Tornado Repairs, A New Audio Book and Other News

This update is to let everyone know what’s been happenning around here in recent months: The tornado cleanup, the Covid-19 sequesture and YES, finally my new audiobook. And, oh yeah, the fifth book in my Vietnam War Series is soon to be published.

My wife and I live in rural Mississippi. Unlike our neighbors up in Tennessee, our area suffered no deaths during the recent tornado outbreak. Despite a massive amount of property damage there were only some pets and livestock killed in DeSoto County Mississippi. We send prayers to those who lost loved ones up around Nashville and Cookville. As for the local scene: The roof and gutters have now been replaced on the house, courtesy of Liberty Mutual, and all the big oak trees have been chain sawed into pieces and bulldozed away. Even after two months it promises to be a long cleanup effort.

Although Janet is required to work, we are minimizing our trips outside the house with the COVID-19 threat. There has also been a record amount of rainfall in the last month, restricting me to mostly indoor activities, and thus bringing long delayed projects to the top of my “to-do-list.” I’ve been cleaning out the barn, cleaning the shop, changing the oil in every mower, trimmer and machine I own, making and freezing six quarts of spaghetti gravy, opening the desktop computer and vacuuming the dust. Hell, I even made a failed attempt to till the muddy garden….I could go on, but I believe you get the idea.

So, what’s next?

A New Audio Book

The Gomorrah Principle is now available as a new audio book.

 

How about an audiobook?  Yes.  My award-winning novel, The Gomorrah Principle, is now available as an audiobook through Amazon audible. Most of my faithful readers prefer print or ebooks, but some have said, “I don’t have time to read books. Let me know when it’s out in audible.”………Well:

IT’S OUT!!

Click the link below to order your copy:

https://www.audible.com/pd/B0868DR925/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-185568&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_185568_rh_us

COMING SOON.

My next book, The Birdhouse Man, will be the fifth in The Vietnam War Series and is a story about an aging Vietnam War veteran telling his story to a young journalism major for her senior thesis. It will be out in the next couple weeks.

 Check out more books at: www.rickdestefanis.com 

Raindrops Keep Falling on my head….Yea!!

Rain–Rain at Last…

YES! I admit it. That was me you heard yelling. I was out there in the yard this morning near dawn with arms outstretched, facing heavenward, and turning in circles in the glorious rainfall. It’s been thirty-something days here in this part of Mississippi without a drop. One gulf hurricane went left, two went right. The only thing hanging over us was that big blue “H” on the weather map. The grass had turned brown and the trees were shedding crinkly dead brown leaves. The only things that hadn’t turned brown were my wife Janet’s artificial ferns. They were just a little dusty.

Me after the rain.
Well, sort of…

And, before, I go further: I really don’t want to hear from you my friends living out west where this drought thing is considered normal. Really. Yes, I know. I am spoilt. We get on average nearly an inch a week—roughly four and a half inches a month down here in Mississippi. We may curse the summer humidity and this our often jungle-rainforest environment, but our grass, our trees, and our critters expect it, and when that doesn’t happen…well, it gets ugly. Even the hummingbirds were doing barrel-rolls this morning.

Hummingbird doing a barrel roll

It began thundering and booming a little after nightfall yesterday evening. It sounded very much like a major artillery barrage, which is why I actually showed good-judgment for once and did not do my “thank you” rain dance last night. But it wasn’t the thunder and lightning that kept me awake last night. No.

It was that slurping sound coming from the grass and trees. Those of which hadn’t already succumbed to this “Death Valley” drought were sounding like a dehydrated camel at a desert oasis.

Even now, I walk in the grass, and it’s not squishy. Rather, it cracks like water-gorged celery beneath my feet. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing, but at least if it isn’t, it’s dying a happy death with its last drink of water. Reckon I’ll go out and check the battery on the lawnmower later.

Oh, and by the way, many of you have asked me if I was ever going to produce any of my novels as audiobooks. The answer was always, that I “might” consider it. Well, I am now moving ahead on an experimental basis to do one. Whether or not I choose to do more will depend on the results of this first project. That’s where your reader comments—or in this case, “listener” comments—will become a critical part of the decision. A more formal announcement and progress-update will be made in a few months.

Check this out: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00H2YO2SS

And, as always, please send me your comments.

They Are Listening

Pay Attention to the RED FLAGS

Okay. Way back in the day, before it was cool or trendy or whatever, I was trained by the military for long-range recon. One of the things they taught us was to pay attention to our instincts—those subconscious red flags that occasionally wave well back in the depths of our minds. You know what I mean, I’m sure—the ones we often overlook, those little hints of darkness from which the timid quickly look away.

Now, I’m not a big conspiracy nut. I do believe we landed on the moon, and I do believe Nancy and Bernie are simply idiots and not controlled by George Soros, but there are some things nowadays we need to seriously question.

Here’s an example: It’s a Tuesday—2/19/19 to be exact—and I call an old buddy. He’s a crop-duster pilot. I mean he owns a fleet of planes—yes, and a whole lot more, but I won’t go into his somewhat classified resume. Anyway, it’s his birthday, so I give him a call. We shuck and jive a while and I repeatedly wish him “Happy Birthday” and tell him he’s pushing the envelope on becoming an official “senior citizen.”
After a few minutes, I hang up. As the God who looks over us all is my witness, three to four minutes later my cell phone starts buzzing and doing whatever cell phones do when you’re supposed to answer them. I do, but it’s not a call. It’s a text message:

+1 (818) 592-2144
Hi Rick, Birthday’s are a great
Time to review your Medicare
Coverage and options. Call your
Agent now at 818-592-2143 or
text STOP to unsubscribe.

Call it a coincidence only if you wish to steadfastly ignore the red flags, but don’t tell me the bastards aren’t listening. This is not the first “coincidence” of this nature I’ve experienced. And yes, I will testify ON THE RECORD.

And if I frightened any thumb-sucking snowflakes with this post, both Melody Hill and The Gomorrah Principle would be good reads for you. They are both novels based on real events that involved a lot of good but naïve men during the Vietnam War. Not paranoid? That’s okay. The world is full of sheep.

The Gomorrah Principle by Rick DeStefanis book cover image.

The Award-Winning Novel by Rick DeStefanis