The Fiddler

 

The Fiddler

 

by

RJ Dodd

 

 

Yep, thats me..RJ Dodd..not the fiddler, I am completely tone deaf and unable to play any instrument at all..but I always wanted to be a Rock n Roller..oh woe..

 

The Fiddler is a new novel which will be published within the next two weeks and it explores the murky world of the Rock n Rollers of the 18th century, particularly the ones in Italy..which is a good idea as the story is set in Rome,Venice and a mysterious nunnery way up in the dolomites.

 

 

Why Rock n Rollers..in that period of history?.. Well I have always subscribed to the idea that musicians of any era including the headbangers of today are very much the same basic breed of people..extroverts, headbangers, talented, hedonistic and ruthless pursuers of all that is naughty, bad and great fun in life..yes, including imbibing all of the goodies of their time.

 

That is why the sub title of the book is called  "Sex,Drugs and a String Quartet"

 

Nothing has really changed in the world of music for centuries. Travellin musicians were always welcomed in medieval Europe and beyond, but they were always regarded as being somewhat to the side of what passed for civil society in those days and were often encouraged to leave the vicinity after theuir particullar gig was over..and then the locals would count how many chickens had gone missing and how many daughters were impregnated.

 

The origins of the Fiddler began some years ago with the simple thought..How did people who lived in remote areas of Europe,and elswhere , in the days of complete absence of any form of communication, except word of mouth, ever get to know what was happening in their world.

 

In this instance I placed a young man who worked on the family farm some distance from Rome and who was a talented natural violin player in the path of a travelling orchestra that was passing through his area on its way to Rome.

 

The accidental meeting changed his life forever.

 

The story started out as a two page synopsis for a screenplay, which we sold to a USA film production company.The deal was done, we were pleased with the contract and terms, the movie was going to be made.

 

Then we had a letter from the comapmaie lawyers sayingb they wanted to chanfge the contract...in their favour.

 

After some cross Atlantic messaging and the involvement of contract lawyers we decided to pull thye story and we reluctantly consigned it to a drawer.

 

Some years later we dug it out again and wrote a screenplay, which involved a modern rock band interweaving with the orchestra from long ago..no-one went for that idea so the heavy metal boys were dropped..CLANG..and we moved onto a single strand storyline.

 

No-one ever read the script because we never sent it to market..

 

Some years later (honest) the script was dug out of the drawer,again, and we decided to turn it into a novel..tricksy stuff.

 

Two years in the writing, I was busy doing other things, like shooting some TV Drama series, the finished article is about to be unleashed upon the world....and it is more filmic as a book than it was as a script.

 

We hope you like it.

 

It will be available from amazon worldwide..I will post the release date here on the blog.

 

PS: the cover of the book is from a very old engraving someone gave to me as a present, it came from America and is titled  The Fiddler