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by DAVID THATCHER WILSON
An Eastern Shore Sketchbook
AN EASTERN SHORE SKETCHBOOK is a loving look at the lower Eastern Shore of Virginia. For those who live there or have visited there, you’ll recognize many of the people and places. For those who have not, I hope you will be able to read the SKETCHBOOK, find amusement and enjoyment in its reflections, and perhaps transfer some of that to memories deeply seated in your minds of your special place. So much has changed on the Eastern Shore over the years. And yet everything remains the same. That’s the beauty of The Eastern Shore, at least the Lower Shore. It is a way of life that has been proven by time and tradition. It shows that you can be surrounded by the manic bustle of modern life, but still remain gentle and genteel. It shows that there can be things more important than a dollar – like history and tradition and manners and civility and friends and a tried and true way of country life. Those of us who look to the Lower Shore as an anchor or normalcy in our frantic rat race lives can only pray that the forces of development (development does not necessarily equal progress) and the quest for the almighty dollar do not ultimately destroy what for now is such a joy.
MUSINGS
Is every day in your life just a humdrum bore? MUSINGS helps you see beyond the commonplace and more fully appreciate and enjoy all that surrounds you. It is not preachy. It is not sectarian. It is just one person’s MUSINGS about the things he sees every day. Why should you read it? Hopefully it will enable you to actually see, rather than just look.
UP FROM THE DEPTHS
We were experienced. We were careful. It wasn’t enough. --from UP FROM THE DEPTHS A mini-memoir about a dive trip gone wrong, and the resulting aftermath of hospitals, paralysis, and hope.
MONASTIC EVANGELICALISM
WARNINGS: This is a very short book. I am not an eminent theologian. But I think that it does give Christian readers something interesting to think about.
While studying prayer, and especially contemplative prayer, I became interested in the concept of the monastic life. What a wonderful life, totally immersed in spiritual things during all your waking hours — living a life of prayer and contemplation.
Think about the possibility or practicality of living a monastic-type life while being an evangelical Christian. An “evangelical monk” — a paradox?
Monastic evangelicalism is living an evangelical God-centered life, dedicating all that you do secularly to the sacred Lord, even as you live in and interact with the world.
THE DEMON SERIES
EZKEEL IN THE BEGINNING
Satan. According to a 2007 Gallup Poll 70% of Americans believe that Satan, the Devil, is real. Another poll revealed that 42 percent believe people are occasionally possessed by the devil and a full majority, 51 percent, said people can be possessed by the devil or some other evil spirit. “Some other evil spirit.” That’s called “a demon.”
Do you wonder where demons come from? EZKEEL IN THE BEGINNING is the prequel to The Demon Series, but it is Biblically-based fiction that will answer that question for you.
SCAM
“Americans gave $410 billion to charities in 2017.” Giving to international charities was $22.97 billion, 6% of all donations.
—Nonprofits Source, Bethesda, MD
In the abject poverty of Haiti all that Daniel wanted was serve his little group of followers, at first in his mountainous home village and later in the slum of Cite Soleil. He didn’t seek fame or fortune, only fulfillment. But when his worship unleashes a lwa, or Vodou spirit, he is led to dreams of bigger and better — a church and, later, an orphanage all paid for and supported by donations from American congregations.
What Daniel doesn’t know is that his lwa is actually Ezkeel, an ancient fallen angel. Ezkeel tutors him into scamming monies from American churches for the development of his church in Cite Soleil and later subscription-financed orphanages. What his donors don’t know is that the church touted to them as an outpost of Christianity in the midst of crushing poverty is actually a Vodou temple, and the many children they are paying monthly subscriptions to support . . . don’t exist.
THE EXQUISITE CORPSE
Northampton County, like so many rural areas, is still strongly ruled by Bible-believing Christians. One of the benefits of rural life has always been that the corrupting influence of the big city, with its humanists and moral relativism, was far enough removed that it tends not to taint their society. Satan finds it easy to make inroads in metropolitan areas. There, he has the pseudo-intelligentsia to work with and do his labor for him. When convinced of their own excellence and intelligence, people’s minds are relatively easy to twist inward and away from a spiritual leader. Really, they do the evil one’s work for him. All he has to do was a little poke here, and a little direction there, and they merrily race along in any direction that feeds their egos and avarice, and leave a judgmental God far behind.
It isn’t as easy in rural areas, and that’s why Ezkeel and his kind have been sent to work directly and intimately with these folks. His goal is to influence people by directing their minds to abandon their long-held traditions and beliefs — beliefs based on Judeo-Christian teachings — and accept the more liberal New Age beliefs that eschewed an established God who established right and wrong, and instead made everything relative. Ezkeel is an expert at this, having labored in this field for years, and he was having a ball in Eastville. These chumps were so malleable. Whispering suggestions, gently pushing, quietly suggesting and watching them grab the thought and take off with it was a real pleasure.
THE CHERRYSTONE CREEK MYSTERIES
LITTLE GIRL UNKNOWN
Southern born and bred, Paige Reese plans to escape the stagnant Eastern Shore of Virginia for a big city career. When Paige’s daddy dies unexpectedly, she agrees to return home to take care of his funeral business. As the acting coroner and mortician for small town Eastville, Paige has plenty of time to resent her new life while trying to force a pleasant outlook for the locals.
