BVC Presents Cover Stories: CHICKPEA DEL & THE FABLED TREE OF DESTINY

Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
February 26, 2025

Greetings, genre fiction fans. Welcome to Cover Stories, in which an author shares a book, what’s on its cover, a hint of what’s inside and some insider info on their creation.

So, what’s the book of the day?

CHICKPEA DEL & THE FABLED TREE OF DESTINY

Launch date: 02/25/25

What’s on the cover?

Chickpea Del (aka Cicerone), Merlin to Hismajesty King of Embarcadero, stares up at the wizardly hat that sits atop his head … and doubts his right to wear it. He is embraced by the boughs of the Fabled TOD (aka Doug) and overshadowed by Golden Gate Bridge, symbol of the San Francisco that was.

What’s inside?

Most wizards have staffs, wands, or mediums. Chickpea Del has a tree…

Some time in the future of San Francisco, the Kingdom of Embarcadero is under siege. Elvis, Alcalde of Potrero-Taraval wants to steal its secrets, mysterious outsiders want to expel its citizens, and an ancient and sinister Force threatens an even more horrific fate. Salvation rests on the slender shoulders of a young wizard named Chickpea Del and his unlikely allies — a red-haired Chinese girl, a ghostly tribe of Mission Indians and a small fir tree named Doug.

Where’d all that come from?

I first met Del in a dream, saw him sitting in a window embrasure in quiet company with the Fabled Tree (aka, Doug). Just a boy and his fir sapling. I first heard his very distinctive voice as I was driving home from work one day up a winding mountain road and he began telling me his story. “Hello, I’m Chickpea Del,” he said, “and this is my story: You see, Lord E Lordy wanted the Wiz. That’s where the Last Little War got started.” I kept Del talking until I got home and was able to write down everything he had to tell me.

No, I am not kidding. And I am not alone in this. The late and much-loved Ursula LeGuin would tell you that this sort of thing happens to writers all the time.

In a very real sense, I did not write this novel alone. My collaborator’s byline is in the title.

What have reviewers/readers said about CHICKPEA DEL?

Since Chickpea Del was never published as a full novel by a traditional publisher, it didn’t go through the process of garnering reviews. But it did acquire one amazing champion at Book View Café—the late and greatly missed Vonda McIntyre, who lovingly formatted the original manuscript and who gave me this wonderful testimonial.

“The book charmed me. I fell in love with (Del) and Firescape — and Doug. Bohnhoff’s prose is inventive, yet transparent: a dialect comprehensible to contemporary readers but also perfectly evolved for its near-future setting. It can also be very, very funny. When I had to put the story down, I looked forward to picking it up again. After I finished it, I kept expecting to be able to go back to it, because the characters’ lives extended beyond ‘The End.’ I hope I get to read those adventures, too.” — Vonda N. McIntyre, author

What else should I know?

Chickpea Del’s story was first published as a novella in Amazing Stories magazine under the title “Taco Del and the Fabled Tree of Destiny”. My agent so loved the characters and the world they inhabited, that he asked if I could write an entire novel about them. Well, duh.

And, of course, the book is available from my book page in the BookViewCafe online bookstore. AND, you can purchase a trade paperback edition on Amazon.