The Battle of Top Hat Wood: Book One: the Adventures of Dr. Greenstone and Jerrythespider Trilogy

By Taylor Samuel Lyen and Denis Proulx

An Educational, Inspirational Tale About Spiders Thats Fun to Read.
Kirkus Reviews

Jerrythespider is a smart-aleck jumping spider that reluctantly joins Almas quest to vanquish the evil Sitharon.

Hanging in her web above the entrance to the old Presbyterian Church in a small California town, Alma has a nightmare about the horrible slaughter of innocent spiders by a giant flying beast, a Sitharon that lives in the ancient English woodland called Top Hat Wood. Months later, her children are born. As they balloon away to their new homes, Alma senses the presence of evil still lurking in the old woodland. She fears for the lives of her children and feels powerless against the evil Sitharon. She quietly conceives a plan to defeat the Sitharon.

Confined to her web, Alma picks Jerrythespider to be her eyes and ears in Top Hat Wood. She creates a possible future where Jerrythespider meets Dr. Greenstone, who she needs to first transport Jerrythespider to England and later to be a valuable ally. But, Dr. Greenstone is preoccupied with his vacation trip to the Sutton Hoo Farmlands. Plus, he is preparing for his expert testimony at the upcoming Moroccan-Three Murder Trial. He is oblivious to the struggle between good and evil, which is literally taking place all around him. Nonetheless, Alma plans to have Jerrythespider team up with Dr. Greenstone. TogetherAlma, Jerry, and Dr. Greenstonewill continue to seek and destroy evil wherever it shows its face.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: May 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491730065

Taylor Samuel Lyen

TAYLOR SAMUEL LYEN has extensively hiked and researched the Northern California Sierra Buttes and surrounding areas over the past twenty-five years. The terrain is rugged and is the perfect setting for the skullduggery and mysterious happenings that took place in Abbeville.

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Copyright © 2014 Taylor Samuel Lyen.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-3004-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-3005-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-14917-3006-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014905628

Printed in the United States of America.

iUniverse rev. date: 4/30/2014

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1     Jerrythespider

Chapter 2     Alma

Chapter 3     Curiosity Almost Kills the Cat

Chapter 4     First Winter

Chapter 5     Silk Wrapped Flower Fly

Chapter 6     Ancient Visions

Chapter 7     Dr. Greenstone, I Presume

Chapter 8     Sutton Hoo Farmlands

Chapter 9     Rising of the Moon

Chapter 10   Michael’s Nightmare

Chapter 11   Six Bells and All’s Well

OPTIONAL READINGS

Science Explained

Character Descriptors

The Spiderese Language

About Spiders

Published Books

Books in the Works

To Darrell Ubick, a teacher’s teacher, who set me on the path of studying spiders and their allies—as he has done for many others before me and as he will do for many others for many years to come.

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I was preadapted for entomological pursuits, being blessed by nearsightedness and an eye for form, coupled with a preference for nature and solitude.

Darrell Ubick

Curatorial Assistant, Entomology

California Academy of Sciences

ISABEL CHRISTINA SANCHEZ

May 10, 1969 – March 7, 2014

You are invited to visit tlyenbooks.org for her In Memorium

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wrote the rough draft of this book in 1989 when I first took Sierrian Spiders and Their Allies at the San Francisco State University Field Biology Campus near Bassetts Station, California. There have been many who have helped me on my way. First and foremost are my teachers. Darrell Ubick taught Spiders and Their Allies for five of the six years I took the class. Darrell is a knowledgeable, unassuming, insightful teacher that deepened my experience studying and appreciating spiders. Joel Ledford was Darrell’s teaching assistant for each of the classes. Joel is an excellent teacher in his own right who later taught the Spiders and Their Allies class. Dr. Ledford is currently an academic coordinator at UC Davis and an adjunct professor at San Francisco State University, Sierra Nevada Field Campus.

Suzanne Ubick was a science writer for the San Francisco Academy of Sciences and was the first person to read, edit, and proofread the initial manuscripts for this book. Her expertise and insights greatly helped me. She is a voracious reader and expert writer whose interests have taken her to study prehistoric archaeology.

