Rick DeStefanis

Rick’s Blog

  • David Watson on The Gomorrah Principle

    Blogger David Watson writes about The Gomorrah Principle

    David Watson wrote a piece about The Gomorrah Principle, and I must say it made me feel pretty good about my efforts as a writer and an author, especially coming from someone who writes with Watson’s authority. His comments are below:

    The late 1960s was a tumultuous time in American history. The Vietnam war was in full swing and several young men went off to war and didn’t return. One of those men was Duff Cowan who left behind evidence suggesting that he was part of a secret operation and his death may have been a homicide. Two of the people affected by his death were his sister Lacey and his best friend Brady Nash. Despite Lacey’s protests, Brady enlists in the army and heads to Vietnam to find the men responsible for Duff’s death.

    Brady becomes one of the best snipers in the Vietnam  and works his way into the secret organization that cost Duff his life. Little by little Brady discovers that not everything is as it seems and it’s hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys. Brady finds himself involved in a world of spies, double agents and he sees that the lines between good and evil are blurred.

    The Gomorrah Principle by Rick DeStefanis is more than a war-time thriller. This is also a story about love, friendship, loyalty and morality. I’ll admit right away that I’m not a big reader of war stories but Rick DeStefanis had me hooked from the start. The beginning of the story focuses on Brady and you get to learn about his feelings towards Duff and Lacey. Then we find out about what happened to one of the people who went away to war and came back. At this point you feel like you know Brady personally and you’re concerned for him as he goes on a journey that he feels he has to take.

    The Gomorrah Principle is a masterpiece with strong characters and an exciting story-line. I enjoyed how Brady worries about loosing his humanity as he has to start killing people and how he still hopes that some day he can go home and have a normal life with Lacey. I liked that we also got to hear Lacey’s story in this book, I felt it added more depth to an already complex story. A good war story should also be about the people soldiers leave behind and this one gets into how Lacey is affected by Brady’s absence.

    Another thing I liked about this book is how it shows that people on both sides of the war have their own agenda and everyone is a shade of grey. In one of my favorite scenes a Vietnamese woman says that this is a civil war and America should not be here. She goes on to say she is leaving the country because she is not sure she can trust anyone on either side of the conflict. I loved that this story looked at the war from the Vietnamese perspective as well as the American perspective. This novel leaves nothing out showing how the soldiers  in the war felt and how the people effected by it felt. We also get a vivid description of what it’s like being a soldier under attack. Rick DeStefanis spent time in the armed forces and describes the fighting in vivid detail from his own experience. Even if you don’t like war stories you should read this book anyway because it’s a good story period.

    My personal thanks to David Watson.

    Rick DeStefanis

  • Cajun Country Roadtrip

    Cajun Country Road Trip

    My wife Janet and I have traveled extensively within the US and found people in most places pleasant, but sometimes of varying temperaments and hospitality. Never have we met a populace so uniformly polite and pleasant as the folks in the Cajun Country of Louisiana. From the hotel staff to the convenience store clerks, restaurant employees and people we passed on the street, almost to a person we were met with smiles and greetings from total strangers. And they weren’t the canned ones necessitated by the

    Cajun Country Gator on Bayou Black
    Gator on Bayou Black in Cajun Country

    demands of business, but those of a genuine and pleasant people. One of our goals on these little trips is to skip the chains and touristy places and visit the places where the local folks go. We visited two this trip, and both were good picks.

    The first we discovered while driving in the middle of nowhere in Terrebonne Parish near a town called Bayou Black. A nondescript little building with a gravel parking lot, the Bayou Delight Restaurant was surrounded by vehicles with local tags. We turned around and went back, and we were not disappointed. There was live music (an old gentleman on a synthesizer who could sing more Cajun tunes than I have ever heard) and good food: just about any crab, crawfish, shrimp… (…I could go on for a while here) dish you could imagine. There was dancing and good conversation from everyone. We were made to feel welcome, even to the point of receiving our Honorary Cajun Certificates. If you want the genuine experience with genuine good folks check out the Bayou Delight Restaurant.

