CANDLELIT CHRONICLES: HISTORIC HAUNTS

May 30_Blog + Free Read 18+ 2081 wc

Monday May 31 The Novel Workshop Workshop offers a wonderful workshop on Sequels. Of course I am a participant, since I currently have three “series-in-progress.” I have written two in the Mediumistic Mary Series, one in NaNoWriMo 2007, the second in NaNoWriMo 2009, and I began the third in early December 2009, but put it aside to start The Testament Logging Corporation Chronicles on Dec. 9, 2009.





Of that latter series, Book One I wrote Dec. 9-March 11, 2010; Book Two on March 1-22, 2010; and between March 23 and March 31, I wrote 20 chapters of Book Three, pausing to write a Stage Play for Script Frenzy April 1-15. So that is two Sequels in progress I need to take up and finish.





On the third series, The Civil War Series, it would be inaccurate yet to say I'm writing a sequel, as I've written only two chapters of Book One, none of the planned Books Two-Four, and ten chapters of Book Five.





R.I.P. Actor Dennis Hopper, age 74; and actor Gary Coleman, age 42





http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-hopper-20100530,0,5552141.story


http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postmortem/





Free Read:





Child Puppets of The Testament Logging Corporation, Book Three

Chapter Six

         Madison Mills, State of Algonquin, was in 1946 an established good-size city. Its major business of course was The Testament Logging Corporation, but despite the collapse of The Big Forest logging boom in February 1932, the City had really suffered no significant economic downturn. Somehow, life moved on, and although some families might get meat on the table only three meals a week, yet there was never the terrible pervasive hardship experienced elsewhere during the Great Depressions of 1928 through 1939, and earlier in 1880-1882 and 1828-1830. Life was good for the most part, for almost everybody in and around Madison Mills, and for those for whom life was not so excellent, well, they managed not to complain-or complained only once and then disappeared, families and all. Supposedly those few who outright complained had moved away, to kinfolk or jobs elsewhere out of state, since they had proved themselves discontent to remain in Madison Mills, and the City was, after all, a very close-knit and coherent community, centered around the foundation stone of its economy, the sole enterprise which kept life moving in Madison Mills: The Testament Logging Corporation.





         The Testament Logging Corporation Core had existed long, long, before the City of Madison Mills had been founded. The Core had existed since time immemorial, transplanting from the Old World to the New World, linking with the Old One-the evil entity concealed deep within the heart of The Big Forest, present since the foundation of the planet. The Old One had Called to The Testament Core, still in the Old World, following the fiery demise of mega-talented Alamathera Knutson, in 1718. The Core had accomplished its then-current desire-the destruction of Alamathera-and so had no essential reason to remain. It transmuted to the New World, taking up residence deep underground, in The Big Forest Region, on an extensive plot of land of its choice, the land whose surface it soon began to form into the town, later the City, of Madison Mills.





         The City was founded in 1802, by some of the first of The Testament Core's Dead Tools. These were individuals whom either the Evil Entity deep in the heart of The Big Forest, or The Testament Core itself, had animated-either directly from the already deceased, or manifested from ectoplasmic protoplasm culled from the Aetheric Plane. The Testament Core-like its now-parent entity in The Big Forest-was extremely skillful at creating ectoplasmic forms which appeared to the living as just like them. Its Dead Tools also (such as Clyde Jenks and his hound Ol' Barnea would become after their sudden, unexpected demise in The Big Forest in 1950) appeared to the living as folks more or less like themselves, and magickal talent or psychic Intuition was required to identify them as not of the living realm.





         In May 1957, Farmer Alec Jennell, after failing to kill Rory Lewes, would become one of these Dead Tools as well. After his wife  Morie Wills Jennell transmitted to him the orders to consult with three dead Jenks (two men and a hound), she then inadvertently and suddenly committed suicide as an unintended consequence of the energy explosion from The Testament Core (after its discovery that Rory Lewes had changed his Will and filed the new Will, leaving his estate to charity rather than to Testament). While still in consultation with the three dead Jenks, Alec would psychically Intuit his beloved wife's suicide, collapse howling himself into speechlessness from an internally torn throat, and then die. But death never absolves a Tool from allegiance to the parent Corporation, and so Alec-with or without a voice-would be revived and reanimated, ready to wreak havoc as an implement of The Testament Core.





         The Testament Logging Corporation and its affiliates and subsidiaries really had it in for Rory Donald Lewes after May of 1957, when he unexpectedly (to Testament) discovered the Will that it had prepared and filed, in his name, with his signature, when he was only two years old, in February 1932, three months before the demise of his maternal grandparents at their homestead, “Euphonia.”





That original Will of February 1932 gave everything in Rory's estates-vast tracts of land, incomes (from Testament remittance fees for leases within The Big Forest), buildings, vehicles-anything and everything that Rory Donald Lewes might possess at the time of his death-directly into the hands of The Testament Logging Corporation, its heirs, assigns, and subsidiaries. So in effect all the funds which Testament would pay out to Rory over the course of his lifetime, with accrued interest, would eventually once again become Testament's, as would all the land, bequeathed from generation to generation of Knutsons and Calhouns, in The Big Forest region. All would be Testament's, eventually-just as soon as it rid itself of Rory Lewes.





