Jeremiah Trueman – Joe Douglas Trent

ISBN: 978-0-9826927-4-5

Excerpt

Art stopped the vehicle. “Here we are.”

Jay got out and followed him down a gravel path, rounding the tufa knolls, toward the lake Jay could now hear lapping against the shore. He struggled to keep up with Art’s swift march. The Pyramid loomed over them, but Art kept left of it. When they rounded the last column of tufa and hit the beach, Jay saw why. On a spit of land jutting out from the shore sat an old lady in a hooded shawl with her head bent forward as if in mourning. She had to be fifty feet tall.

Blurb

A helicopter accident in the Nevada desert sends disgraced financial advisor Jay Trueman on a journey of terror, discovery, and, perhaps, redemption.

Culling wild mustangs from a helicopter is a soul-killing job, but to Jay that doesn’t matter. He surrendered his soul ten years ago when he cheated his friends and neighbors out of their savings. Now, with a band of terrified horses trapped and awaiting execution, Jay spies a solitary figure below. Then the world goes haywire and the chopper whirls out of control.

The next thing Jay knows, he’s looking into the face of an Indian reservation ranger who asks him where he’s been for two weeks. Jay wants to know that as well. As he sets about solving the mystery, he finds that Mother Earth may not be as solitary as he thinks, a 250-year-old French goblin could be a man’s best friend (or not), and a childhood fantasy might just come true.

Meanwhile, an off-world mobster connected to a shady defense contractor casts his hooks into positions of power through a form of mind control. Jay joins the bad guys to figure out how to stop them without getting himself and everyone he cares about killed.

Preface

At 6:30 on a Saturday morning in 2006, I woke from a dream. Set in Australia, it featured a race of diminutive creatures who came and went via pools of water and were invisible to most when they wanted to be.

I leaped from bed and raced to my humble office to jot down the details I could remember. It turned out that indigenous peoples from Australia did, indeed, speak of creatures like those who came to me in my slumber. And another dream later gave me an image of a shape shifter who said, “I can see your nerves.”

Well, there had to be something in those revelations, right?

I wanted to go to Australia for research but, sadly, lacked funds for my travel budget. It’s a long way from Texas to Australia.

In my study, though, I had discovered that beings similar to those from that dream were documented in folk tales and legends from around the world, including those told by North American indigenous peoples.

I also read of current-day issues with feral horses in Australia—called Brumbies there—not unlike the mustang situation out in the American west. In 2009, seeking information and adventure, my wife and I set out to northwestern Nevada, where American Indians and mustangs live side by side: Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation.

As my excitement grew, I recognized that my writing, my craft, needed honing. I began studying and writing short stories. My first published novel, The King of Silk, was born from that process.

So, here we are just about ten years later, and this book is about to take flight. I hope you enjoy the fruit of the gift I received from the Little People.

Joe Douglas Trent
July 7, 2019