Waiting at Heaven's Gates

**Waiting at Heaven's Gates** (2026) by Mark Fast is the opening novel in a planned series that explores free will, regret, and the radical reach of grace.

Andrew Best, a middle-aged auto mechanic defined by half-lived relationships and quiet failures, wakes in a vast, silent antechamber after death. Souls wait in serpentine queues before three doors: the Gate of Hell, a shimmering "Do Over" door, and a final path of destiny. He watches a well-known preacher choose damnation in bitter defiance, then, paralyzed by his own unfinished life, steps through the Do Over door himself.

Returned to his ordinary apartment with the same regrets still intact, Andrew discovers the second chance is neither a clean slate nor an unlimited loop. Limited opportunities force him to confront the people he has hurt-his former partner, an estranged love, a teacher whose quiet support he once betrayed-and to learn that surface apologies change nothing. Only after a profound encounter with grace does he begin the harder work of genuine repentance.

The novel ends with Andrew making his final choice and walking into eternity. Because this is the first book in the series, the larger rules of the antechamber, the fates of other souls still waiting in line, and the ongoing implications of mercy remain open for future volumes.