Spark and Fire

By Courtney Pierce

Sorry to break it to you, but men and women are very different in how they forge relationships, especially in print. I’ve nailed the female side of the equation, but I tend to need serious support when it comes to behavior driven by testosterone. It’s like pushing my chapters into the TSA x-ray machine and waiting to hear, “Bag check!” on the other side.

I require all of my male characters to be vetted by the real deal—a manly man. My husband is a prolific reader, a writer, a mountain man, a hunter, a lover, a protector, and happens to have a huge heart (not necessarily in that order). He's the man for the job. He calls B.S. on my prose, becauseI tend to feminize emotions. And that's not how real men think. I can't pretend to know what goes on in an alpha-man brain, so I take the suggested changes with open arms. After six books, criticism makes my work better.

The story magic of a compelling relationship isn’t made up out of thin air. We authors infuse a  a goodly amount of emotional truth into the prose, both about ourselves and the partners we’ve had in our lives. How else could we pull off the creation of a relationship that’s believable? If it's real within the author, then it's real to the reader.

My husband is protective of his family to the point of hanging a 12-guage shot gun at the front door. He's ready for the "what if," and he'd fight to the death should there be a serious threat. Otherwise, he's a pretty mellow guy. I don't completely understand it, but I certainly feel protected and loved as a result. 

First time writers make the huge mistake of creating relationships with endless pages of dialog, usually from the female perspective. Their characters pour their hearts out to each other with endless blabber about feelings. I, myself, made this mistake in one of many drafts of my first book Stitches. I ended up deleting most of it after a heart-to-heart with my editor. I started over.

Relationships are forged with nuance. A glance. A touch. A connection across a room full of people. The unspoken moments create partner magic.

In my next book, BIG SKY TALK, Aubrey Cenderon brings three layers of baggage to her introduction to Sheriff Russell Knowles: the death of her father, several years of being a single woman, and leaving behind a career to transition into retirement. Little does Aubrey know that her baggage will drive the direction of her future—with a little supernatural help.

The sheriff ignites the spark through his protectiveness of Aubrey. He wants her safe from an injured grizzly bear in the neighborhood. The conflict and connection begin with a threat.

Russell Knowles sets off Aubrey’s healing process the minute he meets her. But he has a case to solve and Aubrey has the key. Something isn’t right here—or maybe it’s something quite right and new. His focus in his official capacity wavers in Aubrey’s presence. There’s something about her that awakens his six sense for the unexplained. The threat is of another world. Russell knows it, and so does Aubrey. 

No two people of Boomer age create an intimate connection without a history. Past experiences drive reactions and future actions. It’s inevitable. Characters fight and conquer old demons in order to start fresh. They each learn something new about themselves and grow in the process.

The unexplainable becomes the catalyst for bringing lovers together. The magic of a spiritual connection becomes the driving force.  And that's the magic of a relationship: the belief that something higher fuses two people together.

Love can't be analyzed, studied, documented, or forensically pulled apart to prove it's real. But we know in our heart it is very real.  While you can't touch it, touch is a result. You can't see the pheromones of love chemistry, but our head swoons with them. Our chest tightens from the heart pound, like looking over a cliff at crashing waves . . . 

and deciding 

                     to take 

                                a leap 

                                            of faith.

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Kalispell, Montana with her husband and stepdaughter. She 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: 

courtney-pierce.com and windtreepress.com 

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 2022!

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 her too . . . for a different reason.

Montana Seasons

By Courtney Pierce

I love all four seasons for different reasons. Each one holds triggers deep in our DNA that drive our behavior. At the moment of transition, I am compelled to follow earth’s cycle. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be a toss-up between spring and fall. Don’t get me wrong. I truly love the winter. I delight in the variety of animals’ prints circling the property like Morris Code. Deer prints. Fox prints. Racoon prints. Mountain lion prints. From the wide five-toed one, we think we even had a wolverine pay us a deep-freeze visit.

I live in an area of the country that gives me a front row seat at nature’s movie. The environment of Montana allows me to live among the mountains, lakes, and forests. There are more animals than I can count. After two years, I’ve clued into the nature’s rhythm.

