God’s Gate
Coming Soon with New cover in ebook and paper.
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https://www.amazon.com/author/ghwhite
reviewer:
I’ve always enjoyed books that made me think and this book will definitely make you think.
Two men worlds apart. One secret sent from the stars.
No thoughts or theories prepared Reverend Bill for his future. Now homeless after his career as a childhood healer dried up, he’s finding LA less hospitable by the minute. So with nothing to lose, he hitches a ride out of town with a foul-smelling truck driver…
Five of Five stars:
A fictionalized story of two very lost men, meeting by chance, or maybe by design! In the heart of ancient/native Arizona. Both men haunted by A past like a millstone around their neck.
Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2021
A broken concept about God had moved them to a life of austerity and a relentless search for truth. Blinded by the pain of the past, they moved to a position that allowed them to discover an ancient portal, used by original inhabitants, into a new enlightenment and self discovery.
Definitely an easy read. I gave it give stars for readability and originality.
Partial SAMPLE:
1-The Road
As the Arizona sunshine baked the cracked asphalt of Interstate 10, truck tires sizzled in whiney protest of the weight they carried at speed.
This same sun weighed heavily on a lone traveler as his long arms scissored rhythmically, pulling his thin, emaciated body behind.
Few passing motorists would pay attention to this odd traveler.
He walked on this highway through Joshua Tree National Park, connecting California, Arizona, and points West to East in an endless black ribbon of auto and truck passage.
Early Mormon settlers noted that the branches of the up-reaching tree reminded them of Joshua stretching for God.
Hence, Joshua Tree!
Joshua Tree Park has a surreal draw that has claimed many travelers’ imaginations through the centuries humankind has been here.
If the Joshua trees were sentient, they would likely have little patience for the human lives so short in comparison, as Joshua Trees require fifty years to mature and can live up to five hundred.
At times, Interstate 10 would appear as an escape route for those attempting to leave the Los Angeles basin, allowing flight at highway speeds Eastward.
This fleeing California traffic predictably increased after Earthquakes but had sped up in later years due to overburdening taxation and growing social issues.
California had become infamous for more people leaving the state than coming in in the last decade.
A most significant time in California’s population history and contradictory to the Horace Greely chant,
“Go West, Young Man.”
Our lone traveler likely did not know that courageous adventurers had come into the area mining for gold and other minerals to make their fortune in the distant past.
Many died in the process, falling victim to dehydration, famine, collapsing mines, or violence from the local Indian population, resentful of the European incursion.
When the film industry began to develop in the early 1900s, hordes moved to California seeking riches, freedom, and would-be cinema stars. Most found shattered dreams instead. And some died in that process in a myriad of ways.
Indeed, some lives were in partial ruin in the present day as the cars sped away from California.
Such an escapee was Reverend Bill, the hitchhiker hoping for a lift.
He used the oldest human transportation method. The one that allowed our very distant cousins to leave Africa and spread out to the rest of the world.
Bill used his feet!
2-Reverend Bill
A passing motorist would think it common to see a hitchhiker with his thumb raised high.
But Reverend Bill was unique when compared to any other highway traveler.
Drivers might have seen his shoulder-length, dirty blond hair and six-foot-two-inch frame.
Perhaps, they noticed his backpack. They would not know there were survival items inside, like a Swiss Army knife, a few changes of socks and underwear, a worn bedroll tied with a rope, and little else.
Though they could guess, they would not know he was a broken man without a home, a family, or any direction in life.
He had lost his faith in himself and his religion.
Only this road gave him a purpose for his immediate future.
Passing motorists would not know this man was hugely successful and rich in childhood.
He would wash himself and his clothes during his travels, frequently letting both dry as he walked along, trying to catch his next ride.
Today, Bill’s gray eyes scanned the horizon for storm clouds. Though rains were unusual in the Mohave Desert, sudden flooding could occur during one. It took time to reach higher ground and relative safety.
Last week, he had narrowly missed a gully washer, sweeping him suddenly awake and downstream in thigh-deep water. Luckily, he had slept lying uphill in the gully, so he got a chance to wake and breathe before being swept away.
He vowed he would be more careful in the future.
Bill’s eyes had a piercing quality that commanded anyone’s attention if they looked at him closely. A gentle, shy smile balanced the piercing gaze.
Ramblings from an Unpaved Mind 