    Gator and A Turtle Hiding in plain sight
    Gator and A Turtle Hiding in Plain Sight

    The second place we visited, Gros Marina, is in Saint Martin Parish. It was literally six miles down a road along Four Mile Bayou near the little town of Stephensville, on Highway 70 north of Morgan City, Louisiana. There is one road that winds along the banks of the bayou, turning to gravel before ending near Gros Marina. This means you drive six miles into this little piece of Cajun Country and six miles out, but it’s worth the trip. The locals travel there mostly by boat (everything from kayaks and aluminum bass-boats to double-deck houseboats). After photographing gators, turtles, egrets, nutria and a variety of wildlife on the way in, we arrived to meet Leroy Gros and his youngest son, Ben. Ben explained that there is food and music there every weekend during the summer. We enjoyed Burgers and Fries and a bucket of beer on the covered veranda beside the bayou. Now, don’t go looking for a lot of fancy digs here. Matter of fact, if you drive in, there’s only one small sign at the entrance, and you’ll have to make your way past outboards hanging for repair in order to get back to the marina. What you will find are good people and a pleasant time “down on the bayou.”

    Yellow Crowned Night Heron with a Crawdad
    Yellow Crowned Night Heron with a Crawdad
    Piggy Back Turtles on Four Mile Bayou
    Piggy Back Turtles on Four Mile Bayou

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Lastly, if you are reading or have read one of my novels and like(d) it, please go to Amazon.com and leave a review of the book. Tell others why you liked it. The next novel will hopefully be out in the Fall. It will not be a military thriller like Melody Hill or The Gomorrah Principle, but more of a love story about a vet recovering from the horrors of combat. I guarantee it will make you laugh, despite the serious subject matter. The tentative title is Raeford’s MVP.

  • Melody Hill the Novel

    Melody Hill, a War Novel, an Espionage Thriller

    and a Love Story

    Melody Hill, the prequel to the award-winning novel The Gomorrah Principle is now available in both paperback and Kindle editions at http://amzn.to/1n7rGmM. You may also contact the author, Rick DeStefanis here to purchase a personally signed paperback copy.

    Melody Hill Cover Designed by Todd Herbertson
    Melody Hill Cover Designed by Todd Hebertson

     

    Melody Hill is the story of Duff Coleridge, a boy from the hills of Tennessee who makes the hard decision to enter the military in order to help support his family. A natural warrior, Duff quickly works his way into a Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol unit and is later recruited into a Special Operations Group. Only after he arrives does he realize his group is under the control of an arbitrary and ruthless CIA agent. When he discovers the rogue agent is involved in drug running and arms sales, Duff must rely on his instincts in order to survive the conflict with his boss.

    Melody Hill is a military thriller that exceeds its genre classification with strong elements of espionage and romance. It is the first book in The Gomorrah Principle Series, but as several reviewers have indicated, can be read either before or after Book #2, The Gomorrah Principle.

    Here is a review by Robert Enzenauer: 5.0 out of 5 stars, A book for EVERYONE who wants to understand his veteran FATHER or FRIEND, By Robert Enzenauer, March 15, 2016

    Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

    I have now read ALL of DeStefanis’ three novels. And I love them all. MELODY HILL and THE GOMORRAH PRINCIPLE both stand alone, so the reader can read either one first. DeStefanis has written now three Vietnam-era books of fiction that are on par with the best of James Webb, del Vecchio, Tim O’Brien, and Josiah Bunting. His descriptive writing is so realistic, the reader knows and feels that the author is a veteran “who has been there.” I myself was commissioned after the War in Vietnam was just over, but DeStefanis’ story rings true with the many stories I heard from friends and veterans just a little older than me, stories of corruption of Vietnam’s puppet government and the CIA and the US military often caught in the middle. The author’s description of combat are vivid, and his writing is so descriptive that the reader can feel and smell the muck at the bottom of the ever-present rice paddies. I am so glad that this author chose to become an author. The current group of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans will appreciate the honest and accurate story-telling of this author.

    Please leave your comments here on the blog and on Facebook, and post a review at www.Amazon.com or your favorite retailer’s site. Reviews help with sales, and your help will be very much appreciated.