Fall is for rituals.

Autumn in Montana ushers in a unique energy, and with it comes a sense of urgency to prep the nest. Golden rays of sun poke through a backdrop of boiling dark clouds. Tamarack needles turn bright yellow and create a brilliant shower at the slightest breeze. Rolling distant thunder urges me to rush into the yard to clean up dead branches, stack the yard furniture, and spade the garden for the last of the potatoes and root vegetables.

Squirrels and chipmunks race across the lawn to check off their tasks of securing their nests. The first flurries of snow can come too soon. We stack cords of wood for the coming winter, releasing a cedar aroma in the air. One of my nest-like tasks includes filling tubs with pinecones for kindling. The wood stove will soon dance with warm flames.

Then comes the ritual of perusing through my recipe books to make hearty soups and stews for the slow cooker. There’s nothing more satisfying than walking through the door to a savory aroma of roasting meat. The hunt is on to fill the freezer with wild elk and venison. My husband and I study maps of where we will stalk the woods. On weekends, we don our camo gear and strap on our rifles. Hunting is not just for food. The whole animal is used: the hide for leather, the bone as fertilizer for the garden, and the fat for preservative oil.

Hunting may make people a bit squeamish, but this is Montana. Most of us prep to be self-sufficient for nature’s winter sequester.

In March, the countdown begins. Spring is a favorite for its renewal and celebration. Life changes with the snow’s retreat, and along with it so does my whole outlook on life.

Spring brings forth a riot of colors: blue crocus, purple iris, red-striped tulips, yellow daffodils. The buds poke through the thawing soil, happy to flex their muscles from a potential freeze.  My husband and I draw out plans for the flower baskets and vegetable garden. Starting the seeds is an indoor activity here in Montana until May. The temp can bounce from below zero to sixty degrees. In preparation for planting, we fill a cold-frame mini greenhouse box filled with peat pots: rosemary, basil, oregano, dill, parsley, thyme, marigolds, peas, beans, beets, kohlrabi, and several varieties of tomatoes. Grow lights hum with their life-giving glow.

In the early morning hours of spring, ethereal sounds emit from the still-frozen lake behind our house. As the ice begins to stress and crack, a deep, harmonic wooo .  . wooo  . . wooo reverberates through the air. It’s like an ancient harmonic call. Personally, I think it’s Mother Nature’s warning for the animals to “stay off the ice.” This amazing phenomenon is one that most people don’t get to experience.

When open water starts to emerge, dozens of ducks and geese arrive for their first open-swim session. Let the mating rituals begin! There’s a reason Stravinsky wrote The Rite of Spring. In the coming month the little ones will hatch, like tiny ping-pong balls with fuzz. They’ll float behind mama in a perfectly straight line as she teaches them to dive. I could watch them pop up for hours.

The garden provides a perfect vantage point to watch the wildlife. Bears emerge from their dens to forage for berries and fresh green shoots. Turtles and bass come up from their hibernation at the bottom of the lake. And with their appearance, the eagles and osprey swoop overhead. Does debut their wobbly fawns, instructing them how to raid our garden. I will usually go outside to give them a half-hearted scold, but they don’t seem to mind me at all.

We shed our heavy layers of clothing to let our skin breathe again. We drink in the spring sun with an appreciation for what life should be. Sometimes stunning sights catch our eye that force us to stop at the side of the road. Like glorious artwork, nearby farms are carpeted with canola blooms. A sea of gold, like infinite bullion presents itself as far as the eye can see.

Soon we’ll strap the canoe on the pick-up and head to mountains. The quiet of the wilderness spawns a calm that keeps our core intact.  All we’ll need is in our backpacks. Oh. . . and our fishing poles, and worms.

But first, we'll take a side trip to Puerto Vallarta for a walk on the beach.

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Kalispell, Montana with her husband and stepdaughter. She 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: 

courtney-pierce.com and windtreepress.com 

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 her too . . . for a different reason.

