Rick DeStefanis

Category: Uncategorized

  • Scooter Red and the Spirits of The Dead

    If there’s a way to say something positive, I am going to do it. Life is good. How’s that? I mean this old age gig is a little rough—okay, the pain has no gain—but it beats not feeling anything. Let’s get back on the positive side. I just finished the first draft of my next book in The Ghost Series, Scooter Red and the Spirits of The Dead. It’s currently with the first editor.

    Scooter Red: The next book coming in The Long War Home Series.

    It’s about a Cajun army sergeant’s unwilling involvement in the Vietnam War. Yeah, it does take some explaining, but that’s why I’m writing the book. That’s a good thing too. With some luck, I hope to have it published before Christmas. I’ll send you a story summary just before it’s published.

    They (they being the weather forecast people) promise this dry-roaster heat wave we’ve been stuck in for the last month or two is supposed to end this week. Yes!! We’re going to have a veritable cold spell with temps in the low nineties and high eighties. I’m so giddy, I’m gonna break out the insulated overalls and down jacket. That’s something positive.

    I planted the turnip greens, too, which means I’ve got to go to Piggly Wiggly and buy some smoked ham hocks in the next month or two. And I realize those of you who know me are saying my primary vice is fried chicken, but turnip greens cooked with ham hocks and served with skillet-baked cornbread definitely finish in the top ten. That’s a good thing.

    Some of you may have noticed my various book advertisements. If you haven’t seen the video ad where Claire Cunningham meets Sam Walker for the first time at the Appalachian State University campus craft fair, check this out. The Birdhouse Man video trailer beginning tomorrow (September 24th) on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/NNdHmiHyhWE  I think it’s pretty good. Let me know what you think.

    So, I don’t want to drive you too nuts with my positivity, but I’ve always preferred a good Bourbon instead of a whine, which means I must go now. Thank you for reading my blog post, and may the college football team of your choice experience happiness and some degree of success, which means they should avoid playing SEC teams when possible.

    Happy Autumn.

    Rick DeStefanis

  • Big Time Casino Winner

    Huge Jack-Pot—Big Time Casino Winner

    I am sick and tired of you non-believers—you folks who bob your eyebrows and smile when I tell you that I won big at the casino. Yes, I hear it constantly. Other people who get the same reactions tell me how they go to the casino and win all the time, yet you skeptics don’t believe them. Well, I fixed it. I am providing proof. Yes, I saved my winning tickets and took photos of them, just so I could show you, skeptics. Brent Maverick ain’t got nothin’ on this gambler. I go and dominate those one-armed bandits. I go and I take home winnings every time.

    Not only that, they know me by name. I’m special down at the casino I am addressed as “Mister” and they cater to my every whim. I get personalized letters from them, and they give me greasy fried chicken, greasy fried shrimp, flavorless boiled crab-legs, leather-like pizza, over-cooked prime rib, paper-thin steaks, and so many other culinary debacles that I can’t describe them all—AND IT IS ALL FEE!!

    No, that isn’t a typo. There is a small fee. All I have to do is put my plastic card in their machine and shove thirty, forty or fifty dollars into the one-armed bandit and I am mailed a ticket to receive all that wonderful food. Heck fire! There was even a poor gal in a too-tight tutu bringing me free liquor while I was doing it. ‘course, if I didn’t tip her, I got only one drink.

    SO…this Mississippi gambler showed the Casino. Yes, I did. They can build those huge gambling palaces and pay all those employees with all you loser’s money. Me, I’m a winner. I can put fifty bucks in each machine, but at the end of the night, I win a ticket. And here are the tickets to prove it. By the way: anybody know the difference between a cashout voucher and a cashout ticket? Just thinkin’ I oughta know ‘for I go to collect my winnings.

    You may also enjoy: Book One of My Southern Fiction Series: Tallahatchie

  • What Writers Do When They’re Bored

    I took some time off from working on my next novel to get photos of the critters that have been hanging around the neighborhood this summer. It all began a few weeks ago when my wife and I spotted a litter of Fox kits in a neighbor’s yard. It was after dark and they were standing well off the road when the headlights caught them. A few days later, I was down at the road getting the mail when Blondie, my male Labrador, ran three baby coons up a tree. Then still later my neighbor, Tish Pierce called and said the coons were in her cherry tree having lunch. I figured it was time to break out the camera. So, these are some pics of the coons.

    uh oh

    Smile, he’s taking our picture.

     

    Baby Coons

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Meanwhile……………………

     

     

    A couple nights ago my wife and I heard a strange sound just outside our bedroom window. It was around midnight and I thought perhaps something had caught a rabbit. Grabbing a flashlight, I went to check things out, figuring it was one of our cats that had caught something. When I rounded the corner of the house, the three, now much larger, fox kits had a neighbor’s cat surrounded. They scattered and the cat bolted across the yard and under a wood fence. End of that, I figured. Wrong!

    I got back in bed only to hear a cat squalling under the same window twenty minutes later. Grabbing the flashlight, I again head out. This time I rounded the corner to find one of the foxes has returned and had our yellow tomcat “Tater Tot” backed against the wall of the house. The lone fox ran away and Tot all but jumped into my arms. I tossed him into the laundry room for the night and finally got some sleep.

    The photo below of one of the young foxes a day later. He was resting at the edge of the woods in the neighbor’s backyard.

    Young Fox in the Backyard

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    You may also enjoy: GoldFinch Sunflower Seed Heist and Road Rage Recipe