"Amen Corner," by Rick Shefchik

[David Sneddon]

I believe the editors of this book should be congratulated.  Originally, Rick's detective was based on a character from GCA. An example of some of the edited dialogue:

"Was this Rules official involved in the 2006 Rules revisions, and what was his input??"

"Explain his involvement in placing the additional trees on #11, and exactly how this reflects on MacKenzies original design??"

"Did he subscribe to the Arts and Crafts influence on golf course design??"

All in green type too..................

   

[Dan Kelly]

I believe the editors of this book should be congratulated.  Originally, Rick's detective was based on a character from GCA.

Actually, his original hero was a composite character, named Paul MacWood Huckaby-Mucci.

Tragically, P.M. H.-M. killed himself in Chapter One.

[Mike_Cirba]

Actually, his original hero was a composite character, named Paul MacWood Huckaby-Mucci.

Tragically, P.M. H.-M. killed himself in Chapter One.

Actually, Dan, I've contacted the coroners in Santa Clara, Columbus, South Bend, and Hamptons Prep and all concur that the composite character died of a tooth abcess.  

[Rick Shefchik]

Jim --

You're way ahead of me. I'm hoping this will be a series, but the idea is for sports-related thrillers, not just golf. The next one is about baseball. If given the chance, though, I'll definitely write another golf thriller before I base one on soccer or tennis.

Mike -- Even Dan has this one wrong. The original detective character was a golf course rater who couldn't afford his travel expenses and decided he needed to supplement his income by solving crimes in the exotic locales he visited, such as Agar, South Dakota and Valentine, Nebraska. It was going to be a "Route 66" kind of deal, but I'd put the guy in, say, Holyoke, Colorado, and nothing would happen, except that he kept running into Matt Ward. This, of course, provided the opportunity for dark farce, but it wasn't good thriller fodder.

[RJ_Daley]

Rick, you are coming very close to a thriller I already have contemplated, but have no talent nordicsipline to write. It was a flat out steal from the old series "I Spy" with Bill Cosby and Robt. Culp, playing the tennis bums who use the tennis circuit for cover to do their black bag of spy tricks.  In my story, it would be Stevie Williams and Tiger Woods using the pro golf circuit.  But then I thought, gee... Stevie is actually already very strong and a type A thrill seeker.  And Tiger is nearly an allien in his super hero abilities.  Maybe they really are two wild and crazy guys that do all manner of spy things in the back ground with the tour as a backdrop/cover.  

But, I digress...  I will be anxiously awaiting when you take this whole sports murder thriller series thing to the curling rink...  white men with brooms, bonspeils, take-outs... the tension is palpable.  

[Rick Shefchik]

Curling...doh! Why didn't I do that one first!

[Jim Nugent]

Rick, are you going to keep the same hero/detective character all through the series?

[Dan Kelly]

Even Dan has this one wrong. The original detective character was a golf course rater who couldn't afford his travel expenses and decided he needed to supplement his income by solving crimes in the exotic locales he visited, such as Agar, South Dakota and Valentine, Nebraska. It was going to be a "Route 66" kind of deal, but I'd put the guy in, say, Holyoke, Colorado, and nothing would happen, except that he kept running into Matt Ward. This, of course, provided the opportunity for dark farce, but it wasn't good thriller fodder.

You've got me thinking now.

"Matt Ward" is a *great* name for a thriller hero. Almost as good as "Sam Skarda."

And I think the nomadic-golf-nut setup has tons of possibility! Picture it:

Our hero, "Matt Ward," poses as a writer/editor for a magazine called The Garden State Golfer, but he spends half of every year traveling LOOOOONNNNNGGGGG distances through the Mountain Time Zone, stopping briefly to hit a few LOOOOONNNNNGGGGG drives from the appropriate (for guys like him) tees.

Along the way, our hero picks up a quaint Mountain Time Zone way of talking ("How 'bout doin' some o' your own heavy liftin', pardner? Capisce?"), files LOOOOONNNNNGGGGG reports for a Web site that doesn't pay him a penny, and leaves mystery in his wake wherever he goes -- to wit:

How in the world can he afford all of this?

Of course, we -- the faithful readers of the "Matt Ward" sagas -- know the truth. We know that "Matt Ward" is no mere writer -- but is, in fact, an extraordinarily wealthy (and, of course, attractive to the ladies) private eye ... hired by golf-course owners, developers and architects to ... oh, dear, I've written myself into a corner.

Help!

[Mike_Cirba]

Not only that, Dan, but our hero calls them as he sees them.

[Dan Kelly]

I see that "Amen Corner" has reached #841,508 on the Amazon best-seller list.

And it's months away from even being published!

C'mon, boys, let's get up it into the top three-quarters of a million. What do you say?

[Joe Hancock]

I see that "Amen Corner" has reached #841,508 on the Amazon best-seller list.

And it's months away from even being published!

C'mon, boys, let's get up it into the top three-quarters of a million. What do you say?

Dan,

You're bored, aren't you?

Joe

[Dan Kelly]

I see that "Amen Corner" has reached #841,508 on the Amazon best-seller list.

And it's months away from even being published!

C'mon, boys, let's get up it into the top three-quarters of a million. What do you say?

Dan,

You're bored, aren't you?

Joe

Joe --

Not yet!

But I have some bad news to report: As of two minutes ago, "Amen Corner" was down to #857,054.

So much for my marketing skills!

Dan

[Rick Shefchik]

Oh, no! I haven't officially been published yet, and already my book's in retail freefall!

[Dan Kelly]

Oh, no! I haven't officially been published yet, and already my book's in retail freefall!

It's a LOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNG fall to the bottom, pardner.