Yesterday's Giant

By WES SNOWDEN

An unscrupulous lumber baron races to cut down a 2000 year old California redwood tree only minutes before a court order banning the cutting arrives. The despicable act unleashes a chain of unexpected events that reverberates through the sleepy town of Davenport. At 375 feet in height, the towering ancient redwood  known to its environmental protectors as Yesterday's Giant will ultimately cast a shadow over the lives of many local families. Although the harvest from Yesterday's Giant was extremely bountiful, only three of the handcrafted products harvested from the wood of the fallen giant play a part in this entertaining tale of love, lust and redemption.

The three items?

A Wedding Bed, Two Cradles and a Coffin.

This suspenseful story is full of unusual twists and turns. Enjoyable for all readers.

 

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: CORVENT CREATIVE
• Release date: Sep 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781386791225

WES SNOWDEN

After a successful career as an international business owner, Wes Snowden now spends his time between Toronto, Vancouver, and Scottsdale, Arizona. As a relatively new author, Wes has written a broad range of  books, all unique in their storyline. Although his writings are enjoyable for all ages, the author enjoys writing kid's stories for grown-ups the best. Wes has just finished four full-length adult novels- White Swan Wishes, Zachary's Gold, One Last Move and The Leprechaun Wars All four will be published by spring of 2020. Reviews and comments always appreciated at: [e-mail]

Book preview

YESTERDAY'S GIANT

DAVENPORT, CALIFORNIA 

RALPH OGDEN STOOD ON the rustic porch of his downtown office, watching through the falling rain, at the never-ending stream of heavily laden trucks parading down the main street. The trucks groaned from the weight of large cut sections of a giant redwood tree. The vehicles were destined for the processing yard at the Green Mountain Sawmill.

Ogden turned to his foreman, Rusty Knox. So that's the famous Yesterday's Giant. I never thought I would see the day we would get our hands on her.

Me neither, Knox said. We got the damned tree down just a few minutes before those bloody environmentalists showed up with their court order. But I’ll tell you, boss, there was hell to pay. Screaming and crying like mad, but it was too late. So, we just kept cutting.

Crazy hippies, Ogden snorted. These people don't seem to realize that we all got to make a living. If it weren't for this sawmill, this place would be an abandoned ghost town.

Why the hell would anyone want to give a tree a name anyway? Rusty asked.

Shit, those tree huggers got names for almost all the old redwoods protected inside the National Park. I've heard names like Hyperion, Helios Icarus, Del Norte Titan, and more. Lucky for us, the Giant was outside the safety of the park's boundaries.

Yeah, Rusty laughed. Outside the boundaries by all of 36 feet. That's what pissed the hippies off.

Okay, get back to work. I'm tired, so I'm heading for home.

Ogden, a heavy-set man in his late forties, lived alone except for his three-year-old son, Cory. Although Ralph was the wealthiest man in town, he tended to spend far too many evenings sitting alone by the fireside brooding over glory days past. A full glass of smooth single malt Scotch usually kept him company.

Although his health was poor, there was nothing terminal as far as he knew. Still, much of his brooding time these recent days centered on thoughts of his mortality. But, of course, he had other things to think about, as well.

His son Cory was being raised by his attractive young housekeeper, Lily Carson, a local woman. Ogden often brooded over her, too—in fact, far too often. Many a night, he woke with his heart pounding wildly from the impact of an erotic dream. A dream in which Lily played a starring role.

The morning after the truck delivery, Ralph did the rounds at his sawmill. The smell of freshly sawn redwood drifting lightly on the morning air was like perfume to his nose. The mill was running at total capacity now because of a backlog of orders. He hoped the kiln-dried lumber from Yesterday's Giant would fill all of the backorders and replenish their raw material inventories as well.

One of his newer employees, Johnny Hunter, approached him slowly. He held his