Cloudland

by John Clarence

While I was living in Florida I began writing Cloudland. That was more than twenty years ago. When it was nearly finished I took an assignment in Las Cruces, New Mexico to research and write the true story of the Victorio Peak treasure, a huge fortune in gold and ancient artifacts discovered by Doc and Ova Noss in 1937. From the day I moved into “the war room” on Missouri Avenue I knew I was in for a long stay. I was right because that was eighteen years ago. After “The Gold House” books on the Noss treasure were finished I began thinking about an old friend I had abandoned in Florida––my Cloudland manuscript. Although it took months and months before we became friends again, I eventually began thinking about finishing the book. Along the way, though, I made another friend, a manuscript I titled, The Borshov Effect. So, here we are, the three of us ready to stretch our legs in the 2022 book marketplace. But oh how it has changed over the years, so much so that finding an agent, yet alone a publisher, is as difficult as it was for Doc and Ova Noss to keep the U.S. Government from stealing the gold from their treasure. Here is the last thing I wrote in my Cloudland manuscript before I left for New Mexico.

~
At the northwestern end of the lake near the charming village of Amica

Falls there is an emerald light. At night, and when the weather is clear, it can be seen from almost any part of the lake. It’s been there for a long time, some thirty years. For the people who live in Amica Falls the light is only something to talk about to strangers when they asked about it. Then there are those who call the soft emerald glow a beacon of safety, a sure heading in the night, a waypoint there to help guide the lost to safe haven. For one man it meant the way home and for a few other people it meant the end of a long season of deliverance.

The setting is the southern Appalachian Range within the Cumberland Plateau at a real place called Cloudland Canyon. There, overlooking a large mountain lake is the pavilion, a clandestine CIA operation center, a secret listening post owned by Brenton Parrish. The site is listed in the official top- secret files in Langley, Virginia as––Cloudland.

514 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 14, 2022