Iraqi-war veteran Nott Smith has deeper scars than his fractured legs admit. Battling severe PTSD keeps Nott busy as he drifts around Cape Charles, collecting and restoring remnants of trash. Always a loner, Nott prefers to let his demons rage silently than to make friends in the quaint bay-side town. Good thing for Nott, Paige isn’t asking to be his friend.
When the unidentified body of a migrant girl is discovered in Cherrystone Creek near Nott’s ramshackle house and the Chief Deputy arrests Nott for the murder, Paige acts on instinct. Her new friend couldn’t be guilty of the crime. Could he?
With more questions than answers, Paige works to uncover the victim’s identity and cause of death, who is responsible, and why the authorities aren’t pursuing the murderer. Then the truth confronts Paige with the ugly possibility that her closest friends are more involved than she realized. Can she avoid becoming the next victim?
BREAKWATER SKELETON UNKNOWN
After the untimely death of her close friend, Paige wants only one thing: to become better acquainted with FBI Special Agent Tim Hannegan. AKA: Agent Dish. Unfortunately, Paige has other work to do.
As Coroner Ad Hoc for the small oceanside community of the Eastern Shore, she sees every deadbeat in town. So, when the Coast Guard locates the sun-bleached bones of a skeleton on a nearby breakwater ship Paige makes it her business to determine the identity of the deceased. She has few clues to go on. What do a dismembered skeleton, white fishing boots, and a saint’s medallion all have in common?
Nott Smith lends an investigative hand, and Paige begins sorting out the puzzle of the unknown. Then a warning note arrives, urging Paige to let the dead rest in peace. If she doesn’t obey, it could be her own dry bones telling the story.
With colorful descriptions of Virginia’s beautiful Eastern Shore and her unique community of locals, BREAKWATER SKELETON UNKNOWN is the second installment in the Cherrystone Creek Mystery series. Don’t miss the first book in the series, LITTLE GIRL UNKNOWN, which introduces Paige, Nott, and Tim, as well as their scenic – and mysterious – fishing town. Get hooked today!
BEACH BODY UNKNOWN
Cape Charles’ local Iraqi war veteran, Nottingham “Nott” Smith, is minding his own beach-combing business when he discovers a body in the sand dunes. The plastic-wrapped stranger is one piece of salvage that won’t be decorating his shack on Cherrystone Creek.
Paige Reese, Nott’s friend and Coroner Ad Hoc for Cape Charles, relieves Nott of his find and sets to work identifying the stranger and his cause of death. A few bumbling sheriff’s detectives and a cursing, Spanish-speaking parrot serve to muddy the waters. With too few clues and too much distraction, Paige’s medical sleuthing leads only to more questions.
Until a witness identifies Paige’s brother in connection with the dead man. What was a questionable death is now considered murder, and Billy Reese is the prime suspect.
Paige must work quickly to connect construction-grade plastic, Chinese business papers, and the Atlantic Flyway to her deceased client. If she’s too late, her own brother could be the next dead man.
BURNT BODY UNKNOWN
MUSINGS FROM THE HEIGHTS
BY J. R. MOLINA
“Words matter. So, it was only normal that I would turn to books when I started to contemplate the ultimate questions of life. Why is there something rather than nothing? Why do I live now and not in another era? What am I here for? Is there a cosmic design to my existence? What is the purpose of my life? If my life has purpose and design, what is its end? Is there an afterlife? The questions came as I traversed a difficult time as a young adult. Through a personal crisis of self-doubt, I gravitated from having book knowledge about God to an indolent type of agnosticism, bordering on atheism.” Have these questions been answered to the author’s satisfaction? Yes, to the extent that he feels confident to share through personal story, inspirational accounts and challenging moments passed through a filter of practical spirituality. No adventure of discovery can be greater than knowing how we personally fit in the big picture of God’s grand plan. Let the Adventure begin!
DAVID THATCHER WILSON
Paralyzed and in a wheelchair since 1992, David Thatcher Wilson finds travel difficult, so often the places he writes about he has not seen firsthand. He counts on his research skills to make up for this and does it well enough that he’s had another author ask him (for his book SCAM) how he was able to write so clearly, in this case about Haiti and Vodou, as a “white middle-class American who’s never been there.) The old maxim about “write what you know” just does not apply to his works of fiction, but, after all, how many people do “know” Vodou, Santeria, New Age, Wicca, Rootwork, professional pocket picking, mortuary science, and such to write about it? But Wilson feels an obligation to his readers to ensure that what he writes, no matter how esoteric, is correct and educational. Thus, the research and the interviews with those who do have the hands-on experience. “It’s research and prayer,” says Wilson.
CDR J. R. MOLINA
Joe Molina is an ordained Baptist Minister. After several years of pastoral ministries in the South Florida area, Joe was endorsed and commissioned as a United States Navy Chaplain. After serving on active duty, Commander Moline (USN, USMC) was selected as the 11th Chaplain to the Corps of Cadets and Director of Religious Activities at The Citadel (The Military College of South Carolina), Charleston, SC.
EMMA JACKSON
Emma Jackson is the nom de plume I have chosen to use in writing my mysteries. It is a fusion of the first names of my grandtwins — Emma and Jackson.
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