top of page
DSC_2216.JPG

MIKE GADDIS



WITH SETTERS: BONNIE, SAM, MOLLY - SPANIELS: HALLE, SHAD, MORGAN and SUTTON, a few of a beloved many from a thrilling lifetime with field dogs.

Home: Image

IF YOU LOVE BIRD DOGS AND GAME BIRDS & THE MAGIC THAT HAPPENS BETWEEN THEM . . .

Home: Text

BETWEEN THE BEST OF THE BEST . . .

Home: Text

COMING THIS FALL! DUEL ON TABERNACLE  MOUNTAIN

Home: Text

IN THE WARRIOR'S CODE, THERE'S NO SURRENDER,

WHEN HIS BODY CRIES "STOP," HIS SPIRIT SCREAMS "NEVER!"

IN THE CANINE SPIRIT, THERE IS NO QUARTER.

SETTER AND GROUSE, EACH LOCKED IN THE BATTLE THEY WERE BORN FOR . . . 

TO BEST THE OTHER.


Home: Text
_DSC7976Gaddis-Duel.JPG
Home: Quote
_DSC7976Gaddis-Duel.JPG

DUEL ON TABERNACLE MOUNTAIN

A Tale of Two Warriors

Beautifully drawn from the upland sporting life, DUEL ON TABERNACLE MOUNTAIN is a newly published, iconic and riveting novella by Mike Gaddis, long-time Senior Editor and First Light Columnist of Sporting Classics magazine, and celebrated author of Jenny Willow, Zip Zap, Legend's Legacy, Turning For Home and From A Higher Hill.

Home: Welcome
_DSC7973Gaddis-Duel.JPG

DUEL ON TABERNACLE MOUNTAIN

   Seventy-plus dog years in the making, beautifully told with the  soulful intensity that is the author's celebrated signature, and crafted with the insight only a life in which sporting dogs have been central and supreme could endow, here is the novella Mike Gaddis was honor-bound to write.

   A tale true-to-life, where dog and bird reign foremost, and man takes his place gratefully and incidentally as a by-stander in their aura.  A battle of two indomitable warriors that were from the minute of birth and blood destined to clash.

   A comfortable evening's read by the fireplace, but an infinite study in timeless upland pageantry, Duel On Tabernacle Mountain ascends spectacularly as the riveting story of setter and grouse, each extraordinarily gifted within their time, each bound inextricably within the mission they were born for: to best the other.

   In the vein of the author's celebrated novel Jenny Willow, Duel On Tabernacle Mountain is unique in presentation, steeped in the spiritual wonder of a great dog, and anointed with the astounding wiles which make the ruffed grouse the undisputable "King of Game Birds."

   Altogether, here is a literary adventure any dyed-and-true disciple of the sporting life is sure to relish. An opportunity to own one of the most beautifully penned and appointed books ever published on the grouse legacy, and a collector's volume in the making.

Home: Image

 Exquisitely presented in a one-time only, heirloom-quality, signed, numbered, individually personalized, limited edition of 200 copies, DUEL ON TABERNACLE MOUNTAIN  is set in Trinite, printed on Munken Premium 115 GSM, and bound with full-color, tipped-in cover illustrations, a ribbon marker and gilded edges. With additional and inspirational artwork by revered and renowned artists Rod Crossman, Lynn Bogue Hunt and Jim Kasper.

_DSC7973Gaddis-Duel.JPG
Home: Image

BACKSTORY

For years I have had on the back burners of desire the yearning to do a story which plays out over several seasons, and heralds the head-on clash between a truly great grouse dog, and an equally wily and gifted old wisdom bird grouse. Which, in fiction or fact, is spectacular. Arguably the most spectacular of any genre in upland sporting lore. A story told by the dog and the bird, by the antagonists themselves. A story told blow-by-blow as two indomitable warriors battle it out amid the splendor of the grouse woods, so equally matched that they fall to a draw time and again. Until comes the day, hour and minute the duel is finally brought to a crashing climax, where one at last prevails and one succumbs. A story in which a human presence is incidental, as truthfully it is when such warriors meet, and a man or woman simply watches in awe as the play unfolds, just thankful to be there, just thankful to hold a ticket to see the show.

The yearning gained irresistible impetus one evening a few years back in Minnesota at Steve Grossman's venerable and legendary little cover-bird chapel, Little Moran, as - after everyone else had retired - Steve and I sat before a flickering fire, and he related an iconic match between Mack, one of the five greatest dogs in the 30 year history of his Grouse Camp, and the similarly incredible and canny old swamp grouse that tried his mettle as no other. So much that watching it unfold, as Steve said, "was like watching two all-time great antagonists duke it out on the brink of a cliff, so evenly matched you held your breath to see which of the two would ultimately topple, while admiring each so supremely you really hoped it could be neither."

