Two Like Me and You
Chad Alan Gibbs 

Publication date: May 20th 2019
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult

Edwin Green’s ex-girlfriend is famous. We’re talking cover-of-every-tabloid-in-the-grocery-store-line famous. She dumped Edwin one year ago on what he refers to as Black Saturday, and in hopes of winning her back, he’s spent the last twelve months trying to become famous himself. It hasn’t gone well.
But when a history class assignment pairs Edwin with Parker Haddaway, the mysterious new girl at school, she introduces him to Garland Lenox, a nursing-home-bound World War II veteran who will change Edwin’s life forever.
The three escape to France, in search of the old man’s long-lost love, and as word of their adventure spreads, they become media darlings. But when things fall apart, they also become the focus of French authorities. In a race against time, who will find love, and who will only find more heartache?


~ Guest Post With Chad ~
Jody: I would like you to tell my readers what inspired you to write this particular story, I mean you are into collecting Star Wars memorabilia, which is cool but where did you get the inspiration for this romance story?

Chad: An early season of American Idol inspired part of this story. The famous ex-girlfriend part. It was season two or three, so we’re talking fifteen years ago, and there was a contestant who always wore a flower in her hair for her boyfriend back home. Then one episode the flower was gone, and when Seacrest asked her about it she said they’d broken up, and for some reason, this made me really sad for the guy back home. I mean, getting dumped always sucks, but most of us then don’t have to see our ex every time we turn on the television.

So I had the idea of a guy with a super famous ex-girlfriend early on, but the idea of two teens taking a WWII veteran back to France in search of a long-lost love came much later. It’s a little fuzzy when I came up with this part, though I suspect it was just after our first son was born, and I was up at 3 AM every night for a few weeks binge-watching Band of Brothers.

I tried writing my first novel back in 2004 or ’05. I still have a few chapters of it buried deep on my hard drive to hopefully never again be seen by human eyes. Sometime after that some humor essays I’d written caught the eye of an editor at Zondervan/HarperCollins, and that led to a two-book deal. I spent several years writing a couple of what I guess you’d categorize as spiritual travel books. Then our first son was born, and since my wife is a pediatrician and a big stack of my royalty checks wouldn’t pay for a month’s worth of groceries, there wasn’t much discussion about who’d be staying home with the baby.

So with my wings clipped, and at home with a baby who napped a lot, I tried writing my famous ex-girlfriend novel again, only now I mashed it up with the WWII story. Two and a half years later I finished my first novel, then came the publishing journey, which was long and frustrating and full of close calls. February of this year, after once last near miss with a publisher, I decided to indie publish the book. Parts of the story have been in my head for fifteen years, and I couldn’t wait any longer to share it with the world. Now I just hope I sell a few copies because there is a vintage Lando Calrissian action figure on eBay that I’ve got to have.


Author Bio:

Chad Alan Gibbs lives in Alabama with his wife, two sons, two dogs, and an embarrassingly large collection of Star Wars action figures. Two Like Me and You is his first novel.



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