The Letters of Abelard and Heloise, the 12th century French lovers, were the inspiration for A Love Apart. Reading The Letters had moved me so deeply that I felt I had to find a way to resolve what history had left tragically unresolved. I wanted to create from the tragic, something of peace, beauty, and transcendence.

That’s a great idea. Tell us your story.
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?” In a contemporary and expansive twist on one of history’s most enduring epistles of shattered love, A Love Apart tells the story of Lily, a poet, and Julian, a painter who find themselves in “no ordinary love affair.”

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 a tragic past 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.

What genre is it?
Literary Fiction

What kind of readers will it appeal to?
A Love Apart will appeal to readers who appreciate lyrical writing, an engaging, expansive, and unusual contemporary love story with a little mystery, a little eloquent history, and the notion of a love that transcends time.

Obviously, this book will appeal to fans of The Letters of Abelard and Heloise. But for those who haven’t read that classic?
If you like reading about unusual and expansive affairs of the heart, you’ll love my book.

Tell us more about your protagonists.
Lily is forty-two, divorced, and owns a bookstore called, InWord Bound. She writes poetry, loves growing flowers, and has kept her heart at bay since the end of an intense affair at twenty-three.

Julian is a thirty-nine year old visual artist who has moved to Asheville, NC from NYC after the death of this partner, Sam.

Lovina is an eccentric, endearing psychic who communicates with spirits through M&Ms. She loves her aphorisms.

What have the reviewers made of A Love Apart?

A Love Apart is an evocative and lush exploration of the internal and external landscapes of love and desire, in which the historical and contemporary intersect and intertwine in ways both surprising and intriguing.

—Janice Eidus, author of The Celibacy Club

Have you written any other books that we should read next?
Yes. My new memoir, Rare Atmosphere, another extraordinary journey, this time mine:

When, at age fifty-nine, Rachelle Rogers was told in a channeled conversation about a man she didn’t know, yet felt she’d been waiting for all her life, it initiated an extraordinary six year inter-dimensional affair of the heart.

The rich tapestry of events, which unfolds through ongoing conversations with angelic beings affectionately called The Dead Guys, weaves through a world of classical music, poetic inspiration, synchronistic interludes, and unexpected landscapes including Paris, Provence, and the Caribbean island of Saint Martin.

In an authentic and lyrical voice, Rare Atmosphere recounts a story of passion, vision, and the courage to mine for a grander truth.

Do you have a website where we can keep up with your work?
www.rachellerogers.com.

How can we follow you on Twitter and/or Facebook?
www.facebook.com/rachellerogersauthor

What’s next?
Perhaps another novel. Or poetry.