January 5, 2004 For more information: Frank R. Scatoni 619-807-1887 frank@ventureliterary.com "No Kill Date" Venture Literary Sells A Season Inside the Professional Bull Riders Tour to Rodale and Orion On January 5, 2004, Greg Dinkin of Venture Literary, representing New Orleans Times-Picayune and APSE award-winning journalist Josh Peter, sold the North American rights to Fried Twinkies, Buckle Bunnies, & Bull Riders: A Year Inside the Professional Bull Riders Tour to Pete Fornatale at Rodale. U.K. rights were acquired by Mark Rusher at Weidenfeld & Nicolson, an imprint of Orion Books. "Bull riding," according to Newsweek, "at this highest competitive level takes the poignancy of minor-league baseball—young dreamers with a shot at big money—and shoots it up with boxing’s adrenaline, its irresistible blood and guts. No wonder Professional Bull Riders, the pro circuit, is now selling out 20,000-seat arenas." Peter will focus on PBR’s personalities—the bulls, the breeders, the talent scouts, the agents, the groupies, and, especially, the star riders. Using the 2003 PBR finals to begin the narrative, he’ll spend a year inside the tour, weaving the drama of twenty-nine events with the human, outside-the-ring stories of the personalities that are competing for the top prize in the sport. Just as Stefan Fatsis did in Word Freak and James McManus did in Positively Fifth Street, Peter tells the fascinating story of an amazing subculture that has gone wildly mainstream. Josh Peter is the lead sports enterprise writer for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and since 1994 his work has earned regular honors from what’s arguably the most prestigious group in sports journalism, the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE). Peter’s 1993 piece about a mentally retarded man adopted by a high school football team in South Carolina not only produced his first national award from APSE but also led to the recently released major motion picture Radio, starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Ed Harris, and Debra Winger. Several of Peter’s in-depth features have appeared in The Sporting News, and his numerous writing honors include four Louisiana Press Association awards for best sports story. He is a graduate of Northwestern University. To learn more about Venture Literary, visit: www.ventureliterary.com. To learn more about Rodale, visit: http://www.rodale.com/