I was born on the Caribbean
island of St. Vincent....My
birth country was one of
extended families....Between
1997 and 2000, three
members of that extended
family—my cousins Marilyn
and Nesta, and family friend
Edith—each died of cancer.
They were three of my
favorite people. (Marilyn and
Edith had lived with us at
different times before we
moved to the US.)
I began feeling a particular
need to spend some time with
a few caring souls....The idea
that would eventually produce
Promised Land was conceiv-
ed. On December 17, 2000,
my mother succumbed to
congestive heart failure. I
started my work on Promised
Land in earnest.
|
WHY THESE PARTI-
CULAR LOCALES?
Inclusiveness was my overall
objective in writing Promised
Land; thus, each of the major
continents should be repre-
sented in at least one of the
first seven chapters, each of
which has a different narrator.
And so chapters 1 through 7
are set primarily in the United
States of America, Peru, the
Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Brazil, Ireland, India,
and Vietnam, respectively....
The overriding theme of
Promised Land is the exem-
plary humanity of certain
characters. An underlying
theme is migration from Earth
to Mars and neighboring
destinations....
Perhaps based only on a
summary that mentions the
migration, some persons
might assume that the book’s
action takes place primarily or
exclusively in space, which is
not quite the case....Only the
publisher offered the option
that I consider most descrip-
tive of Promised Land,
namely, Fiction: Spiritual....
Elsewhere it is likely to be
listed under Fantasy, Science
Fiction, or a similar category.
|
No concept is more important
to me than family, no expres-
sion of love for others more
meaningful than sharing with
them what I value most. As
the book’s dedication is
intended to convey,
Promised Land is one way
that I have chosen to
express my love for not only
my biological family, but for
my entire global family. It is
a celebration of our common
humanity.
And the pen name that I
used in writing Promised
Land is one way that I chose
to share with my immediate
family in particular something
that I value highly: M. A.
Laborde is a composite of
our names.
|
