I always assumed I would have the whole pie. I worked as a journalist, played in the wilds of New Mexico’s rivers and mountains where I kayaked, skied, biked, climbed and ran, and I traveled the world. But I longed for the missing piece: a mate and child. The yearning felt like a chasm at the center of my being.
As I neared age forty, the desire intensified to a point where I felt I had to take action.
This experience is the seed for The Baby Pact. Though the book may appeal most to women who long to have a family, it is really for anyone who has suffered from unfulfilled desire.
During this time my best friend had twins, so I was thrown into the world of motherhood. I listened to her complaints about sleepless nights and the pain of breast-feeding. I went to her home and held her babies. I smelled their milky scent and helped change their diapers.
There were moments of beauty so rich I cried—the warmth of a baby against my chest, her pointy shoulder blades on my palm. And there were moments when I saw the immense challenge of parenthood. Most memorable was when the twins pooped their way through three diaper changes in a matter of minutes, while their screams pierced my eardrums.
The time I spent with my friend and her babies expanded my understanding. I vicariously tasted the duality of parenthood—its poignant beauty and its immense sacrifice. I realized that a child would not fill the void within me.
One day, the desire was gone.
Rather than a living child, I gave birth to this novel. More than a decade of nurturing went into it.
What drives good fiction is when a character has an unyielding desire for something. So my main character, Jamie O’Leary, heads into the procreative world with blind intensity.
Such intense desire usually has roots in a past creation. Jamie’s quest takes her back to a lost love. It is a story that is familiar to all of us—the painful path along which our passions lead us.
We seek, we find. We become disappointed, lost and bereft. From this, clarity is born. It happens again and again, until one day we arrive at our true self—that part that is pure love.
We stop searching.
We are found.
This is Jamie’s story in The Baby Pact. It is also my own as I come to know the true child I desire: soul.
With crackerjack writing experience ranging from scientific journals to national magazines to travel guides, Lesley S. King has produced in her saucy first novel an MRI of human relationships. It’s a walking tour of the human heart. It’s a five-star read. It’s delicious.”
—Robert Mayer, author of The Dreams of Ada and Danse Macabre
If you would like to adventure with Jamie, I invite you to click below to purchase a copy.
Blessings to you as you birth your true inner self.
Purchase The Baby Pact
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Thank you!
Lesley, congratulations on your accomplishment. I am sincerely happy for you. What is this gift to see through another’s eyes? 🙂
As I write this something deep tells me that this accomplishment goes way beyond the ink to a place only known by you. You have described this well in the above article. What an awesome adventure. Thank you for sharing so freely and being a trail blazer among many other things.
Much Love…Tu Amigo…LJ 🙂
Mi Amigo Logan, Thank you again for your kind words, and your insight is correct. The journey of this book spanned some thirty years, from the moment I decided I had to be a novelist. It was an intense desire that led me to write many books, all learning experiences leading to this one. Now, the desire is quenched. Thank God! I am happy to offer this bit of love to the world and to other trail blazers like you.
Lesley, I am so excited to read your new book. Your labor of love has culminated in this wonderful gift to the world, similar to the birth of a child. We all choose our journeys for different reasons, as destiny compels us to honor that which we know we must. Congratulations Lesley! Much love to you. 🙂
Thank you in advance for reading The Baby Pact, Jamie. I am honored that you would bless it with your attention. What you say is so true, we have no choice but to follow what we are compelled to do. Fortunately every experience leads us to know our true self. Blessings, dear soul.
Congratulations, Lesley! The cover shown above is so beautiful. I can hardly wait to experience the beauty you have lovingly created on the inside of the book. It brings my heart joy to see your long labor come to fruition. What a wonderful start to my day!
Marian, thank you for your enthusiasm and your encouragement. The cover was a sweet lesson for me. I had in mind a book with a baby footprint on it, but the designer presented this one, and it was so much better than I had imagined. So often that is true. The book itself is simply a sweet read that I hope will warm your heart.
Dear Lesley — I’m so excited I could pee!! Not exactly the detachment we are taught to practice:) but I am just filled with joy for you and anticipation for me to read your long-awaited book. I can only imagine what you must be feeling. Just yesterday I was driving around and I said to myself: ” hmmmmm, I wonder when Lesley’s novel will be out?” Then I turned on my computer this morning and here it is!!! I jumped on Amazon immediately even before reading your post and purchased it. As someone who was blessed with motherhood without even yearning for it, I know it will be filled with delightful jewels and endless insights. So many blessings to you!!!
Colleen, we must have been connecting in the Astral yesterday, because when I put this up on my site I thought of you and your profound experience with motherhood. We really do “get what we deserve,” and how wonderful that we do. This book was enough of a baby for me, it appears. I do realize that a real, breathing one is a much more encompassing and long-lasting experience. I am happy that you blazed your way into it and came out with our blessed Jolene. Thank you for buying The Baby Pact. I wish you many happy moments reading it.
Yes, it’s true what you said above — that children last a very long time! I read your book a week ago. In my mind the first rule of a good work of fiction is that the story must be compelling. You nailed that part right away. Characters were beautifully developed and I got drawn into the book like lint to a vacuum. Even though the story you created was complex, it was so clearly written and flowed so smoothly it was like watching a movie. You never let the words get in the way; you never pontificated or preached; and the pace of the story winded me. 300 pages went by in a flash. That is truly skillful writing, m’friend! It was an entertaining dance in the beautiful city of Santa Fe. Thank you very much!
Rudy, I am so happy that The Baby Pact brought you joy and entertainment. That really is the goal, as well as inspiring people to explore deeply to find what they truly desire. Your description of your process of reading the book warms my heart, especially that you found the pacing to be quick. Learning to bring my characters into action was such a lesson for me in how to step into my own life and become the creator. That, above all, has been my journey with this book: to own my own creative ability in tandem with the Divine. Thank you again, dear friend.