The Winds of Tomorrow
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Grand Island was big, beautiful and bashful. The mystery of it’s vast and unspoiled woodlands, it’s miles of great lakes’ shoreline and inviting interiors offered visitors a mystic place where dreams could come alive, linger for weeks and fade away in a storybook ending. In late summer, many forest trails are covered in an emerald canopy of maple, birch, poplar, cottonwood, cedar, spruce and pine. The forest floor is a rich carpet of velvety deep green mosses, brown, yellow and scarlet mushrooms, the green leaves and shiny red fruit of bunchberries, wild raspberries and blueberries which serve as dessert for black bears preparing for winter hibernation. Deer seem to be everywhere on the island. An entire afternoon of wandering through this wilderness, one might never see another human being. The island is so large that it also contains a half-dozen internal lakes that flow with clear, blue water. A hike through the forest reveals a beaver’s paradise. Many trees, some of them towering giants with massive trunks, show signs of the beaver’s industrial teeth, which intermittently adds a fresh beam to the wild tangle of mossy lumber on the forest floor. Much of the rocky shoreline, especially along the island’s north side, is gently sloping and ideal for beachcombing and watching the huge shapes of great lakes freighters gliding majestically through the foggy waters...
As The Herald’s helicopter skillfully maneuvered over the island, Adrian looked at Gene and smiled as the huge craft gently landed and settled in the clearing, blowing leaves swirling around them like a mini tornado. The pilot quickly assisted them out of the helicopter to a waiting station wagon. A man and a woman grabbed their bags and placed them in the back of the vehicle. As the station wagon bounced over the hilly and winding dirt roads, Gene squeezed Adrian to him and lightly kissed her on the cheek.
“Adrian...this is Mr. and Mrs. Jones,” Gene said. “They live up here and maintain the grounds to our hunting lodge...Harry...Marie...This is Adrian Grant.”
Marie turned and looked at Adrian with a big smile on her tanned face. “Nice meeting you, Ms. Grant...welcome to our island...I hope you enjoy your stay.”
“I know you will,” Harry shouted over his shoulder as he drove along the steep hills. “Me and Marie love it up here...and we live here year around.”
“I’m sure I will too,” Adrian answered, smiling at Gene. “If this island is as nice as it looks...it’s gonna be paradise!”
Harry Jones drove the car into a spacious clearing where a massive lodge loomed up in front of them. The entire area looked like a giant stage surrounded by huge pine trees. The lodge was laid out like a horse shoe with the enormous lodge building in the center and ten smaller units, motel like log cabins, on one side of the lodge and the main house with an attached garage on the other side. All of the buildings were made up with a log exterior. Adrian gasped in surprise!..
“Oh, my GOD!” Adrian cried out. “This place is fantastic!..I thought you said it was just an old log cabin!”
“It is...they’re all made out of logs,” Gene laughed. “My father had this place built for his hunting club...It hasn’t been used much in the last twenty years.”
“This is so enchanting!” Adrian said as they climbed out of the station wagon. She pulled up the collar of her jacket as the cold winds swept in from the lake giving her a slight chill.
“Better button up, young lady,” Harry Jones laughed as he carried their luggage towards the main house. “S’pose to come a storm in the mornin!”
“A storm?..What kind of storm?” Adrian asked.
“Bout six inches of snow,” Marie answered.
“Six inches!”
“Maybe more...We get snow earlier up here,” Marie said. “Our winter starts in October.”
Adrian turned to Gene as they walked towards the main house. “Is that true?” she asked. “It’s cold enough to snow now?”
“It probably will snow anytime now,” Gene answered, with a big grin on his face. “I love it...It’s like a winter wonderland around here...Trees become covered with snow and their heavily laden branches sway with the slightest breeze. The lakes are frozen over and the animals become bolder as they forage for food.”
The wind began to whistle as they hurriedly walked inside the large home and closed the door. Adrian smiled at Gene when the aroma of burning white birch logs drew their attention to the flashing lights from the dancing fire in the old, stonefaced fireplace. Adrian giggled like a little girl with a delightful surprise...
“Hey!..Who started the fire?” she asked as she quickly ran over and stood with her back to the fireplace. She quickly turned around, trying to get warm all over.
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About the Book
The vivid and highly memorable characters in The Winds Of Tomorrow enables Donald Wilson to present innovative ideas and a definite philosophy of life, specifically, that Black people have often been stereotyped in books, film, and television, and that they are not all the same. “Some are heroes and some are villains.” This premise leads readers into the thick of this dynamic plot, as Gene Stanton, a very successful and wealthy African American newspaper publisher, is faced with the same problems and everyday concerns that his White counterparts have to face, when he decides to expand his business by switching from publishing a Black weekly newspaper to an integrated daily, thus, becoming the country’s only Black citizen to publish an integrated daily newspaper that happens to have mostly White employees.
This storyline stimulates high dramatic interests, provocative narrative, and meaty subject matter as Stanton confronts family conflict and division amongst his attorney wife and their six adult children when his newspaper goes eyeball to eyeball against a powerful and ruthless competitor which creates a flourish of racism, infidelity , and greed.
Stanton' s life is further complicated when he becomes involved in a torrid love affair with a stunning young woman on the paper's editorial
staff . . . This happens just before a grass
roots political organization selects him to run for mayor.
This modern day novel also deals with violence, drugs, interracial marriage, sexual t orientation, breast cancer and child abuse as it offers a wealth of stimulating ideas about our culture and family systems with a background of fast paced and exciting action sequences as Gene Stanton's life is threatened by a relentless would-be assassin. The Winds Of Tomorrow displays an intriguing contemporary profile of American life that clearly shows that the integration of races in this country can be successful, as it guides the readers with crisp, easy reading prose and maintains a high degree of interest to its dramatic conclusion.
About the Author
A native Detroiter, Donald Wilson was an advertising account executive at The Detroit News for many years before he was appointed Director of Public Information for the City of Detroit. Wilson is a former film producer, author of five episodes of a major TV network soap series and the author of several novels, non-fiction books and screenplays. He lives with his wife, Jane, in Birmingham, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.