Teaser Tuesday

Okay, I’m back with Teaser Tuesday for my WIP called, Daughters of Earth. Here’s the teaser for chapter 1 and chapter 2.

Here’s an excerpt from chapter 3 which is set in the first story arc of the “present” (this chapter takes place in 2037). It’s part of an interview with the new prime minister, Dassah Shaul and the first lady Leah Abravanel taken a few months after Leah gave birth to Naomi.

Mya Rosner [Interviewer]: Having Renewal Day and Mother’s Day so close together was no coincidence?

Prime Minister (PM): None at all. Renewal Day is the most important day in the history of womankind. It guaranteed a future that so many of us didn’t think we had. It proved that we could all be mothers again if we chose to be. The beauty of BHB is that it uses the genetic material of two women, so although Leah was the one that gave birth to Naomi I’m her mother as well. Thus, Mother’s Day is a holiday for us all.

Rosner: BHB, as significant as it is, also created some legal issues that no society has faced before.

PM: There were many issues that we never faced before, but that’s what happens when you embark on something new. It was no coincidence that a year after the first BHB birth, we were able to hold the first Constitutional Convention with the delegates from all the 35 prospective states. BHB gave us the impetus to build a single democratic nation out of Israel and the Muslim majority countries in North Africa and western and central Asia which had come under Israeli control following the horrors of the Purging. By July 2028 we had full agreement on the text of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Azura, which provided the framework for the new nation and the rights we had to deal with on a secular level such as the right to marry, parental rights, birth rights, and the freedom from genetic discrimination. Two-thirds of the 35 prospective states ratified the Constitution on the 11th of September and a new nation was born. Pursuant to the federal holiday bill, 11 September is the National Day of Azura.

A woman’s will is the strongest thing in the world and by that will we were able to accomplish what we have. Nearly twenty years ago the then American president came to Cairo University and said, “All of us have a responsibility to work for the day when the mothers of Israelis and Palestinians can see their children grow up without fear; when the Holy Land of three great faiths is the place of peace that God intended it to be; when Jerusalem is a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims, and a place for all of the children of Abraham to mingle peacefully together.” That day has come and we, alone, ushered it in.

We cannot forget that in the pre-Purging world there was not only religious, ethnic, and racial strife in the region, but infra-religious strife as well, specifically between Sunni and Shi’a. Yet such animosity is non-existent today in a place of peace for everyone. A nation governed by the rule of law, in honor of God, and in the spirit of feminine fellowship.

Rosner: Whose idea was to call the nation Azura?

Leah Abravanel (LA): It was mine. Actually, defense minister Ziona Massala brought the name to my attention and I looked into it. The 35 states have many different ethnicities here, but are dominated by two faiths: Islam and Judaism, with a growing number of Christians do to immigration. Under the old paradigm we would be looking at why my wife referred to as the “children of Abraham.” Yet that is problematic because such lineage is paternal. According to tradition, Judaism and Islam were born from different sons of Abraham by two different mothers, Ishmael from Hagar for Muslims and Isaac from Sarah for the Jews.

So we had to go farther back for commonality because it made no sense in today’s age to base anything on paternal lineage. That’s how we come upon Azura. She was the second daughter of Adam and Eve. Their eldest daughter, Awan, married Cain. Azura married their other brother Seth. Eve is quoted in the Scriptures as saying, “God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him.” Cain and Awan had turned away from God. Seth and Azura, however, were the first to call upon the name of the Lord. In essence, they are the mother and father of humanity in the eyes of God. Abraham is a direct descendent of theirs. Once I learned that story, it became obvious that the first nation created by women should be named after humanity’s true mother.

The name allowed us to not be boxed into a description based on religion, race, ethnicity, or religion. We are a unified people regardless of such things, and Azura represents that. We certainly respect those distinguishing factors, but our unity transcends such. In the spirit of this unity we designed the nation’s flag: white Star of David and Crescent outlined in green, red, and black on a deep blue field—all colors taken from the individual states’ flags.