Carla Laureano is the two-time RITA Award–winning author of Five Days in SkyeLondon Tides, and the Saturday Night Supper Club series. She is also the author of the Celtic fantasy series The Song of Seare (as C. E. Laureano).

A graduate of Pepperdine University, Carla worked as a sales and marketing executive for nearly a decade before leaving the corporate life to write fiction full-time. She is also a speaker and writing consultant.

Carla lives in Denver with her husband and two sons.

How do you hope Under Scottish Stars (July 2020, Tyndale House) will encourage your readers? 

Under Scottish Stars is a love letter to my single parent friends who work so hard to put their children’s needs first, often at the expense of their own dreams and desires. We see you struggle and admire your strength and love for your kids. Your needs are important, too! 

Serena and Malcolm’s story is about faith in the face of seemingly impossible obstacles and painful events. Both suffer loss, upheaval, and doubt. But in the end, they realize that they were unable to see the entire picture and how God was moving behind the scenes for their best interests. 

What inspired you to write this particular story?

I wrote this book a couple of short years after I was getting started in my writing career, after several years away from full-time work, and I was struggling with many of the ideas that I explore in the book: finding an identity away from the needs of my children and justifying my desire for a creative life when it sometimes took me away from domestic duties. 

How did you choose the circumstances and location of the setting? 

My engineer husband was a huge inspiration for Malcolm and not just for the fact he is a martial artist/kickboxer. He also gave up a big chunk of his twenties to help raise his niece and nephew after their mother died of cancer. I’ve always admired that about him, and it was that kind of strength of character I knew Serena was going to need in a mate. (That might be because she’s an awful lot like me.) As far as the location went . . . well, who wouldn’t want to spend a little more time on the Isle of Skye? 

What part does faith play in the story? 

All the books in this series in some way have to do with being hurt by people we trust, whether it be a family member, a romantic partner, or the church. So subsequently, all of the books explore how those hurts impact the way we relate to God. 

In Serena’s case, she has to come to grips with the question of why God allowed so many painful experiences into her life when she had done everything “right.” The epilogue to this book, and this entire series, was so incredibly satisfying to write, because it’s the glimpse of wholeness coming out of brokenness that can be waiting on the other side of trials. 

Thank you, Carla! It’s nice to have you back at Divine Detour.

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For more information about Carla, visit her website and on FacebookTwitter and Instagram.

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