Jim Steele, biology professor at San Francisco State University, was the director of the Sierra Nevada Field Campus. He is knowledgeable, outgoing, and available to students at all times. His observations and comments were very helpful and influenced my thinking.

Sierra Nevada Field Campus directors and staff have for years offered an astounding array of natural history courses and workshops. Located along the North Yuba River, the field biology campus provides students and the general public with an idyllic mountain forest setting for instruction and research in the environmental sciences and other creative disciplines—Beginning Wildlife Photography, Watercolors in the Wild: Sierra Flora, and Perfecting Your Presentation Fly Fishing (www.sfsu.edu/~sierra).

Reviewing rough manuscripts to give feedback for improving plot, character development, fictional structure, point of view, clarity, flow, and a host of other literary elements is a valuable asset to a writer. My eternal thanks to the following readers and editors for their time and insightful comments: Megan and Austin Adams, Judy and Jerry Guerino, Isabel Christina Sanchez, Effie Kontonickas, Janice Friesen, and to my wife, Marie, who helped me beyond measure.

Photo and Illustration Credits:

My appreciation goes to Denis Prolux ([e-mail]) for working with me on the cover design and interior illustrations, including the spider anatomy diagrams. Denis is a keen listener and superb illustrator with a breadth of artistic talent, who carefully gathers information about a story’s characters to design book covers and create book illustrations that perfectly fit the story.

Maria Teresa Aicardi, Artistic Project Advisor, has extensive experience working with artists in Peru and the United States. Her interpretation of meaning and critical judgments about space and shape, balance, and color were of great value to in developing the internal illustrations found in this book.

Thank you, Carmina Beeson, for the photo used on the back cover. The photo depicts Top Hat Wood with the moon over the North Sea, which shines down on the wood where the battle took place between good and evil. Carmina’s passion to get the best shots that vividly capture the story is very much appreciated (Carmina Beeson Photography: [e-mail]).

Finally, my appreciation to Jason Adams, my son-in-law, whose expert eye for photography captures the author and his grandchildren, Austin and Megan on the back cover of the book.

INTRODUCTION

The Roman poet Ovid told a story about Minerva—the goddess of wisdom and war, who ruled over the arts of spinning, weaving, and needlework—and a young girl named Arachne, who possessed remarkable gifts in weaving and embroidery. Arachne’s marvelous works were so stunning that the nymphs would leave their forests and fountains to gaze on her beauty and her wondrous creations. Arachne boasted that her spinning and embroidery were the best in the land. She took all the credit for her gifts, giving none to the goddess Minerva. The goddess was furious. Minerva took the form of an old woman and tried to warn the arrogant girl of her foolishness. Arachne grew weary of the old woman’s lecturing and challenged her to a weaving contest.

Minerva angrily threw off her old woman-disguise and ordered the weaving looms to be set up for the contest. Frightened by the sight of the goddess, Arachne fell to the ground but soon regained her composure. Arachne stood upright, conceited and brazen as ever. She watched Minerva weave strands of colored threads into fabrics, which told stories about ungrateful, self-centered humans, whom the gods and goddesses punish. When the goddess Minerva was finished, Arachne walked to the loom. She wove colorful tales about the shallowness of gods and goddesses, showing them to be petty and small in the eyes of humans. Minerva was insulted. In an uncontrollable fit of rage, she beat Arachne with her wooden shuttle. Arachne ran into the forest and hanged herself from a tree on a silken thread. She became smaller and smaller until she turned into a spider, destined to weave throughout eternity.

Spiders have existed on earth for more than 320 million years. Jerrythespider is the main character in our story. Scientists estimate that his family of jumping spiders date back sixty-five million years. Another character in our story is Alma, a large garden spider. Scientists estimate that her family of golden orb weaver spiders date back 135 million years. Think of that—Jerrythespider’s and Alma’s genes store millions and millions of years of experiences and wisdom!