A 2020 Holiday to Remember

 By Courtney Pierce

Romance is supposed to fill the air during the holidays. Senses come alive with the sweet and savory scents of cooking and candles. Warm flames in the fireplace dance to the accompaniment of floating snowflakes outside. Family and friends gather to reflect on the year’s accomplishments and challenges, for which we offer tight hugs of congratulations or sympathy. For a writer, all of these sacred rituals frame an inspiring story of holiday romance.  

What a difference this 2020 holiday season will be from 2019. How in the heck does one cancel Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Hannukah? State governors are like mean 'ole Grinches from Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Last year I was hopeful and believed right was right, no matter what stood in the way. I had a clear set of convictions and personal goals: my writing, my health, my marriage, and to raise a teenager with a solid set of principles. We worked and frequented our favorite restaurants. My stepdaughter went to school every day. I tucked the holiday grocery list in my purse, ran errands, and ticked off the completion of home projects. 

And get this . . . my uncovered face connected with the expressions of fellow residents I didn’t know. As an American, freedom of thought was a given, a right never to be questioned. Livelihoods couldn’t be cancelled over a Tweet. 

I took this rock-solid normalcy for granted.

As writers, we use the issues of the day—both personal and environmental—as emotional guides to create our stories. To make the words connect, we incorporate the relevant and current. Historical novels must adhere to the details of their time period, too. While Fantasy and Magical Realism novels enjoy more flexibility, there are still rules about what magic can and can't do. I imagine there will be a resurgence of books with themes similar to The Hunger Games in the coming months. Can one of them be turned into a holiday book about the sheer will to secretly decorate a Christmas tree? I may have to write it.

One of my favorite themes is for my character to do the wrong thing to fight for what's right.

Cartoon: Cayman Compass

So how are writers to deal with our sudden loss of personal freedoms in their stories, especially romance ones? The current social obstacles get in the way when describing the build-up to a long-awaited kiss. Slipping off a face mask doesn’t match the impact of peeling off a blouse. An intimate candlelit dinner for two in a quiet restaurant isn't allowed, so the evening is reduced to a grab-and-go meal picked up at the curb? I just can't bypass the appetizer flirt and go straight to the doggie bag. Is a budding couple supposed to sit in the car and drip sauce on their lap? Rub hand sanitizer on their hands before they reach across the console? 

Oh, the ridiculousness of it all. A skip over the juicy parts isn't acceptable. We writers have to make some serious choices about our novels-in-progress.

Before the pandemic, I struggled to ratchet up the conflict in my current draft of Big Sky Talk. The story needed deeper emotion and gut-wrenching introspection. Over the past ten months, I got that inspiration in spades, so much so that I became a bit psychologically paralyzed. Dealing with masks, social distancing, and lockdowns became irrelevant noise that would only distract readers from the story. Also, once the CoVid-19 vaccine is in wide distribution, any social restrictions written into the prose would make the book dated. Unless the genre is a thriller about a pandemic, books that include physical restrictions will end up in the bargain bin. A blip. A flash of time that we all want to forget, never mind read about.

The choice became clear. 

Cover Art: Rosalind McFarland

Big Sky Talk is set in a pre-pandemic time period of 2019. It will be current, but free to tell the story. However, I have started to infuse the resulting emotion of the pandemic’s oppression into my main character of Aubrey Cenderon. She feels helpless, frustrated, and isolated. Aubrey suffers a self-imposed lockdown in an attempt to block out her inability to take a chance on love. She restricts her own freedoms and dons an emotional mask, not a physical one. She becomes disillusioned that the world isn’t what she thought it was. Touch is scary and the risk of entering into a relationship fills her with insecurity.

The psychological impact of behavioral restriction has been both challenging and inspiring. After I took all of my personal frustrations out on my character, I didn’t feel victimized anymore. But through the process, Aubrey became my friend and counselor. As she grew and stepped into the light, so did I.

Little Cindy Lou Who was so right about it being impossible for the Grinch to steal her Christmas.  Holiday light continues to flicker deep within us. It can’t be bought, boxed, or bowed.

 

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: 

courtney-pierce.com and windtreepress.com 

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 her too . . . for a different reason.

