I Will Always Love You
Joshua Blackburn is a middle-aged, balding software project manager with a problem. Twenty-nine years ago, the love of his life broke his teenage heart, and now he wants to find her. That’s only part of his problem. The other part is that he’s married. His twenty-five year marriage to Susan has grown stale and lackluster, much like the rest of Josh’s life. His escape from his midlife crisis are the memories of Emmie, his ninth-grade sweetheart—his first love and his first kiss. While a red convertible might be a more reasonable outlet for his boredom, feelings for Emmie keep surfacing until he delves into the distraction head and heart first.
The memories of Josh’s old flame are fanned by the unresolved mystery of why she broke up with him in the first place. After three decades, he still hasn’t figured it out. The puzzle consumes him until finding Emmie becomes an obsession.
With so many years of no contact, the trail finding his lost love is as cold as a grave. While Josh searches for Emmie down myriad online blind alleys, his memories of their relationship come alive. Ninth grade was a pivotal year for Josh not only in romance but in other kinds of love. Seemingly permanent friendships faltered, and new people came into Josh’s circle, taking him in a whole new direction. It was at this crucial moment that Jesus entered young Josh’s life.
What shy, introverted Josh lacks in emotional quotient, he makes up for in dogged persistence. His computer sleuthing skills finally pay off with a lead that he is sure will take him to Emmie. Unable to get her attention with cards, emails, texts, and voice messages, he is ready to give up when an unexpected opportunity falls in his lap to travel to Washington, D.C., just a few miles from the town where he suspects Emmie lives. If his hunch is right, he is about to reunite with his first love face to face. Will he be able to say the words she didn’t give him the chance to say twenty-nine years ago?
#IWillAlwaysLoveYou
In the Days of Lachoneus
In the Days of Lachoneus is David Alan Armstrong's first novel. It tells an epic story of politics and patriotism, intrigue and murder, war and violence, love and betrayal, friendship and loyalty, believers and unbelievers, good and evil, set in the landscape of pre-Columbian Meso-America. The historical background for the story is the account in the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ, of the fierce struggle to the death between the murderous counter-culture of the Gadianton Robbers and the liberty-loving society of the Nephites, a people descended from the tribes of Israel.
The first volume in this series is The Gathering, in which Governor Lachoneus of Zarahemla faces the challenge to surrender or be destroyed by Giddianhi and his Gadianton terrorists. The citizens of Zarahemla have beaten and driven the Gadiantons once, only to lose ground in a second battle. Emboldened by his most recent success, Giddianhi writes an arrogant letter to Lachoneus boasting that his army will wipe out the population of Zarahemla unless they turn over all of the property and possessions to the robber band and join their secret society.
Woven between the scenes of war and government and politics on a grand scale are personal stories of intrigue and young love. Traitors within Governor Lachoneuss council plot his overthrow. Giddianhis ruthless rule over the Gadiantons is also not without its internal enemies who design his demise. At the same time, Lachoneuss beautiful daughter and his house servant are hopelessly in love, yet they are kept apart by class, station, and temperament.
Dissension and apostasy among the Nephites of Zarahemla threaten the people with utter destruction. Lachoneus fears that the decrees of God are about to descend upon his wayward people. When the letter from Giddianhi arrives, Lachoneus seizes upon this opportunity to call the people to repentance and to unite them in a common cause that is bigger than their petty jealousies and personal greed. He warns the people of the threat from the Gadiantons and issues a proclamation throughout all the land for the people to gather together into a single body. They will build a fortress and organize an army and prepare for a fight to the death to defend their lives, their liberty, their families, and their way of life.
#Lachoneus
The Porch
People are not Edward's forte, but despite his best efforts, people are unavoidable. An autistic adult, Edward finds his routine life disrupted by events that force him to face uncomfortable changes.
First, he receives an unusual job assignment that requires him to make monthly visits to a cantankerous old man. Then his widowed mother’s stroke forces Edward to become her caregiver. When the old man overcomes his drug addiction, he tries to make Edward his friend, and Edward is forced to learn to interact.
The old man’s recently divorced daughter comes to live with him, and Edward experiences his first romantic infatuation. His crush blossoms into love, which he struggles to express with his limited emotional intelligence.
More changes tear Edward out of his routine existence as the old man, now his friend, develops cancer and passes away. He comes to grips with a world of changes and leaves the safety of the old man’s porch to enter the doorway to love and a new life.
#ThePorch