Beyond The Portal

About the Book

Would you want to go back in time? If your answer is yes, what would you give to go back in time and be able to re-live something from history’s past or re-live something from “your” own past. Have you ever asked yourself the question, “Could there a hidden portal somewhere on this earth where one can enter it in order to take a trip into a forgotten place and time? And, if you do find that hidden portal, would you be brave enough to enter it, not knowing if you will be able to return? Would you be brave enough to see where it takes you? Would you be able to find it back in order to get back to the present? What if it is not there anymore? What if you only had a certain amount of time to get back? What would happen if you missed that window of opportunity? What then? And, what if you decided to stay and not go back to the present? Could you do it?” Cotton accidentally stumbles into a portal during a freak lightning strike close to the North Fork Double Mountain Brazos River. The year is 1965. When Cotton wakes up, he finds himself in the year 1865, right at the end of the Civil War. Stonewall’s wolf, Thunder, is with him. He has gone through the portal right behind Cotton. Cotton realizes that he is about to be shot by a Union soldier. Cotton and Thunder are not in Texas anymore. They are in Louisiana, just east of the Sabine River. Cotton and Thunder must now figure out how to get back to Texas before his mom misses him. In their efforts to get back home, Cotton slowly begins meeting some very important people that will end up being a part of his past. Follow the dangers and miscalculations Cotton must now face. What dangers will Cotton and Thunder, along with his friends, will now have to face in order to survive the wilderness that existed at the end of the Civil War when there were no trail or very few trails to follow in order to get from location to another. Will Cotton and Thunder be able to get back to Texas? Will they be able find the portal in time to get back to the present? Will they stay in 1865? Who will the strangers be and how will they be able to help Cotton? Who will end up saving who? Will Cotton and his new friends stay together and make their way back to the Brazos?

About the Author

I am a retired police officer by profession. I was born in Harlingen, Texas. Our family migrated to West Texas in the early 1960's. As a pre-teen, I shared time with my two older brothers selling popcorn up and down the aisles inside a movie theater back in Harlingen. When we grew up, we went to work in the cotton fields hoeing weeds during the summers and picking cotton in the fall. We were back in the fields during the onion and cabbage harvest season in the early frosty mornings of fall in order to help our parents put food on the table. Back when one could earn twenty five or thirty cents an hour, working ten hour days in the hot summer sun, was no fun. But it meant growing up, feeling grateful for what God gave us and sleeping with a full stomach. At times, it was fun because it also meant making new friends who were doing the same thing for their parents. It was an honest way to survive poverty. Thanks to our parents, who always wanted us to finish high school, we all graduated high school at New Deal ISD, which is in Lubbock County, Texas. I attended Texas Tech University but eventually, dropped out in order to marry my high school sweetheart. After 49 years, I still love her with all my heart. She is still the apple of my eye. She is my best friend and my life is complete having her at my side. My jobs went from working the fields, working at a slaughterhouse, a meat market, a warehouse, and driving the big rigs. From there, I went to work for the Lubbock Police Department as a street cop until retirement. During my years of working, many friends have touched my life. The fact that friendships make a huge part of our lives, is what inspired me to write this book about dreams and friends and what they do to pass the time. We’ve all had those types of friends. I am also a writer and a regular commentary contributor to the Lubbock Avalanche Journal Newspaper which publishes my op-eds in the Sunday commentary pages every three or four weeks. My wife, Orelia (Cookie) is, and will always be, my inspiration. And having her as my biggest critic, I am thankful to her for allowing me to continue to write my stories and my books. Thank you for all of your unconditional love and support! I love you forever and always!