Dear Reader, Love Laura Evans Serna

Dear Reader…

My first daughter was born six weeks premature. One day I was bookstore-hopping in Oxford, trying to find a suitable place to finish up some calculus of variation problems. The next I had a five-pound baby with tubes down her nose and into her tiny hand.

She couldn't suck properly for nearly two weeks. At first she received donated breast milk through a tube down her nose to her stomach. The gratitude I felt towards this anonymous milk donor can’t be described. Breastmilk can save premature babies’ lives.

In that post-partum time, I lost all pride and interest in what kind of integrals I could solve. I pumped and pumped until I could feed my own child. I had a new, very physical, almost barbaric superpower: producing milk.

It got me thinking: what if producing breastmilk really was a superpower? What if there was a group of people whose survival depended on a certain kind of milk that only some women could produce?

The idea intrigued me. For one thing, there are few pieces of fiction that even mention breastfeeding. Those that mention it only do so in passing. I wanted to create a piece of fiction that focused on feeding babies—not only breastfeeding but bottle feeding and tube feeding as well. I wanted to pay tribute to the sleepless nights, the exhaustion, the tears, and the love that women have endured for thousands of years in nurturing humanity.  

I was also interested in bringing forward a young heroine who was a strong and smart mother. I wanted her journey to be spiritual as much as intellectual. She would strive to find the right path for her life, not taking the directions that seem so obvious to everyone else.

I wrote this book over the course of six years. I created a fictional world and tried my hardest to be honest about the consequences of this world. I let the characters tell me their stories. The heroine’s choices would not have been mine, but they made sense for her.   

All the best,

Laura 

About the Author

Laura Evans Serna grew up in Albuquerque wandering the Sandia mountains and enjoying magnificent sunsets each night. She was spoiled by the mountain and desert wilderness and the freedom it offered. Now that she’s lived in Oxford, Washington, DC, and Tokyo, she knows how rare and precious that kind of experience is. 

           

As a teenager Laura would lie on her concrete driveway with her siblings and friends, watching Hale Bopp slowly cross the sky. She discussed science and theology with no reservation. What are the laws of physics, and where did they come from? What do they mean? Where do humans fit into all of this? What binds society together? Laura believes that these are the questions that make us human. They don’t belong to the scientists, philosophers, or theologians. Everyone has a right to make them their own.

        

Laura started her undergraduate degree in Chemistry at the University of New Mexico. At the time, she was tired of Albuquerque. Until she left she didn’t appreciate the unique mix of cultures or the abundance of intellectual activity of her home town. She married a man in the Air Force and followed him to Colorado, where she spent her time teaching English with Catholic Charities and finishing up a degree in math at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Next Laura moved to the UK where she had the opportunity to study at the University of Oxford. She earned an MSc in Mathematical Modelling while pregnant and experiencing motherhood for the first time. (It was a struggle, to be sure!) Laura found Oxford to be a fantastic, walkable city perfect for pushing a newborn around in a pram. Although they only spent three years in Oxford, she will always feel as if it is a home of sorts for them.

       

Laura spent periods of time teaching math and doing technical editing, but motherhood suits her more than any other hat she’s worn. Her three daughters are a constant joy. She has come to the conclusion that the world over needs more, not less, of the maternal touch, and she wants to write stories featuring strong, intelligent mothers.

You can visit her website at www.lauraevansserna.com or connect with her on Facebook.

About the Book:

Title: DESERT MELODY
Author: Laura Evans Serna
Publisher: New Land Publishing
Pages: 219
Genre: Sci-Fi Romance

For generations the Ahn, Voyan, and Humans have thrived living side by side. The ambitious Ahn need solitude.  The communal Voyan thought share and hear the voices of the sacred dead around them.  Now Humans are becoming more like the Ahn, and the Voyan are struggling. 

 Teagan is a single Voyan mother and wet nurse. She lost the ability to thought share.  Though she spends hours walking in the desert searching for the voices she once heard, she embraces her new found intellectual focus and is drawn into the Human world of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Teagan plans to go into hiding to avoid being forced back to a Voyan community where her daughter would be an outcast. However she meets Josh, a generous and handsome man who understands her better than anyone.  She loves him, and Josh takes an active role in parenting Teagan’s daughter.

Teagan discovers that her behavior is more Human than Voyan because she has been unknowingly medicated.  She is part of a secret and manipulative eugenics program designed by Josh’s best friend. Teagan questions her faith in Josh while needing him in her life more than ever. Once off the medication, Teagan loses her focus, and her dream of helping her people through research slips away. 

Teagan is kidnapped by the Voyan and put into a lucid trance for months.  During this time she feels the desperation of her people.  But Teagan hears the call of the Kokopelli’s flute. She knows she is called for a purpose, and she escapes back to Human society.  At this point, though, Teagan can no longer speak verbally.  She asks the Ahn to continue providing her the medication so she can live as a Human and stay with her daughter and Josh.  She knows she is called to help her people.

Desert Melody is available for purchase at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.