Richard Allan “Rick” Noble started his career in publishing at Canada’s National Newspaper, The Globe and Mail.  He moved to the U.S. in 1990 and continued to work as an executive in digital publishing in the newspaper, periodical, medical, aviation, and K-12 industries, before retiring in 2022.  Always a history buff, Rick became interested in the Civil War during a brief period when he lived in Kentucky. His oldest daughter was born in Louisville, and some of her first restaurant meals in life were at The Old Talbott Tavern in Bardstown, Kentucky. That tavern and Bardstown both play important roles in King Cotton II: Kentucky Gold. Rick's wife was born in Wichita, Kansas, and she still has many relatives living in and around that state. A significant amount of the action in King Cotton II: Kentucky Gold and King Cotton III: Jack & the Ripper takes place in the Jayhawk State, in part as a tribute to her and her family. And the King Cotton series overall is a tribute to America, her history, and to the American West. All three books in the King Cotton series have been recognized:

King Cotton won the 2026 PenCraft Seasonal Book Award – Summer Competition, and 1st Place Winner in the Fiction - Civil War Era category of the 2026 Annual PenCraft Book Awards. It was also a finalist for the 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Award in War and Military and a finalist in the 19th Annual National Indie Excellence® Awards (NIEA) in 2025. 

King Cotton II: Kentucky Gold was a finalist for best Historical Fiction Post-1850 in the 2026 Colorado Authors League Awards.

King Cotton III: Jack & the Ripper won a gold medal for best historical fiction in the 2025 CIPA EVVY Awards and best western fiction in the 2026 National Indie Excellence Awards. It also received an honorable mention in the 2026 Arizona Authors Literary Awards.

Rick holds a B.A. and an M.B.A. from the University of Toronto, and currently splits his time between Colorado and Arizona. King Cotton was his first novel.