My wife and began a journey in August of 2011 to share a few of my stories with those that may have been interested and enjoy reading them. After writing an autobiography that I shared with family and friends people began to encourage me to keep writing and share my stories. So I did.

My first book, Where Angels Weep, was heavily inspired by the murder of Janie Sharp. She was a young lady that was murdered in 1910 in the county where I grew up. I knew enough about the case to be intrigued, but not enough to be factual. Thus, I wrote my first book of fiction.

My Facebook friends that were aware of what I was attempting contacted me and wanted to be characters in the story. Friends, family and coworkers names made their appearance throughout the book as characters. My wife, bless her heart, became a lady of the night in one chapter. In real life she is a mild mannered church secretary. One person wanted to become an animal character. I created a cat in another chapter for her

With a story modeled after a century old unsolved murder, how does one simply end it? One does not. One presents the story, fiction as it was, and keeps it open ended. It was done that way to let the reader draw upon their imagination. I had to write it that way because many of my readers were knowledgeable enough about the Janie Sharp case to know it had never been solved.

I thought that would be the end of it. Just one book. But folks began contacting me and wanted more. With my wife’s encouragement I wrote the sequel, An Angel With No Name. In that book I brought forth the descendants of Where Angels Weep that wanted to solve the century old murder case. Hopefully, I succeeded in accomplishing this to my reader’s satisfaction. My hardest critic was pleased with the finished product and thought it worthy enough to share with the public.

People have asked me if I really knew the name of the person that killed Janie Sharp. The person that shared with me intimate details of the case said he knew who murdered Janie Sharp, and I believed him. He had no reason to lie. He has since passed away, but he shared enough information with me to be dangerous, but he never told me the name of the man that murdered her. I had to try and figure that out on my own. I believe I have figured it out, but don’t ask me who I think it is. I will not share speculation as truth. That would be wrong. There are enough subtle hidden hints and references in my fiction accounts of the story to lead an investigative reader to research the answer on their own. For those that just like a good story, that is all they will find in these first two books.

The third book I wrote began in Western Kentucky where I currently live. One of relatives from An Angel With No Name relocated to this area (imagine that!). This book is a mystery, romance and history lesson like the first two. The main character and a lady he is smitten with are fleeing an unsavory mob boss that desperately wants to get his hands on them. This story is set during the big flood we had here along the Mississippi River a few years ago. The reader will recognize names, and places that make their appearance throughout the story as the characters find their way back to Winstead County, Mississippi and the town of Lewisville. My wife said this was her favorite book. The Midnight Angel will reveal how it derived its title as the reader turns the pages of this romance novel.

The last book I published, The Christmas Angels, is set in Winstead County, as are all the others. A childless couple (descendants of characters in Where Angels Weep) happen upon a house fire one rainy night and discover a little boy has become both homeless and orphaned. Needless to say they come to love this child and want to keep him. But wouldn’t you know it, the child has an unsavory relative that believes there is money to be made from the little boy’s misfortune and steps in to take this story in and unbelievable direction. Greed, deceit and an underlying criminal element are woven into a romantic tale that takes place west of Lewisville, Mississippi. This book was inspired by a young friend that came into our lives several years ago and is now an advocate for foster children.

I have shared all this with you to let you know these books will only be available for a short while longer. Tina and I have made the difficult decision to end our publishing career and formally close Algood Publishing, Inc. in the near future. We created this business to share my stories and make them self-sustaining. Unfortunately, to do that we have to charge for the books. I would love to give them away, but we do not have the means to do that. Since the mill I worked at closed a little over a year ago it has become more difficult to sustain this endeavor. I have never been one to push my books. That is not what I want, nor do I want my friends to think I am trying to make money from their friendship. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am simply offering to share these stories with those that believe they would enjoy reading them. They are paperback, tape bound, 8 X 10 books. They are copyrighted and not available in the internet stores. We do report all earnings and pay taxes on the sales. When we set this up we wanted to keep it legal and above board. I share this in case anyone has ever wondered about how and why we do this. We don’t anticipate any online books in the future. I worked at a paper mill for nearly four decades, so we wanted our books to be printed on paper. We were contacted by someone over a year ago who was going to format these books and handle online publications for us, but it has not happened as of yet and we do not want to pursue that ourselves.

For those of you that have read my books, I hope you enjoyed them and thank you for your kind words of encouragement and support.

For those of you that think you may be interested in ordering the books while they are still available, message me for details about prices and our mailing address. The inventory we have will be all that will be available. There will be no other books printed.

Again, I want to thank those of you who have made this journey last as long as it has. We appreciate you.

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Rick Algood
February 8, 2017