What does it mean to be spiritually awakened? How do we reconcile our earthly desires with God’s plan? How do we approach the journey of healing our brokenness? In Steven Wayne‘s debut novel, Temporary Demolishment, a young man grapples with these questions and comes of age in the realm of love, heartbreak, and spiritual maturity.
The story opens on Anthony, a seventh grader who’s nascent steps into dating and relationships form the basis for his future more serious endeavors with the opposite sex. Anthony’s pursuit of his female interests is naïve and dauntless, but he quickly learns that the world doesn’t always see him the way he does.
As he enters high school, Anthony creates a hard outer façade to shield himself from the heartbreak he’s experienced. He even gives this façade a name: RIO, the cool, calm, and collected guy who gets the girls but never falls in love with them. All the while, he harbors strong and undeniable feelings for a single girl, one who will continually own his heart for more than a decade, Lisa.
Throughout his high school and college years, Anthony courts Lisa only to be disappointed each time worse than the last. As adults, the duo reconnects believing they have moved beyond their problematic past to a mature Godly understanding of themselves. Eventually, he asks Lisa to marry him, and she agrees. However, it’s not long before things go bad again. One day, after Anthony Picks Lisa up from her university, he senses something off. There was a silence that hung in the air between them. The couple that usually couldn’t wait to fill each other in on their day was suddenly apprehensive. “I could tell that lately, something was off. Things just didn’t feel the same. Maybe I was being paranoid, or perhaps I was being cautious given our history.” As the day drags on through silence ad awkward small talk, Anthony finally asks the question on his mind. “You’re not going to marry me, are you?”
Her answer destroys everything he thought he knew while also leveling the man he thought he was. Anthony must learn to rebuild his life and to recover from the detriment of his past. Healing and restoration are in Anthony’s future, but will he learn to embrace them? “I want everyone to read this book and laugh, cry, shake their heads, and stare in disbelief, just like I did while I was writing it,” Wayne said.
“This story is probably not unlike many of your own… It’s called Temporary Demolishment for a reason. Life is short, so do all that you can to reconcile as much of your broken past as possible. Live free.” The author, Steven Wayne, is an R&B/Soul singer/songwriter with several volumes of released music.
He is also the Logistics Pastor at Emmanuel Church (The E Church) based in Chino Hills, Ca. He is currently on track to earn his Master of Arts in Creative Writing from National University, and he hopes to use his wisdom to guide young people through the rough and sometimes unforgiving landscape of their teenage and young adult years.
Temporary Demolishment is available on Amazon/Kindle and Barnes & Noble/Nook.
SOURCE:
Steven Wayne