Sanctuary

Filled with images of the beauty of nature – the colors of the sunset, the feel of the wind with the approach of winter, the tastes of food in a cabin or from a campfire, the sound of quail and coyotes on a Texas ranch – the short stories and novellas of J. Kent Gregory explore the basic human yearning for the peace and healing found in the natural world. “A Place Apart” is a lyrical description of finding an untouched, separate, liminal dell. “Scouting with My Daddy”, told from the perspective of a young boy, describes his introduction to the beauties and thrills of the woods by his protective father. In the title short story, “Sanctuary”, two friends meet on a river near Canada to fish and find peace in the waning days of summer. “On the Gulf” follows one of the two friends as he escapes the Northern cold and a failing relationship to fish the surf and the Gulf Stream where he finds connection and shared loss with a trophy sailfish. In “The Forge” the two friends come together to fight a dangerous fire in the Valley of Virginia. The narrator of “Free and Happy, Wherever Home Is” discovers, to his surprise, a love for the land and animals on a dry Texas ranch. “A Café Scene” is a short vignette where the narrator looks ahead from the waning of winter to summer amid a feast of the senses. In “Solitude” an older man, alone with his dog, gets in one last pheasant hunt before a winter storm and the unwanted arrival of visitors. In the final story, “Healing Waters”, the narrator flies out West after a devastating loss to meet a young woman who introduces him to the rivers and waters of the Cascades and the Coastal Range.