Page Turning Books: Alan Nayes – Why I wrote The Learner

Alan Nayes – Why I wrote The Learner

Why I Wrote The Learner

by Alan Nayes

My latest project is THE LEARNER. This is the story of an alien who is sent to Earth on a mission and ends up falling in love with a human. I’ve written horror stories, thrillers, and romance, but always had this nebulous idea of writing a novel involving an alien being from deep space who visits us—but I never had anything specific to put down on paper. Would it be science fiction or horror or thriller or some combination of the three?

I couldn’t decide so I kept shelving the idea and went on to other projects. Then one evening I was driving home late at night through the hills near my home and the road was virtually deserted. I had this weird thought of what if I suddenly looked ahead and accidently hit someone, a young beautiful woman—yeah, I know weird. I would stop, but when I went to where the person was supposed to be, she would be suddenly gone. I know I hit her, yet she’d vanished! That’s when my opening scene to THE LEARNER hit me.

This imaginary beauty had been an alien and she’d healed herself and then vanished because she didn’t wish to be discovered by an Earthling. After that night the story took on a tangible shape and focus. The opening scene was changed eventually to a terrible bus accident, but after that initial impulse idea, I finally had my alien Learner paranormal romance story.

Learner Blurb: NayéLi has come from the dark side of the universe to learn as much as she can about the third planet from the sun, and to communicate her findings back to her home world. NayéLi is a Learner – and on Earth she assumes the form of a young human female of the indigenous host species.

NayéLi is bound by her rulers’ strict laws of planetary exploration, which state that there can be no involvement with a member of the host species. But NayéLi is more human now than she realizes. And she is about to fall in love.