Mason Winfield

Author:
Author, teacher, storyteller, and supernatural historian Mason Winfield studied English and Classics at Denison University, earned a master’s degree in British literature at Boston College, and studied poetry and fiction at SUNY Buffalo with professor emeritus and MacArthur grant recipient Irving Feldman. He has written or edited fourteen books, including the regional sensation “Shadows of the Western Door” (1997) and “Iroquois Supernatural,” co-authored with Michael Bastine, on the traditions of the Six Longhouse Nations (Inner Traditions International/Bear & Company, 2011). Several of his surveys of upstate folklore and paranormal tradition may be found at the website of Western New York Wares: www.buffalobooks.com. He may be reached at www.masonwinfield.com.

An anatomically perfect human jaw fashioned of diamond-hard quartz crystal is uncovered at an Ohio burial mound and sold on the underground antiquities market. Shortly after, three pothunters are found dead.

A mysterious new drug suspected of South American origin surfaces in Buffalo, NY. Its unprecedented psycho-tropic effects include the momentary activation of ESP. 

Blind, speechless, emaciated street people start appearing in many parts of the world. An urban legend-cycle forms around them, and the name of a murderous old cult, “the Whistlers” attaches to them.

An archaeological team at a Mayan site reports finding a bizarre artifact and vanishes. 

An upstate schoolteacher’s book of New York legends and folklore foreshadows these developments and more. 

   These are the threads – plus his affair with a maddening woman – that draw narrator Ward Courier into the international adventure of occultism, terror, Native American tradition and onrushing prophecy that is Mason Winfield’s anticipated new novel THE WHISTLERS. By the time the picture of THE WHISTLERS becomes clear, we are ready to believe in a sinister conspiracy that could predate Atlantis and even hail from another world.

The Whistlers

NARRATIVE of WARD COURIER/EPISODE with RICK REYNARD, Continued


We got out and hoofed it. Carbine slung over his back, the agent Jason Jonas came up to us. "Welcome to the picnic," he said.


The Island boasts some of the finest old-growth forest on the frontier. The cliff-like edge of Terrapin Point backs up to nothing but air and spume. A hippie haven for decades, its vistas are magnificent. When we neared the Tesla Memorial I saw what was causing the excitement. It was like a sun-pillar, a localized alteration of the natural light, rising from a small spot on the sward. I couldn't imagine what would cause that effect.


We came to a couple guys in grey-green military-style suits and black helmets unfolding a tent like they were setting up a command post. I thought they were U.S. Army, but when one of them lifted a pole, I saw "State Police" in white capitals on the back of his flak vest.


Chapter 177: The Q, Part 177