About
Presian crafts immersive historical fiction featuring female protagonists who face social, political, and ecological obstacles. Navigating imperial and local forms of oppression, patriarchy, and injustice in first-century Judea, Presian’s heroines collaborate with other strong, clever women to secure justice, peace, and wellbeing for themselves and their communities. In the process, they are surprised to find romantic love.
As a New Testament scholar with academic publications, Presian pivoted from teaching graduate students fulltime to writing fiction set in the first-century CE. However, this career shift came after several years of intense personal grief and depression during which she relied on historical fiction to carry her through the fog of depression. Kneading Love emerges out of this journey through grief, self-doubt, and a search for new purpose. Through it, Presian aims to deliver compelling characters, poignant worldbuilding, and a gripping narrative that leaves readers with a profound sense of hope.
Presian has published several academic works, including Creation’s Slavery and Liberation. She has also recently completed Savannah Gilbo’s Notes to Novel course. Applying the skills she learned from Gilbo, Presian’s first work of fiction is a 90,000-word historical fiction, book club novel. It is a cozy mystery / romance combined with her own peculiar brand of historical eco-fiction. Although Kneading Love was created as a standalone novel, Presian envisions it within a series portraying the tumultuous decade between 37 and 47 CE in Judea.
Featured Work
Kneading Love
When her brother-in-law (SIMON) swoops in to manage her dead husband’s bakery, AHAVA refuses to step aside. She subverts first-century Jerusalem’s expectations to function merely as a wife, mother, and housekeeper by scheming with trusted friends to wrest control of her son’s inheritance, the bakery, from Simon’s clutches. But, first, she must ensure the bakery’s new wheat crop arrives from Sepphoris. Suspecting a man killed her husband to take his grain during the region’s wheat shortage, Ahava races to Sepphoris. She confers with the bakery’s grain merchant, MALAK, and warns him of an impending theft. Yet even though Malak confirms her order and promises to guard against thieves, his generous and alluring nature places Ahava’s independence in grave danger. Wondering whether justice will ultimately fail her, Ahava struggles to provide affordable bread for her languishing community and maintain her livelihood, her independence, and her heart in the face of family betrayal, kidnapping, and the offer of second love.
