A desert awakening: Florence resident Celia Jeffries pens debut novel, ‘Blue Desert’
Tuaregs in Mali, outside Timbuktu, in 2012. They are sometimes called the “blue people” or “blue men” for their indigo-dyed clothing. Photo by Alfred Weidinger/Wikipedia/public domain
“Blue Desert” is the debut novel by Celia Jeffries of Florence, a former newspaper editor and educational publisher who now teaches at the Pioneer Valley Writers Workshop in Williamsburg. The book’s striking cover is by Florence graphic designer Lisa Carta. SUBMITTED
The main character in “Blue Desert,” Alice George, travels with a group of Tuareg, semi-nomadic Muslims shown here. Tuareg traditionally have lived in parts of the Sahara Desert stretching from modern-day Libya to southern Algeria, Niger, Mali and Burkina. Photo by Alfred Weidinger/Wikipedia/public domain