Wisdom's Harvest: East of Smallville is a series of short stories from my life growing up in a family of ten children and a single mother. A continuation of Thoughts from a Treestand, it tells of things learned from living life in a small central Wisconsin hamlet. We had very little, but we did have love . . . and that made all the difference in my life.
Throughout the history of humanity, God, as we have known him, or a greater power yet unknown to us, has been prayed to for all manner of wants and perceived needs. God's plan is never understood. Who has the mind of the Lord that they can reason with God? Jack Young has lived a long life, a life well lived. His best friend of forty-one years has died, the dreaded cancer taking his unsuspecting life. If only we could get a second chance. If only God gave second chances. Perhaps God can be convinced. Perhaps. Perhaps God will allow a change to the plan he has set into motion. To our inevitable day, and time, when we depart this earth. The day and manner unknown. The emotional trauma from the loss of Dan Collins has sent Young's life into terminal descent. Until, in the quiet of the cold Wisconsin cemetery, God perhaps has reconsidered. For Jack Young, to find the meaning before time runs out will consume his life, the second chance must not be wasted.
With Van Courtland Park still fresh in his memory, Dr. Trevor Knight returns to UCSF and a budding relationship with Susan Hoo, seeking normalcy and peace. However, peace is a fleeting thing, and soon, he is requested to assist the Director of Indian Affairs in the solving of a most bizarre and evil ritualist string of killings. Putting his relationship on hold, Knight heads to the desert regions of Arizona and the Indian reservations. The evil that has manifested itself has claimed twenty lives, with more anticipated. Local law enforcement is helpless to stop it and the intense fear gripping the residents of the reservations only serves to limit the solving of the terror taking place. Dr. Trevor Knight has been called to profile the demon that roams the Arizona nights. With the help of his crime-solving grandmother and an entity whose power comes from an ancient relic close to Knight, it is only a matter of time until once again, evil meets it end. In addition, the Ghost Friar that presented in the Bronx and blessed the wooden cross, reclaims what is rightfully his.
Fresh from the deserts of Egypt, Dr. Trevor Knight has had little time to decompress or allow his hand to heal before the evil that haunts his dreams has followed him. Summoned by the priest Father Krubel, Knight is needed in the city of Salem. The Witch City. The Court of Oyer and Terminer. Sins of the fathers take more than 350 years to be forgotten, Dr. Knight discovers. Or forgiven. By witch or mortal. Coded manuscripts point to evil. Can their meaning be found in time? A story written long ago. A house now famous. But what secrets are yet unknown? Who still walks the grounds by Salem Harbor? Peine forte et dure, Dr. Knight. And what of Sir Robert? Yes, indeed, my good doctor. What of Sir Robert?
Dr. Trevor Knight has left the dry heat of the Arizona desert, only to find himself in the hot and humid dangerous swamps of the Louisiana bayou. Time to relax, to enjoy the sights and Cajun food, the music, and the laid-back mood. However, things have not worked out as he had hoped. Major Wilson of the Louisiana State Police is in need of his services, and Knight will soon meet Sheriff Thomas T. Thibodaux, law of the land in Assumption Parish. Knight planned on a quiet trip, to see a place his friend Demaryius Dinkins had spoken to him about as they sat in the dark desert of Arizona. The little village being sucked into the ground. Salt caverns long ago formed in the prehistoric history of Louisiana. Home to things unspoken, until the careless drilling unleashes them upon the land. Certainly, the government knows nothing about all of this. Or do they? Things are not as they seem; and the sudden disappearance of the local inhabitants, as well as the wildlife, thrusts Knight into the world of corrupt Southern justice, a voodoo priestess, and two very lively twin girls. Get your dancing shoes on, Doctor, time to boogaloo in the bayou.