From a few such thoughts a timeless story is sometimes born, and taking this small tale as a nucleus, I set out to attempt the task, knowing the time was at hand to plot and set it fully to word and paper. The humble effort is DUEL ON TABERNACLE MOUNTAIN, written for dog people especially. Particularly seasoned grouse hunters who know intimately the genius of a great dog and the superlative wit of the "King of Game Birds," the ruffed grouse, and will know as acutely how closely I have succeeded in telling their story. Though I believe it to be, as well, a tale that anyone who loves dogs, birds, and the upland shooting life will relish, anyone who loves the magic and mystery that happen when the trilogy finds its finest hour.

I wanted to bind it to a small, heirloom quality, limited edition that could comfortably be read fireside in one evening, should this be one's desire, or savored over the expanse of several.

As a final note, Duel On Tabernacle Mountain was printed in preview, in greatly condensed version, in Sporting Classics magazine. This is the full, unabridged novella.

                                                                                                                        Mike Gaddis  

Home: Text

DUEL ON TABERNACLE MOUNTAIN

SUPERBLY PRINTED AND BOUND IN BELGIUM BY GRAPHIUS

_DSC7986Gaddis-Duel.JPG

DISTINCTION

EACH COPY INDIVIDUALLY NUMBERED, SIGNED, AND INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR WITH A PERSONALIZED NOTATION TO THE BUYER OR GIFT RECIPIENT

ARTISTIC APPOINTMENTS

FULL PAGE, FULL-COLOR INSIDE ARTISTRY, ACCENT SKETCHES, CHAPTER HEADINGS, AND MORE BY ROD CROSSMAN, LYNN BOGUE HUNT, JIM KASPER, AND THE AUTHOR

_DSC7997Gaddis-Duel.JPG
_DSC7984Gaddis-Duel.JPG

DEDICATION

TO ALL THE DOGS WE'VE LOVED, AND TO GROUSE DOGS, MEN, AND WISDOM BIRDS IN EVERY CHURCH AND KINGDOM

ANNOINTMENT

IN WORD, IMAGE AND SONG, AN UNPARALLELED ODE CAPTURING THE HEART AND SOUL OF THE GROUSE WOODS

_DSC8000Gaddis-Duel.JPG
Home: Services

ADDED FEATURE: "BEFORE WE KNEW"

Also included as an original and exclusive feature in DUEL ON TABERNACLE MOUNTAIN is a previously unpublished verse by the author, "Before We Knew," which perceptively and poignantly chronicles the birth to death eras of a gun dog's life, and a parting wish for the afterlife.

Home: Text

AVAILABILITY AND ORDERING: ON THIS SITE, OCTOBER 2020

_DSC7973Gaddis-Duel.JPG
Home: Image

ORDERS:

USPS only, to:
Duel
2699 Sam Moss-Hayes Road
Creedmoor, NC 27522

$75 US/Copy ppd, Shipping to US Only

Check or Money Order Only

Payable to Mike Gaddis

AVAILABILITY UPDATE:

Books Still Available (June 1, 2021)

After September 15, 2021 query

mgwrds@aol.com for current availability before ordering.

Include Name, number of copies desired, complete shipping address including zip code, and best phone number.

If you have special personal wishes for inscription, please provide details. If one or more copies are being ordered as a gift, please identify as such, and provide the name of each intended recipient, and likewise, special inscription requests, if any. Aside special instructions regarding inscription, personalization will be of the author's fashioning.

Thank you.

Read More
Home: Text

DUEL ON TABERNACLE MOUNTAIN

Home: Text
Search

Immortality . . .

"If I have any firm beliefs about immortality, it is that certain hunting dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few...

The Price of "Priceless" . . .

"The death of a dog is the price of a priceless possession." Jo Ann Moody, Upland Bird Outfitter, Down East Maine. I hunted grouse with...

Dog Days . . .

"A Season of Joy, A Season of Pain, All for the Treasures We find Between." from Zip Zap, The Story of a Dog and A Dream, Mike Gaddis

I would give you my years . . .

"You have wished, I am told," the old man continued. "I had the same wish, a long, many years ago." "I do not understand," he said. "You...

Truth hurts . . .

"If your dog's too fat, you're not getting enough exercise." Author unknown. Sporting Classics, Mar/Apr Issue

Almost Eden . . .

"When Eve fell to indiscretion in Eden, God gave us dogs to show what humankind could have been." MG

Aftermath & Afterthought . . .

In the aftermath of her ordeal, now almost two weeks home, Edie is almost perfectly her old self again, feisty and happy, and is rapidly...

Devotion finds its limit . . .

After the two probable sightings mid-morning of the day before, I had spent the rest of the day and night in the surrounding woods,...

Loss . . . continued

By the end of the third day after Edie disappeared, our family, with the help of close friends and neighbors, had physically posted in...

Loss . . . continued

Early evening, 2/10/19 Within an hour after Edie failed to return as usual, I was on the four-wheeler traveling the creek corridor, and...

Loss: Chillingly Swift & Mystical

2/26/19 First, two more important aspects of this story. There are so many: Edie is a rough-coated JR. We have always favored the...

1
2
Home: Blog2

Thanks for submitting!

Home: Subscribe
Home: Blog Feed
bottom of page