         Testament was fooled thrice concerning Rory Donald Lewes:

first, when his father, Edison Donald Lewes, valued employee of The Testament Logging Corporation, moved his wife, son, and himself from her parents' homestead, “Euphonia,” deep in The Big Forest, into town, in Rennald, a good twelve miles distant, and so further from the reach of the evil entity buried deep in the heart of The Big Forest. This had the subsequent benefit (for the thre members of the Lewes family) of not being present at the end of May 1932, just three months later, when “Euphonia” burnt to the foundation, killing both of Rory's maternal grandparents.





Second, when Rory's “widowed” mother Maggethe moved her son and herself from Rennald, State of Algonquin, to Champaign, State of Illustrian, in September 1939. The rationale given was that her husband Edison had enlisted with the Royal Canadian Air Force just as soon as Hitling invaded Polusky. The real reason was much different.





Third, in May 1957, after a week of terrifying horrors and attempted destruction thrown at him by The Testament Logging Corporation Core, in an attempt to hasten his death or suicide, Rory Lewes discovered the Will Testament had made out in his name, and with his signature, in February 1932, when he turned two years old, three months before his maternal grandparents died in a fire so hot it burned for three days before the neighbors could get enough water to ease it. Rory found on the same evening the savings account books for a bank in Rennald, shoiwn gan immense amount of funds held in his name, and a signature card signed by him-again at the age of two-about which he had known nothing for the past twenty-five years. In an act of independence fueled by his fury at what The Testament Logging Corporation had done to manipulate himself, his parents, and his grandparents, Rory immediately penned a new holographic Will, bequeathing his entire estate to charity; for he knew that leaving it to an individual or group of individuals, such as a family, would only result in their impending deaths, just as leaving the old Will intact would eventually-probably sooner rather than later-result in his own demise. The very next morning he transferred all of the funds but $100 Algonquin to a new account in a different, independent, bank in Collins Junction, and signed his new Will in the presence of witnesses. It was then notarized and filed for record with the Probate Court of Collingham County, thereby effectively shutting The Testament Logging Corporation plans out into the cold of oblivion.





         But back in February 1930, the month that Rory Donald Lewes was born to Maggethe Knutson Calhoun Lewes and Edison Donald Lewes (valued employee of The Testament Logging Corporation) The Testament Core was not unhappy with the Lewes family. Rather, The Testament Core was quite pleased with the progress of its current plans. Granted, for some years it had been dismayed, perhaps even distraught, due to the fact that the Calhouns-Ida Knutson Calhoun, that spacy female who had enough psychic Intuition to “See,” but insufficient magickal ability to Act-and her husband, Rory Thomas Calhoun (both of whom would die tragically and in agony in late May 1932) produced only one child, a daughter. The Testament Core-and its “parent entity” deep in the heart of The Big Forest would not have cared either way concerning the gender of a Calhoun or Knutson, except that in the climate of the early years of the 20th century, as in the two centuries prior during which The Testament Core had existed in full flux in the New World, women were not expected, or accepted, in roles of full-time outside employment, certainly not as loggers nor truckers nor Vice-Presidents of major corporations on which the economy of the City and the environs of The Big Forest depended.





         So when Ilse Knutson Calhoun produced a daughter-Maggethe-and no sons, The Testament Core found itself not particularly pleased. And displeasure of The Testament Core always resulted in trouble for the living and the Dead-always. Such was the case when the explosion of Testament Core rage over Rory Lewes' new Will, in May 1957, caused the subsequent suicide of Morie Wilks Jennell, simply because she was the last Living touched by The Testament Core, via a telephone call to her from its pet attorney-on-retainer, Richard Layles Carnathy of Madison Mills, one of The Testament Logging Corporation's most effective manipulations of the Dead. Morie committed suicide as a result of the energy backlash from The Testament Core, and within the hour her husband had died too (and both had become Dead Testament Tools).





         But Ilse Knutson Calhoun and her husband Rory Thomas Calhoun had to wait quite a long while to receive their just deserts-or what The Testament Core considered just. Maggethe Knutson Calhoun was born in late 1911, and since Ilse was only in her early twenties, The Testament Core elected to wait and give her an opportunity to birth a son, which It would immediately co-opt and mold toward its own ends. But Ilse continued to fail in this regard, and Maggethe was the only child she managed. Then too, as Ilse aged, and entered into a rather early change of life, her psychic Intuition intensified dramatically, and she began to become much more aware of the activities of The Testament Core within The Big Forest-much too aware, indeed. And even though she could not Act, for she lacked the magickal ability of some of her ancestors-specifically Alamathera Knutson, accomplished Ceremonial Magickian of the late 17th-early 18th centuries; and Julianna Hartfeld Knutson, gifted psychic, who bore the notoriety of becoming Richard The Francis' final victim (or so it was thought}, she could See, and Intuit, and increasingly she was becoming all too aware of elements which The Testament Core did not choose to be revealed to all, especially to the living, especially to a Knutson, magically gifted or no.





         So it became time for the next step of one particular line of Testament Core planning to be reinstituted once again: child puppets of The Testament Logging Corporation. This was not an activity that  the Testament Core applied too often, for if it had, there would have been no adults left in Madison Mills or Knox or Rennald or Collins Junction, nor East, South, or West of the Big Forest. So this technique was applied gently and carefully, usually when a certain adult needed, in the eyes of The Testament Core, to be eradicated.