What is Hardboiled?

Some of you may not be familiar with the term hardboiled. Here are some the answers to that:

• A John Woo movie starring Chow Yun Fat
• A magazine published by Gary Lovisi/Gryphon Books out of Brooklyn
• A way to cook an egg
• A kind of popular fiction

There's a lot to say about this last bullet, but I am too damned tired to say it now. I just figured I'd broach the subject.

First Deke Rivers story bought by Hardboiled

Deke Rivers will make his debut on the pages of Hardboiled, a cool little pulp published by Gary Lovisi of Gryphon Books out of Brooklyn. Hardboiled harkens back to the days of the Black Mask, Dime Detective, and the classic pulps of the 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s.

The story is called "Number One with a Bullet," and pits Deke against a sniper terrorizing Nashville by singling out and killing members of country music's old guard, the stars of country's golden age.

I was hoping Deke would make his first public appearance in Hardboiled because it is old school and real. No holds barred, no pulled punches. It's the ultimate fighting competition of contemporary fiction.

I'll let you know which issue and how you can order a copy.

Deke Rivers, songwriter, private detective

Deke Rivers moved to Nashville in the mid-eighties. He drove down in a 1959 Cadillac Coupe De Ville. He had a Gibson J-200 in the drunk and a fifth of Jack Daniels in the glove box.

Everything seemed to go his way. Fast. He got a staff deal at a major publishing company. He got a couple of cuts right out of the box. Everyone figured he was on the fast track. But Deke has this uncanny way of pissing off the wrong people and shooting himself in the foot. Not literally, but close.

When his staff deal fell through and the money ran out, he figured he might make a good cop.

Let's just say that didn't exactly work out.

Somehow Deke ended up working as a private investigator, roaming the mean streets of Nashville. Country Music USA. Guitar Town. Nash Vegas.

Oh, the name. His real name is Marcus Aurellius Rivers, but when he was a kid, he saw the movie Loving You with Elvis Presley. In the movie, Elvis's character grows up in an orphanage, but runs away. He runs all through the night. When he wakes up, he is lying in a graveyard beneath a tombstone with the name Deke Rivers. Since he already had the last name and hated the his real first name, he started calling himself Deke Rivers from that moment on. And it stuck.

That's a little about him. I'll give you more soon.

Buy this book...as soon as I get it published

That says it all.