I run to you on the path of dreams Yet no night of dreams could ever compare to one waking glimpse |
The Path of Dreams is a romantic fantasy arising out of the traditional Japanese practice of the arranged marriage. The matchmakers in this case are an Osaka samurai academic and a Scottish Mormon polygamist. The union these two 19th century raconteurs plot for their great-great grandchildren is one their descendants never could have anticipated, for this o-miai exists only on "the path of dreams."
Ardent lovers in their dreams, they're all but hopeless in reality.
Although they have never met before, a seemingly chance encounter leaves Elaine Chieko Packard and Connor McKenzie haunted by passionate dreams they cannot control. They determine to resolve the growing tension between the moral strictures of their religion and their own overpowering emotions by eloping, a decision that triggers an entirely unexpected series of events.
No matter how hard you try, sometimes the past won't let go.
In the days and months that follow, they find themselves reliving--in dreams and reality--many of the same conflicts their parents and grandparents once did. They come to realize that their lives cannot move forward until they have attended to the unsettled obligations of the past. As the prophet Malachi commanded, they must "turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers."
Book details
The Path of Dreams can be read in its entirety on this website. The PDF ebook is also a free download (right click on the "Adobe Reader" icon and select "Save Target As").
The paperback (2008 edition) is on sale at Lulu ($11.95). Pay attention to the shipping options. The perfect-bound paperback runs 296 pages, 285 numbered, with a glossy color cover.
The MOBI/PRC format is compatible with many portable electronic devices, including the Amazon Kindle.
The author
Eugene Woodbury spent his childhood in the upstate New York community of Scotia-Glenville. After serving for two years in the LDS Tokyo South Mission, he graduated from Brigham Young University with a B.A. in Japanese and an M.A. in TESOL.
His stories have appeared in The New Era, Cricket, Sunstone, The American Gardener, and Clubhouse Magazine. He has twice been a Utah Original Writing Competition finalist and is a recipient of the Sunstone Foundation Moonstone Award for short fiction.
He lives in Orem, Utah, where he works as a free-lance writer and translator.
