Rick DeStefanis

Rick’s Blog

  • What’s Next?

    Another Western Novel or Another Novel in The Vietnam War Series?

     

    In recent weeks I’ve heard from several readers asking “What’s next?” And the questions come from both the readers of my Vietnam War Series and readers of my newest novel, Rawlins, No Longer Young. The problem is I lack the talent to write two novels simultaneously. There are most certainly (God willing) two coming, one in each of the genres, but I beg your patience.

    Rawlins, No Longer Young is available in Kindle, paperback and hardcover editions.

    I am currently working on the second Rawlins book, Rawlins, Into Montana. It’s now up to four chapters and Rawlins has arrived in Virginia City, Montana. There’s more I could tell you about the story, but don’t want to ruin it for you, especially if you haven’t read the first one in the series. Optimistically, it may be out by late summer, after which I will begin on Book #5 in The Vietnam War series.
    The next Vietnam Series book is already working in the back of my mind and will be a tip of the hat to several readers/friends who are former military officers. That is the most I will say about it right now.
    In the meantime, I continue providing logistical assistance as assistant general manager to the madam queen in the form of “honey-dos.” And in an effort to help me remain in some vague semblance of passible physical condition, she’s joined me to the local YMCA. I also continue to do my own yardwork (to help with the physical conditioning) and of course, there are fish that must be caught. After those chores are attended to, I commit a great deal of the remaining time to writing. Therefore you will hopefully understand my inability to produce a book a month like some other authors.
    I will be announcing a new cover for Tallahatchie in a few days. Stay tuned.

  • New Cover For Melody Hill

    A Snapshot of The Melody Hill Story

    First and foremost, a request:  If you have already read Melody Hill (or for that matter—any of my books) and haven’t yet written and posted your review on Amazon and Goodreads, I really wish you would consider doing it now. Your support and your review can make a difference.

    Now, on to the latest blog post: Fantastic cover designer, Todd Hebertson (his contact info is included below), has designed a new cover for the Third Edition of Melody Hill, Book #1 in the Vietnam War Series. Also, a new,  more descriptive and concise book summary has been written for the back cover and for booksellers’ such as Amazon and Ingram to use on their sites.

    The new story summary is as follows:

    When Army sniper Duff Coleridge is recruited into a CIA advisor’s Special Operations Group in Vietnam, he little realizes how much of his soul he will be required to sacrifice. Vietnam is a world away from Melody Hill, his home in the mountains of east Tennessee, and Duff quickly finds the clear moral lines of life back home are blurred in the glare of an enigmatic war. His CIA boss, who seems more rogue than company man, is dealing arms on the black market while delivering a seemingly arbitrary and ruthless justice to the local populace. When Duff meets and falls in love with a beautiful young South Vietnamese woman, Lynn Dai Bouchet, he is left to his own instincts to decide if her advances are based on true affection or are merely a means of exploitation. Is she a Vietcong spy, as his CIA boss claims, or is she someone like himself, trying to do her part while making the best of a bad situation? Duff soon realizes he must get out before it’s too late, but only then discovers he is already trapped in a lethal game of cat and mouse.

    The next project will be to work with Todd to redesign the cover for my Southern Fiction novel, Tallahatchie. The story summary will be updated for that one as well, along with some interior text edits. This will be the second edition for Tallahatchie when it is completed.

    Check out more of Todd’s work at BookCoverArt.webs.com  and please send me your comments.

  • Rawlins, No Longer Young

    Rawlins No Longer Young is now available…

    Yes, this historical western novel, Rawlins No Longer Young, is now available on Amazon in three formats: the Kindle edition as well as both the paperback and hardcover editions. If you happen to be a wholesaler or bookstore, the Ingram wholesale pipeline is still about seven days from being ready for orders. For those interested in author-signed hardcovers, (yes, by yours truly), contact me via the website at Rick DeStefanis – The Word Hunter.   I will be able to provide those for a short time, on a limited basis at a flat rate of $32 dollars. Just don’t expect them overnight.

    Rawlins, No Longer Young is available in Kindle, paperback and hardcover editions.

    Here is the story summary: Virgil Rawlins is left without family or friends as he is swept into the maelstrom that encompasses the last years of the American Civil War. Lost in a world of brutality and inhumanity, the teenaged Rawlins matures—as did many of the Wild West’s first outlaws—with revenge and hatred as his only motivations. He heads westward before the war’s end, making his way to the town of Independence and the Oregon Trail, but along the way, he meets the remarkably beautiful Sarah McCaskey and learns that the rights and wrongs in his life cannot be defined simply as blue and gray.

    When Sarah tells Rawlins of her loss to Confederate guerrilla Bloody Bill Anderson, Rawlins begins to question his own assumptions. Joining a wagon train as a hunter/scout, he heads westward into the raging Indian War of 1865. Along the way, he earns a reputation as a well-respected fighter and he must finally decide what kind of man he will be—outlaw, lawman or perhaps, neither.

    Yes, as with all my protagonists, Rawlins has a woman who stands behind him, beside him and sometimes in front of him. Sarah McCaskey, like Lacey Coleridge in The Gomorrah Principle and Janie Jorgensen in Valley of The Purple Hearts, is my strong female secondary protagonist. Sorry, dear readers, I am an incurable romantic and a believer in the positive influence women have had on all men in history.

    I end this blog post with one respectful request: If you like Rawlins No Longer Young, please post your review of the story on Amazon and Goodreads as soon as you read it. It doesn’t have to be a lengthy review, but the more you say about the story the better. I am posting an advertisement for the book in the November issue of True West Magazine, and it will be helpful if potential new readers see your reviews.

    I would also like to receive your comments directly. Send them to me.

    Please enjoy these other articles

    Rawlins: Historical Fiction and Western Book

    Road Trip: Jackson Hole and Rawlins Research