Books
| Book One: Abiding Darkness |
| | Abiding Darkness initially anchors itself in the relationship between two children.
Junior Washington is an eleven-year-old black child. He lives in a small cabin out on Cat Lake; his parents work for the Parker family. He's loyal, he's compliant beyond what would normally be expected of an eleven-year-old boy, and he's a committed Christian.
Missy Parker, who lives on the other side of the lake, is the crown princess of the Parker family. At seven years of age she's beautiful, wealthy, willful, and tough as a tractor tire. And—in the midst of the most defined segregation in our nation's recent history—this little white girl and Junior Washington are best friends.
Only one thing stands between these two children and a storybook childhood . . . they are destined to encounter a faithful servant of the Author of Evil.
Abiding Darkness starts almost gently. The first sentence offers doubt, but readers may not see any real trouble surface until a few sentences later, and that's mostly kid stuff, almost cute. From there through the second chapter readers are given a little more to think about . . . an opportunity to imagine what might happen to the children . . . especially the girl.
By the end of the second chapter intuitive readers will be taking a deep breath . . . they're going to need the oxygen.
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| | | Mississippi cotton country . . . in the spring of 1960.
The War At Cat Lake is fifteen years in the fading past . . . but the demonic beings who launched that first battle, are alive and well at Cat Lake. Waiting.
Late on a Friday night, on a muddy little road a mile east of Cat Lake, a ten-year-old black child is forced to watch while a gang of white men beat his mother to death. Aided by Mose Washington, an old black man, the boy exacts a measure of his own revenge. When the sun comes up on Saturday morning, Mose and the boy are fugitives.
Missy Parker Patterson, who as a child stood at the epicenter of the first war, is married and living in Texas. In the aftermath that follows Mose Washington's disappearance, she goes back to Cat Lake to discover that the demonic beings have been anticipating her return . . . and so begins the second battle of The War At Cat Lake.
In 1962, an old black man and his grandson move into the country near Pilot Hill, Texas. The people in the local area are told that the old gentleman's name is Mose Mann—his grandson introduces himself as Bill.
However, the lives of the new arrivals are not as peaceful as they seem. The unassuming old black man and his grandson are being pursued by a triad of formidable and unrelenting adversaries . . . a ruthless political leader, an enduring lie, and an invisible army allied beneath the banner of a hatred for God.
Wedgewood Grey is a story about the impact of choices that real people—people like you and me—are sometimes forced to make.
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| | | In 1945, a spirit voice told Mr. A. J. Mason to "Be ready."
In 1960, the spirit drew near and said the same words to the same man. "Be ready."
On both occasions Mason ended up in bloody battles with the forces of evil. On both occasions, he saved the life of a young girl named Missy Parker. And on both occasions good people died.
It's 1968.
Missy Parker has been married to Dr. Patrick Patterson for nine years; they live in Denton, Texas. Missy plays tennis and golf; Pat is chairman of the philosophy department at North Texas State University.
Mose Washington, a black man Missy refers to as her almost-daddy, is hiding behind a new name—Mose Mann. Mose and the young black man who poses as his grandson have spent eight years successfully evading the FBI, a murderous congresswoman, and creatures from the demonic realm. They now live in Pilot Hill, Texas—fifteen miles from Pat and Missy. Mose is committing the autumn of his life to the pursuit of the knowledge of God and the protection of his "grandson". His "grandson" is interested in honing his skills as a bull rider.
Close friends see portents of danger in events of the early summer and converge on Pilot Hill to warn the two black men that yet another confrontation with malevolent beings may be looming.
In the pre-dawn hours, on the second day of the North Texas Rodeo, the voice of an invisible being speaks to Missy Parker Patterson. The voice warns her that it is now she, not A. J. Mason, who has been chosen as the person who needs to "Be ready" . . . and Missy doesn't want the job.
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| | Book Four: The Cool Woman |
| | At some point, most boys think they want to grow up to be pilots. With this black kid, it was different . . . he knew.
It's 1970. Lieutenant Bill Mann, the orphaned son of a Tuskegee Airman, is staid, single, and sober when he reports to USAF Pilot Training; he's there to begin living his boyhood dream. According to Mann's "personal flight plan," he's fifteen months away from playing a significant role in the air war over Viet Nam, an assignment he'll use to establish his reputation as a fighter pilot.
May of 1972 finds Mann in Bangkok, passed out on the floor of his hotel room. The gifted young pilot is fighting wars within a war; he's a borderline alcoholic, his new wife is divorcing him, and he's hours away from learning . . . the pilot who becomes his own North Star is forever lost.
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