A Newsletter Update From Rick DeStefanis

Posted on October 23, 2023 by rickd

If you received this email letter, it’s because you signed up on my website. Or it could be just because I love you and added you myself. Anyway, as always, you can simply unsubscribe below if you no longer wish to receive my newsletter.

I’ve been MIA (missing in action) for quite some time and apologies are probably warranted. Consider them offered. My goal is to do better in the future while continuing to avoid flooding your inbox with unnecessary emails. Right now, I want to update you on the last year or two and my most recent books for those who may have missed their publication.

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The Ghost, Rumors from the Highlands of Vietnam

In 2022 I wrote and published the seventh book in my Vietnam War Series. Titled The Ghost, Rumors from the Highlands of Vietnam, it is more of an adventure/war story than my past works. With a current Amazon rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars it has been well received. You can read more about it on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Rumors-Central-Highlands-Vietnam-ebook/dp/B0BBDF4YZS.

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The Road to Yellowstone

In 2023 I changed the Rawlins Trilogy to the Rawlins Saga and published a fourth book in the series titled, Rawlins, The Road to Yellowstone. And, as an aside and in answer to a reviewer who mentioned similarities of Book #1 of the Rawlins Saga (No Longer Young) to the Yellowstone 1883 television series: My works were written and published well before the TV series. The similarities, however, are uncanny. I’d go on strike too if my television series was so well copi…excuse me, I mean written. You can read more about Book #4 The Road to Yellowstone at: https://www.amazon.com/Rawlins-Road-Yellowstone-Saga-Book-ebook/dp/B0C5W9HVX1.

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Coming Next Spring 2024

Specter of Betrayal

Book #2 of The Ghost

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I’m working on a sequel to The Ghost, Rumors from the Central Highlands. This is Book Two and titled for now as Specter of Betrayal. The sub-title is yet to be determined and may be announced only when the book comes out in the spring of 2024. However, the cover image will not change, and here it is.

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If you’ve read any of my books, liked them, and haven’t written a review on Amazon or Goodreads, I would be especially appreciative if you did. It doesn’t have to be War and Peace, but a few lines on why you liked it would help both me and other readers. Each book review on each book that you read builds readers’ confidence in how they spend their hard-earned money.

I’ll try to act with more diligence and send another update next month. Thanks for reading my stories, and please remember our military veterans. They’ve earned a special recognition that we should award them all. And to my fellow paratroopers, “AIRBORNE, ALL THE WAY!”

Tornado Repairs, A New Audio Book and Other News

Posted on March 28, 2020 by rickd

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?

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

David Watson on The Gomorrah Principle

Posted on June 7, 2015 by rickd

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