The Gatekeeper, a Novel by C. Alease

I don't remember anything about being a baby, or how it must have felt inside when I took my first step, said my first word, or got my first "booboo." All I can do is feel my way vicariously through the absolute pride and joy in my mother's eyes; that twinkle in them when she reminisces about how my grandfather would stand a few steps away from the top of the landing of the stairs to the kitchen and pat his hands against the top-most step, nearest the opening. She would laugh out loud when she remembered how each time I crawled to him at the top of the steps, dragging a brown paper bag, full of stuff I collected while I crawled around the house. She told me he would say, "When I come back from work today, you are gonna walk straight to me."

Of course, it took a few of those pats from my grandfather against the wooden stair step, but one day, she recalled, as her smile filled her cheeks to their brim, "when Grandpop Lawson came home and stood those few steps down from the top of the landing and began to pat his hands on the top step, you got up, clutching your brown paper bag full of stuff you collected, and you walked straight to him!"

While I regret nothing of my life so far, it has been a series of the same good and not so good things, repeating themselves in different forms and experiences, but repeats, nonetheless. Until now.

I am now situating inside of the tremendously sublime place of firsts again; my first novel, my first sale, my first radio interview, my first book signing. The feelings I have will not be expressed adequately by the words I write to describe them, but sufficed to say, it’s like being a baby all over again, but with a twist; I will remember these firsts.

C. Alease

THE GATEKEEPER, A NOVEL BY C. ALEASE

Anyone may have a “Trollop,” a “Sick and Tired,” a “Chatterbox” and even a “Perfectionist” in themselves. The question is, “who’s in charge.” What if they were alive?

Some of our Narrator’s best friends live inside her head. “So it appears that I am fragmented, though not completely split.” This is what our Narrator in The Gatekeeper, a Novel by C. Alease, believes. In reality, she is a human jigsaw puzzle not yet assembled, cracked mirror pieces in a worn, weather beaten frame, ready to fall apart.

Something inside our Narrator believes that her desire to find a therapist is actually for her eighteen year old son, to manage his anger issues. A close friend recommends one, and after a few visits with her son, the psychotherapist becomes much more interested in her. And so begins an unintended journey through her fractured, but not broken, dissociated mind, to places she did not know existed, chose to forget, and was not prepared to revisit.

This odyssey takes the reader and our Narrator through an obstacle course of events, a journey of self-actualization and recollection, trauma and confusion as she learns the extent to which she has been guided by, interacting with and struggling to find a precarious peace amid these fractured pieces of herself, all living inside her head, and all of whom were created for their own specific purpose.

Our Narrator’s story is not unique, which works tremendously well, enabling readers to identify with all its characters. Readers will find that the story of The Gatekeeper is dark and foreboding, yet amusing and playful, providing a proverbial rollercoaster ride of emotions that will touch the reader’s soul, as these multifarious personalities emerge alive, completely different, yet being, loving, living and arguing with each other, much like the best friends that our Narrator believes they are.

The Gatekeeper, a Novel by C. Alease

Trade Paperback 216 pages

ISBN: 1449552641

Distributed by the Ingram Group

Available online now at:

Amazon.com

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iFOGO.com

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