The Divine Adventures of Simon Templegate

Synopsis

Sixty year old Simon Templegate, a Catholic priest, led a fairly ordinary life until he decided to buy a run-down old mansion out in the middle of nowhere to turn into a retreat house.  One stormy night, he receives a summons from a stranger (foretold through an ancient family Bible falling off a shelf to an underlined passage.) 

That night, Simon’s life changes forever as he and his cat Marmalade set out to attend a secret gathering of the Holy Order of Divine Wonder at Lake Eternity.  On the way, he meets four companions, who like him, have been called to a mission.  At the time, they have not  been told what it is, but receive clues that it will be revealed through five symbols:  a cup (let this cup pass from me), a sheaf of wheat (unless a grain of wheat dies and falls to earth it can never be reborn), a bell (if I do not have love I am as a noisy gong or clanging cymbal) a crown (royalty, honor and sacrifice) and a mask (representing an imposter, masquerader among them).  

Suddenly, enroute to their destination, their bus crashes through a guard rail into a river and they find themselves having gone back in time to the year l947 and a ghost town called Time Stands Still, where the Wild Violet Café becomes pivotal in their lessons and revelations.  There, they meet Delle Viola and Ruby Red, colorful old maids who can read thoughts, Juan, a Hispanic curandero (healer) who owns the La Fuente Motel and Daisy, his beautiful grand-daughter who has the mind of a child and the spirit of a sage.

These four characters and their ‘back rooms’ represent the preparer of the way, the guardian of that which is cast aside, the healer who integrates all that is and the beauty of a transparent soul.  Also central to the book is the unfolding saga of Simon’s best friend Sebastian, who is the editor of his column, The Heavenly Glimmer, and Polly, who is Simon’s eccentric housekeeper and second mother. They, along with Julian, the ghost of Simon’s eleven year old brother who was tragically killed the day Simon was born in l947, call Simon back from the brink of no return.  Caught between two worlds, Simon finds his way to Lake Eternity, where a masquerade ball is held in his honor.  There, through the guidance of his spiritual master, Jeppy, a shoe shine man, Simon discovers that it is not only the destination in life experiences that is important but the journey.

This fast-paced novel is filled with nostalgia, the mystery of a good ghost story and the depth of a spiritual classic.  It invites the reader to ponder their own call in the world while participating in the divine adventures of Simon and all his friends as they travel downriver to Lake Eternity on their floating monastery---a houseboat named The Lunar Eclipse.    

The spirit world, as described by Julian is not like a great divide that separates the living and the dead, but is more like a revolving door.  This describes the author’s hope---that through the pages of this novel, readers will discover heartwarming, magical places and people they can return to, again and again.