A Coup for Ben Bridges

Now this is exciting news just in. The other half of Piccadilly Publishing, David Whitehead aka Ben Bridges, tells me that he is to be credited as an Associated Producer on the upcoming movie DAY OF THE GUN starring Golden Globe and Academy Award nominee Eric Roberts. The film is written and directed by Wayne Shipley. Mr. Roberts joins a cast of talented area actors including LaDon Hall, Jim Osborn, Jason Brown, Sam Lukowski, Erin Heilman, Susan Osborn, Brian St. August, John C. Bailey, Richard Cutting, Johnny Alonso, Raw Leiba, Earl Klemm, Jim Holland, Jerry Gietka, and Jonathan Ruckman.

Filmed largely on location in Maryland, "Day of the Gun" features scenic Montana locations shot specifically for this production. Principal photography will wrap on May 4, 2013. The premiere is planned for August 2013.

"Day of the Gun" is about a range war started over a barbed wire fence. Widow Maggie Carter threatens “there will be hell to pay” unless cattle baron Cyrus McCall takes down the wire that threatens her survival as a rancher. The conflict escalates when their children get involved and a mysterious stranger from Maggie’s past comes back into her life. Told in flashback by eighty-year-old former newspaper editor Simon Doubleday, Day of the Gun is set in Singletree, Montana, a 1890s mining and cattle town. Doubleday recalls the town’s glory days, full of life and hope - and heartbreak.

The picture promises to appeal to a wide audience of movie enthusiasts looking for action, intrigue, love, and a little mystery-- not to mention good old-fashioned storytelling.

And to cap it all, Ben is being allowed to novelise the script. And here’s a sneak preview of the cover:

The Sergeant comes to Piccadilly!

Piccadilly Publishing is delighted to announce that they have acquired the ebook rights to one of the great series of the 1980s -- THE SERGEANT by Gordon Davis. Beginning in 01 October 2013 we'll be issuing all nine books in the series, this time under the author's real name, and all featuring covers painted by Tony Masero.

THE SERIES

The series consist of 9 books over a 3-year period beginning in 1980. Mahoney, we learn, has often been promoted and busted in his long career. During the period of the Novels, May 1944 to December 1944, Mahoney is a Master Sergeant, that serves in special missions with the Rangers, and as a Company Sergeant, Platoon Leader, and Squad Leader in the "Hammerhead" Division. Mahoney, with his always present side-kick, Corporal Edward Cranepool, become involved in several of the key battles for the liberation of France, and invasion of Germany. Mahoney, as a US Army Ranger aides the French Resistance before, during, and immediately after the June 6, 1944 D-Day invasions of France. Later, tired of always finding himself involved in "suicide" missions, Mahoney and Cranepool transfer to the "Hamerhead" Division in General George S Patton's 3rd Army. With the Hammerheads, Mahoney participates in the battles of the hedgerows after the Normandy invasions, the liberation of Paris, the crossing of the Moselle and battle for Metz, and the defense of Bastogne.

In the first book in the series, Death Train, which takes place in the summer of 1944, Mahoney is a US Army Ranger working behind German lines with the French Resistance, "maquis", to disrupt a rail-road line that will be essential to German troop and supply movement after the D-Day invasion on Omaha Beach. The book establishes Mahoney as a tough, career Army, individual, and an experienced combat veteran that had seen action since the initial US amphibious landings in 1942 at Morocco.

The series ends with Book 9, Hammerhead, circa late December 1944. Mahoney, disgusted by all the death he has seen, and killing he has done, is praying in a small Catholic church. Facing the altar, with his back to the church, he is nearly killed, before two of his arch enemies end up shooting each other. After determining that one of the men has died and the other likely did as well, Mahoney returns to his prayer.

• Death Train
• Hell Harbor: The Battle for Cherbourg
• Bloody Bush
• The Liberation of Paris
• Doom River
• Slaughter City
• Bullet Bridge
• Bloody Bastogne
• Hammerhead

   

THE AUTHOR

Born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Len Levinson served on active duty in the U.S. Army from 1954-1957, and graduated from Michigan State University with a BA in Social Science. He relocated to NYC that year and worked as an advertising copywriter and public relations executive before becoming a full-time novelist. Len created and wrote a number of series, including The Apache Wars Saga, The Pecos Kid and The Rat Bastards. He has had over eight titles published, and PP is delighted to have the opportunity to issue his exceptional WWII series, The Sergeant in digital form. After many years in NYC, Len moved to a small town (pop. 3100) in rural Illinois, where he is now surrounded by corn and soybean fields ... a peaceful, ideal location for a writer.