Category: Life and Other Odds & Ends

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 Tallahatchie 2nd Edition is Now Available.

Not only does the new Tallahatchie 2nd Edition have a new cover by designer Todd Hebertson (www.BookCoverArt.webs.com), it also has a newly redesigned interior with text edits included to better tell the story of Jack Hartman and his visit to the Mississippi Delta. Of course, I must give credit where it is due, so I want to pass on my special thanks to Dana Delamar (www.byyoursideselfpub.com) for the interior design, and to Danna Shirley and Carol Carlson for their help with editing and proofing.

Now available in both paperback and Kindle editions the Tallahatchie 2nd Edition can be purchased from the Amazon website at: (https://www.amazon.com/Tallahatchie-Southern-Fiction-Book-1-ebook/dp/B01I49BZAC).

And…for the first time, the Tallahatchie 2nd Edition, is also available in a hardcover edition. Contact me via the contact form on this site (www.rickdestefanis.com/contact) for more information.

Here are excerpts from a couple of reviews of Tallahatchie:

At its heart, good fiction (southern or any other kind) is about good characters, half of whom you want to smack or laugh at, and all the action, feel, or setting won’t make up for weak ones. The author…absolutely nails a time and a region and it is a very well written story. …it is simply a really good novel. Period!

–William F. Brown, Author

WOW! …DeStefanis has proven to be a consummate story-teller, (as he) paints an incredible picture of life in the poor, impoverished Mississippi (Delta), with water skis, and bass fishing, and truck stops, sweet tea, and trips to the river casinos, and deer hunting, and a crazy employee related to the sheriff, and Memphis Blues…The story-telling reminds me of some of the best non-lawyer fiction by Mississippi favorite John Grisham—like A Painted House.

–Robert Enzenauer

Check it out yourself. I think you will be delighted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.