UPDATE

So, just exactly what has Rick been up to since the release of his last book? We asked him for an update, to give us a peek into what we can expect to see in the near future! Here is his response:

"In early 2006, I signed with a new agent, Jacky Sach of Bookends, Inc. We have been trying to find a home for the first book in my new Judd Wheeler series, Six Mile Creek. Wheeler is the chief of police in a three-cop North Carolina town which looks a great deal like the town where I live. This fictional place, Prosperity, provides a backdrop for small-town intrigue and crime. I like to think of it as Mayberry gone very, very wrong. I've already penned the second book in the series, with the working title Thunder Moon. Now, if we can only get the first one sold...

Just this past weekend, I completed a cover-to-cover revision of a book I've had in the works for almost three years, featuring a forensic psychologist who has Asperger's Syndrome, a type of high-functioning autism. Any resemblance between this protagonist and myself is purely coincidental. I think. Keep an eye peeled for The Unresolved Seventh. But don't forget to blink!

For those of you who have been asking when the next Pat Gallegher novel will come out, I wish I had an adequate answer for you. The fifth book in this series is in progress - but the going is very slow. Entitled Paid In Spades, this novel proves that you should be very careful what you promise. While trying to find a missing friend, Gallegher becomes involved in smuggling and runs afoul of the Brazilian mob in New Orleans. There's a strong ecological backstory in this tale, which should be finished later this year. In the mean time, I have finished a Pat Gallegher short story entitled The Gods For Vengeance Cry, which takes place in Prosperity, North Carolina, and serves to introduce the protagonist of my Judd Wheeler books. It's being circulated to all the usual suspects as we speak.

Eamon Gold fans, I haven't forgotten you! An Eamon Gold short story, The Gospel According to Gordon Black, appeared in the Fall issue of the Thrilling Detective Website. It won the 2008 SMFS Derringer Award in the 4001-8000 Word Category!

Another of my short stories, written under my pseudonym Eric Shane, was published in The Back Alley Webzine in June, 2007. Entitled Paper Walls/Glass Houses, it won the 2008 SMFS Derringer Award in the 8001-17500 Word Category!

Wildside Press was supposed to publish Fedora IV, an anthology edited by Michael Bracken, but I received word just a couple of weeks ago that they've pulled the plug on that title. It was supposed to feature an Eamon Gold short entitled Silicon Kings. Now that the rights have bounced back to me on that one, I'm looking for a home for it. Thrilling Detective has shown some interest, so we may see it in electronic print sometime in the Spring or Summer of 2008.

In the mean time, I'm working on the third novel in this series, with the working title Brittle Karma. In this one, Gold decides to work on spec, trying to recover the loot from a twenty-year-old armored car robbery for the insurance. What he doesn't know is that he isn't the only person looking for it, and the other guys are willing to kill to get it away from him.

Finally, I've been hard at work on the first novel featuring a new series character, a Miami private eye named Cormac Loame. Set in late 1958, The Mojito Coast takes place almost entirely in Havana near the very end of the Batista regime. It includes a number of cameo appearances by the celebrities, mobsters, and historical figures who populated Havana just before the revolution. If you like your detective stories hardboiled with a touch of noir, you want to run a stakeout on this one.

I know it's been a long time since Cordite Wine, my last book, was released. Believe me, I would love to have been able to keep the momentum going. This publishing game is a crazy business, though, and right now I'm working my tail off to find a new publishing home. I'm not sitting on my hands, though. By the time we do find a publisher for my titles, I plan to have a healthy backlist ready to go."