By Courtney Pierce
There are two types of scenes that are incredibly tough for
writers to pull off: funny and scary. What tickles one’s funny bone or tingles the spine is so personal. Success, though, is when a reader's reaction lingers long after the book is closed. A scene gets funnier or more chilling over time
when connections are made to the reader’s own life. Authors write their own
truth, personal to us, and the honest truth can be downright hilarious or scary. We can only hope it connects with others.
“Oh my God. My Mom does the same exact thing!”
"My sisters are just like that!"
Or,
“I knew her life would change with that phone call. That's what happened to me.”
The same process is at play for writing a scary scene. When the set up is crafted properly, readers know the moment is coming. The anticipation itself becomes the trigger for a emotional meltdown. And when
it finally does strike, something quite unexpected happens—a reveal of new information. Sometimes the most chilling
scenes expose raw emotions from the character discovering a raw truth, not from a
crazed stalker wielding a machete.
Arousing a deep internal reaction can be scary, both for the author and the reader.
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Cover: Rosalind McFarland
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In my trilogy series about the Dushane sisters, the main
character, Olivia Novack, is obsessed with finding her husband’s killer from a
hit-and-run accident. That serious backstory is constantly running in the background,
driving Olivia and her two sisters’ crazy antics over three books. Behind the hilarity lurks an insidious antagonist. Even after
several years, Olivia can’t let go of what happened to her husband. She's terminally dedicated, obsessive-compulsive, driven, and still in love. By the final book,
Olivia releases herself from her self-imposed emotional prison by finally
disposing of her husband’s personal affects.
Readers knew this moment had to come for Olivia. It was a scary
moment for me as the author to write. I, too, had to let go of a husband, not from an accidental death, but from betrayal. My heart raced when I wrote Olivia discovering something unimaginable in her husband’s wallet, something she’d never known was
there. It was a game-changer. I grieved with Olivia, so real were her emotions to me. And
readers grieved for Olivia, too, the lump-in-the-throat kind
of pain when the truth comes out in the final book.
Everyone can relate to feeling emotionally duped. Betrayal
and disillusionment offer Olivia only one of two choices: hopelessness in defeat
or empowerment realized in forgiveness. She can’t change the past. She has to move
forward in order to live again, love again, and be whole again.
In my new book, BIG SKY TALK, fear comes on two levels: the
supernatural and the emotions of loss. The combination ups the ante.
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Cover: Rosalind McFarland
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Upon moving into her new home in Montana, Aubrey Cenderon begins to experience strange happenings that she attributes to
coincidence. It starts with an innocent canoe
trip on the lake behind her new house. She could swear she spots a grizzly
bear roaming in the brush along the shore. A sudden brew of a thunderstorm sends her home
to investigate. No grizzly bear is in sight when she retraces the movement, but
a flash of lightening sends her spine tingling when she touches the
unmistakable impression of a fresh paw print. It’s smeared with blood. She hadn’t imagined it.
Aubrey makes a call to sheriff Russell Knowles. An injured
grizzly bear is indeed on the loose.
With Aubrey’s heightened awareness, she hears movement in
the woods. A strange violent wind flails the branches of a single tree, leaving the trees around it still. Waves of water on the lake push to the shore with seemingly no
source. The air is calm, eerily calm, except for the whoosh of an eagle’s wings
overhead. She senses a presence close by, communicating to her. It
is the bear.
All of these events can be explained away as an overreaction until the captured image in her camera picks up only a blue aura. Aubrey can't ignore this confirmation of an alternate reality.
Committed to finding out the truth, Aubrey's fear sends her into hero
mode to protect the bear. The animal is speaking
to her through the elements, while the sheriff knows he must kill the bear. His Deputy, a descendant of the Salish tribe,
knows exactly what’s going on: reincarnation. There you have the set-up for an emotional show down. To further crank up the heat, Aubrey and the sheriff are
falling in love with each other. And a loaded Glock stands between them.
I am currently writing this mid-point scene. Crafting suspense is both exciting
and scary, especially when I incorporate
the supernatural elements into it. What scares me, though, is the personal emotional truth that I must incorporate into the prose: the loss of my father, the
conversation I wished we’d had before his death, and how I would feel if I got
the opportunity to talk to him one last time.
One last time.
Love is scary. And
loss of that love is even scarier.
Love’s energy prevails. It rides the wind, falls in the rain, rises in the sun, and bursts forth from a thunderstorm. It never disappears.
Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Kalispell, Montana with her husband, stepdaughter, and their brainiac cat. Courtney writes for the baby boomer audience. She spent 28 years as an executive in the entertainment industry and used her time in a theater seat to create stories that are filled with heart, humor, and mystery. She studied craft and storytelling at the Attic Institute and has completed the Hawthorne Fellows Program for writing and publishing. Active in the writing community, Courtney is a board member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association and on the Advisory Council of the Independent Publishing Resource Center. She is a member of Willamette Writers, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and Authors of the Flathead. The Executrix received the Library Journal Self-E recommendation seal. Print and E-books are available through most major online retailers, including Amazon.com. Check out all of Courtney's books:
New York Times best-selling author Karen Karbo says, "Courtney Pierce spins a madcap tale of family grudges, sisterly love, unexpected romance, mysterious mobsters and dog love. Reading Indigo Lake is like drinking champagne with a chaser of Mountain Dew. Pure Delight."
Coming in 2021!
When Aubrey Cenderon moves to Montana after the death of her father, the peace and quiet of Big Sky Country becomes complicated with a knock on the door from the sheriff. An injured grizzly bear is on the loose and it must be eliminated before it kills again. The sheriff's insistence that she buy a gun for protection will present Aubrey with some serious soul-searching, because the grizzly-on-the-run is hunting for her too . . . for a different reason.
Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Kalispell, Montana with her husband, stepdaughter, and their brainiac cat. Courtney writes for the baby boomer audience. She spent 28 years as an executive in the entertainment industry and used her time in a theater seat to create stories that are filled with heart, humor, and mystery. She studied craft and storytelling at the Attic Institute and has completed the Hawthorne Fellows Program for writing and publishing. Active in the writing community, Courtney is a board member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association and on the Advisory Council of the Independent Publishing Resource Center. She is a member of Willamette Writers, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and Authors of the Flathead. The Executrix received the Library Journal Self-E recommendation seal. Print and E-books are available through most major online retailers, including Amazon.com. Check out all of Courtney's books:
New York Times best-selling author Karen Karbo says, "Courtney Pierce spins a madcap tale of family grudges, sisterly love, unexpected romance, mysterious mobsters and dog love. Reading Indigo Lake is like drinking champagne with a chaser of Mountain Dew. Pure Delight."
Coming in 2021!
When Aubrey Cenderon moves to Montana after the death of her father, the peace and quiet of Big Sky Country becomes complicated with a knock on the door from the sheriff. An injured grizzly bear is on the loose and it must be eliminated before it kills again. The sheriff's insistence that she buy a gun for protection will present Aubrey with some serious soul-searching, because the grizzly-on-the-run is hunting for her too . . . for a different reason.
5 comments:
Courtney, love your idea of adding the element of communication through the weather and writing about emotions, showing emotions through our characters is a blessing as we relive our own life moments. There is still a bit of a curse because we still have our feelings from our own life now fresh in our bodies.
Big Sky Talk sounds like a great story. Thinking about a sad or scary time in our own lives can help us create those emotions in our stories.
Have you seen any grizzlies since moving to Montana?
We see a lot black bears, but we did encounter a mama grizzly eyeing us from the side of the road when her baby crossed in front of our pickup. We didn't know she was there until we stopped. She was only about 20-foot away on the bank, but she blended in with the foliage. Her head was enormous, and she never waivered her gaze from us while she munched on huckleberries. We were thankful to be safely inside the truck. It was a good reminder to never go anywhere without our canisters of bear spray.
By far, though, the mountain lions are scarier. They are silent stalkers and attack from behind. We had a huge one sprint across our driveway in front of us. I never had my heart beat so fast. Since then, I don't retrieve the mail or take out the garbage in the dark.
Oh, my goodness! Bear and Mt. lion encounters are so scary and can be quite dangerous. Be careful and yes, be sure and have that bear spray handy!!
I agree with you 100% that the scariest scenes to write are the emotional ones that match our own experiences--betrayal, death, any kind of loss. Authors who are willing to open that vein that is so close to their heart, will be fearful and hurt and cry each time. But...the also tend to be the very best scenes and the ones that readers remember above all else.
I know many authors who never go there because they don't want to experience those deep emotions and neither do their readers. And that's good for those authors and that segment of readers.
I believe your books are so loved because you do go there. I'm dying for Big Sky Talk to be released. You are dong magical realism mixed with metaphysical elements again. I think it will be marvelous.
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