A LOVE APART

by Rachelle Rogers

What would happen if Heloise and Abelard, the tragic 12th century French lovers, found their way back to each other today? Who might they be? What might they remember? What might be unresolved within them and between them? How might they choose to "do it differently?" A LOVE APART (iUniverse, June 2005), the story of Lily, a poet, and Julian, a painter, who find themselves in "no ordinary love affair," presents a contemporary and expansive twist on one of history's most enduring epistles of shattered love. With the resurgent interest in Heloise and Abelard (four new literary and/or scholarly books relating to the star-crossed couple released within months of each other), and with readers today, perhaps more than ever before, drawn to stories that take them into the mysteries of themselves, A LOVE APART offers an intimate literary sojourn into the ever-evolving landscapes of the heart.

About the Author

Rachelle Rogers is a writer, poet and editor. Born and raised in NYC, she received a BA in English Literature from Hunter College. In South Florida, she was a freelance editor, and dance writer for several publications including the Fort Lauderdale News/Sun Sentinel. Nonfiction author of Creative Crafts Desk Handbook and fiction author of A Love Apart, she has received competitive recognition in memoir, fiction and poetry; has been a reader with UNCA's Writers at Home program; and was granted a 2002 Wildacres Artist Residency. In addition, she has facilitated Crafting Fiction workshops for beginning writers. Her work has appeared in several literary journals including Passager, Sow's Ear Poetry Review, Calyx: A Journal of Art and Literature by Women, The Pedestal, and in WNC Woman. She lives in Asheville, NC.

A LOVE APART

Fiction / Literary
Trade Paperback
Publication Date: June 2005
Price: $13.95
Size: 5 x 8
Author: Rachelle Rogers
ISBN: 0-595-35091-7
176 Pages

Available from Ingram Book Group,
Baker & Taylor, iUniverse, Inc
brick and mortar bookstores, and
major on line booksellers

Media Contact:

Rachelle Rogers
828.252.4123
email me
rachellerogers.com

Reprinted from WNC Woman November 2005

INTERVIEW:
Rachelle Rogers, author of A Love Apart

What would happen if Heloise and Abelard, the tragic 12th century French lovers, found their way back to each other today? Who might they be? What might they remember? What might be unresolved between them and within them? How might they choose to "do it differently?" A Love Apart is the story of Lily, a poet, and Julian, a painter, who find themselves in "no ordinary love affair."

For weeks, Lily's been dreaming a young nun whose longing for a beautiful monk has filled her with inconsolable grief. Meanwhile, Julian, who moved to Asheville, NC after the death of his partner, Sam, feels compelled to paint crucifixes, cathedral spires, and a monk with the look of terror in his eyes.

Lily and Julian are inevitably drawn to one another. Their ensuing relationship weaves a timeless tapestry that both unravels the mystery of their deepest selves and challenges them to understand a present passion filled with impossibility. They have help along the way. From intimate friends, from their art, from the wisdom of Lovina-an eccentric, endearing psychic who uses M&M's to talk to spirits, and from an extraordinary vision that changes everything.

Questioner: Where did you get the idea for your novel?
Rachelle: I had been trying to write a memoir about an extraordinary fifteen year period of my life, and wasn't having much success. The manuscript seemed to remain what I called "an emotional regurgitation" with little literary merit. So I finally decided I would attempt to turn it into fiction. That was the beginning.

Q: How long ago was that?
R: A little over ten years ago, I think.

Q: It took ten years to write the novel?
R: Yes. Many many revisions. The book has had three different titles, two different beginnings, four different endings, and several chapters I knew I had to slash and burn. First novels can be like that. For me, the emotion was very close to my heart, and I didn't know if what I was trying to write would be interesting or have meaning for others.

Q: The novel takes place in Asheville. Was there a particular reason for that?
R: Asheville has been my home for fourteen years. I love it here. And it seemed an ideal setting for the story I wanted to tell. Several real places are included in the book - The Grove Park Inn, a particular trail off the Blue Ridge Parkway at Craggy Gardens, the town of Black Mountain.

Q: How did the actual story come together?
R: I was in the library, and on a strange impulse, I found myself glancing through the biography shelves. I rarely read biography. The Letters of Abelard and Heloise seemed to jump out at me. I knew who they were, but did not know that their 800 year old letters existed. I checked out the book and brought it home.

Q: Are these the letters excerpted in A Love Apart?
R: In the novel I use a later, more contemporary translation. This first book was published earlier, in the 1930's or 40's. The author used formal language, including thee's and thou's. Even so, I was intensely moved by what I read. And angered. I sobbed and sobbed, then hurled the book across the room and into a wall.

Q: What did you think was happening?
R: I wasn't sure, but what I was feeling seemed to come from someplace far deeper than the surface of a page and I felt compelled to somehow resurrect their story.

Q: Were you Heloise…or Abelard…in a past life?
R: I thought that might be a possibility, although I have come to understand "past lives" in a different way than most, I think. For me, it's not that one present person was one past person. It's more like a stream of energy. There could be a hundred people who feel the same reincarnational connection with Heloise as I do. And there probably are. Many can be carrying that energy, that soul memory. I think that's why there's been a resurgent interest in Heloise and Abelard.

Q: A resurgent interest?
R: Yes. There was a feature story in The New York Times Book Review last February on the tragic lovers and the fact that five books about them had come out within months of each other. One was The Lost Letters of Heloise and Abelard, letters authenticated from their early years. The ones I read were written later in their lives, after they had been separated for twelve years. It was while reading this article that I decided the timing was right to put my novel out.

Q: Your publisher is a POD (print on demand) publisher. Why did you go that route?
R: Over the years I'd had several agents who read the entire manuscript, but while they commended the writing and the story, they didn't think it could find a large enough mainstream audience to be picked up by a traditional publisher. I, however, believed in the book, and when interest in Heloise and Abelard resurfaced, even though I knew I risked not being taken seriously in the literary world, I decided to self-publish. I still feel it was the right choice.

Q: In what way?
R: Besides the fact that I retain the rights to my book, and was able to design my own cover, which I think is important, the book was out in less than four months.

Q: Didn't Walt Whitman self-publish Leaves of Grass?
R: Everyone seems to know about him. But other well-known writers who initially self-published include James Joyce, Willa Cather, Pat Conroy, e.e. cummings, Nathaniel Hawthorn, Ernest Hemingway, D.H. Lawrence, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Anais Nin, William Blake, Louis L'Amour, Margaret Atwood, Deepak Chopra… I could go on.

Q: A Love Apart is categorized as literary fiction, but it has also been called visionary. How do you define visionary fiction?
R: Visionary fiction has been defined, in part, by the use of extrasensory attributes like mystical experiences, visions, synchronicities, reincarnation and the like. I would say that it also has to include something that uplifts and allows the reader to enter into a new, more expansive way of viewing herself and/or "reality." And, for me, it has to be literary first. Too often, writing that is labeled visionary, or "new age" - a phrase I dislike, since it's come to have such a "woo-woo" connotation - is devoid of literary craft. I would like to see visionary fiction develop into a genre that contains the best of both worlds, so to speak.

Q: Has the response to the book been favorable?
R: Yes. It's been very good. There seems to be both a literary and a visionary audience for it. One does not have to believe or not believe in reincarnation or psychics in order to enjoy the story. Yet I've received heartfelt letters from readers who have had experiences similar to that of Lily and Julian, deep soul recognition that has tested everything in them. It's an amazing feeling to learn that your writing has touched people in profound and meaningful ways.