A man goes through the four seasons of his life much too quickly. The hustle and frantic pace of life blinds him to the wonders that God puts before him daily-the butterfly that alights upon a small flower completely missed, the sunrises and sunsets without fanfare as he toils to his eventual end. If he is lucky, he realizes the folly of his ways and slows to see the beauty before him, appreciate the little things, the quiet things, the ripple on the pond, stopping to breathe and reflect, and perhaps to listen to the soft sounds of God's great work. I have entered the sunset of my life. My time on earth ordained by God wanes like the setting of the sun, and as the brilliant colors light the sky, so does my love for what God has given me through my many years. To see the singular snowflake, hear the cry of the chickadee, I invite you to come with me as my stories tell of my journey to this moment in time. Sit back in a quiet spot, open this book, feel its pages, and see what I have seen. May God bless and keep you and, perhaps, slow you down.
Dr. Trevor Knight wishes only to put the madness of Richard Ignatius Palmer behind him and settle into the normalcy of the average man. However, Dr. Trevor Knight is far from average-a chess master in a chess game, between evil and good. The recent horror of StoryTown Cemetery still haunts his dreams. However, it appears that Mr. Richard Ignatius Palmer has left a legacy to our intrepid crime solver that is not easily managed, a fortune born from evil, now used for good. Evil is not confined to the West Coast, and when the phone rings with Detective Darbo Larson of the New York City Police Department on the other end, it soon catapults our crime-fighting psychiatrist into the ancient world of sacrificial appeasement. Legacies have responsibilities, and finding truth sometimes means people close to you are put into imminent danger. Friends die. The hunger of evil is un-appeased. Evil feeds on all levels of society. In the cold mean streets and abandoned places of the Bronx, the harvest for the present evil is bountiful. The homeless and destitute have no place to hide from it. It penetrates the dark and hidden places, places only the forgotten know. Pray, Dr. Knight, and do not lose heart.
The fires of Bayou Corne were still smoldering as Dr. Trevor Knight embarked on his next journey. A journey that would leave in its wake, the deaths of many whose path he has crossed. The evil forces that had haunted him, previously vanquished back to hell, soon find him and interrupt his quest for peace, for a sense of normalcy. Three demons, long ago forgotten by history. Buried in the sands of time, the sands of Egypt. More powerful than his previous encounters. The Beast. Making one final attempt to end the life of Dr. Knight. Without the Cross of the Ghost Friar to protect him, he must rely on the courage and conviction of his faith to battle his greatest adversaries to date. Fatima, ah yes, coincidence, Dr. Knight? Perhaps not so much as you thought. On the other hand, perhaps it is Tatiana. The winged ones, how to summon them. Perhaps best not to summon them. In the end, perhaps even Dr. Trevor Knight has met his match when the Trinity of Demons rises again.
As the mist rises from the forest on the warming morning breeze, so do the memories in an old man's mind. Rising up from long-forgotten places recessed deep within the mind, the changes of the seasons mirror the changes of your own life. Each separate and filled with wonder. Each giving a life lesson if you will only notice. Each day a gift. Each flower a wonder. The Thoughts, Moments, and Memories of fifty years observing the glory of God in his magical forests. For those who can close their eyes and see only fading footprints of their journeys deep within the forest and woodlots of Wisconsin, I invite you to come along with me. To relieve the sights and sounds I have had in my fifty years in a tree stand, God speaks in many places. He has spoken to me as I sat in his wild places. Spoken softly on the warm south wind, as well as harsh lessons carried on the winds of winter. May God grant you peace in this busy world. Take time from it to walk the quiet land. Sit by the small streams and listen. You, like I, will hear him. You need only to calm yourselves and seek it. When you get to the end of your life's trail, you will know that you have truly lived.
Contemplation's through the Fog of My Life is the third book in the Thoughts trilogy and follows Thoughts from a Treestand and Wisdom's Harvest-East of Smallville. The trilogy contains thoughts and observations from a lifetime of living in a small rural Wisconsin hamlet, along with nine brothers and sisters, and a single mother. We were rich in love and grew up with the knowledge of what is important in this life . . . and what is not. Be careful out there.
