans. You won’t even believe what we are going to do. And the future starts today, when we come back to our first author, Steven Peck, and announce his new novel. And believe us when we say: it is freaking awesome.
Now, trying to summarize a Steve Peck novel is always a difficult proposition. But imagine, if you will, a very young Mormon soldier named Arrow who does a really bad thing. And a woman named Heike, who is a well-known theologian of nothingness, suffers profoundly for the bad thing that Arrow did, and she resolves to an even worse thing to Arrow. And then things go drastically awry, except that, when bad things go drastically awry they become good things, until they go unawry and become bad things again. And also, there is a river-rafting trip and the unexalted ghost of Nephi. And then things get weird.
In the process, one of Mormonism’s greatest living novelists explores faith and doubt, love and hate, identity, delusion, and, of course, nothing–which is also everything. it is an amazing, generous novel that treats its characters generously and its readers opulently. And, as usual, here is a free chapter so you can see what we mean.
By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog 
Excited for the novel! (Also, you mean 1930 for Gandhi’s march, not 1830.)
How exciting! Steven L. Peck’s talent boggles the mind. I need to start recommending his work more broadly.
Although I can hardly wait to read Steve’s new novel, I can’t help quoting Heidegger in regard to the “Nothing” the Professorin is thinking about: “talk about nothing promotes the spirit of negation and serves disintegration . . . undermines all culture and all faith. Whatever both disregards the fundamental law of thinking and also destroys faith and the will to construct (Aufbauwillen) is pure nihilism” (Introduction to Metaphysics). Can a nihilist be a novelist? Can a philosopher be a NAZI?
Did he mean to write Calvary instead of cavalry?
Jennifer–you never know. Some of Steve’s characters are bad spellers.
Kirsten Allen, editor and publisher of Torrey House Press, recounts her editing of Steve’s The Scholar of Moab with both a wince and some glee: “the narrator is a high school dropout who likes big words and exuberant grammar. imagine trying to edit such a text!”