 

A Work in Progress is Hard Work

By Courtney Pierce

Do you believe in ghosts?

When I've been asked that question in the past, I offer a hesitant nod, followed by a wink and a smile. I didn’t really believe in ghosts beyond the normal psych-out from watching a scary movie. Being alone in the house can get me going, too, with a sudden unfamiliar noise, a flicker in the reflection of a darkened window, or ethereal images in flashes of lightning. However, my research for my latest work-in-progress, Big Sky Talk, led me down an interesting path through the ghost department.

Big Sky Talk is part Montana ghost story, part Native-American folklore, and part love story for those of us who have a few miles on our shoes. The story’s fuel is a grown woman’s grief over the loss of her elderly father. She starts life anew, but she can't hide.

Here’s a quick run-down of the premise:

“A wounded grizzly bear is on the loose in the sleepy suburb of Many Lakes in Kalispell, Montana. The mauled remains of its shooter, a known poacher, lay on a slab in the morgue under the scrutiny of Russell Knowles, the Sheriff of Flathead County. With one month to go before his retirement, Russ hopes this case will be one of his last.

Professional photographer Aubrey Cenderon is a new resident of Many Lakes. After the death of her father, the move to Montana will renew her passion for the outdoors and fulfill her father’s unrealized dreams. She looks forward to capturing wildlife with her camera lens, hiking the mountain trails, and sitting by the wood stove to finally grasp that she’s a 62-year-old orphan. But the bloody paw print on the lake shore behind Aubrey’s house is the size of a serving platter . . . and it’s fresh. Aubrey has a lot to learn about the dangers of living in Big Sky Country, and she’s about to get a crash course.

A knock on the door from Sheriff Knowles will change Aubrey’s life. Living in Montana is suddenly full of complications, and Russ’s concern for Aubrey’s safety comes with two serious ones–their instant mutual attraction and his insistence that she buy a gun. But using a gun won’t be an easy decision when Aubrey finds out why the injured grizzly-on-the-run is hunting specifically for her.”

It's an emotional dive into the fantastic.

I’m only at the fifty-percent mark into my first draft of Big Sky Talk, but the story is already rich in layers. My editor is licking her chops for the manuscript, but the more I research Native American folklore the deeper those layers become. Now that I live in northwest Montana, I’m in a unique position to tap into the wisdom of the Blackfeet and Salish tribes. I have access to almost too much information. I’m only a 40-minute drive from Glacier National Park, where thousands of years of Native American spirituality wrap around me like a blanket. 

There are several stories that are recounted in Glacier Ghost Stories by

Karen Stevens, a local Indie book that I gobbled up in one sitting. Spirits really do call Glacier National Park home. According to the real-life testimonials of the staff who work in the Park's historic lodges, campgrounds, and on the trails, ghostly run-ins are not only documented, but the stories are also corroborated by visitors and guests. 

The strangest stories are relayed from the housekeeping staff and caretakers of the Park's grand lodges built by the Great Northern Railway in the early 1900s. Be prepared for an eerie experience in Room 30 at Belton Chalet. Guests consistently report consistent details of a woman weeping all night in the room. Also, a little Indian girl in buckskins has been seen walking the halls at night and knocking on doors. If followed, she leads guests to the stairway, where she suddenly disappears.

Glacier Park Lodge

Glacier Park Lodge is host to several spirits, most of which are Native American. The hotel sits on what used to be Blackfeet territory, which was the site of a particularly violent battle. There are regular reports from the housekeeping staff about a light female voice responding, "I'm in here" to a knock on the door. A double check of the schedule reveals the room is listed as unoccupied. A second knock produces no response. Upon entering the room, no one is there. Bellmen frequently pass women in old-fashioned garb on the stairs, only to have them disappear into thin air. In the Moccasin Room, the bar located in the Lodge's basement, bartenders and visitors alike have frequently seen two ghostly men sitting at the counter. The gift shop sports a life-sized carving of an Indian, whose gaze appears to follow shoppers.  

A trickster ghost haunts the gift shop at St. Mary Lodge. Upon opening the shop in

St. Mary Lodge

the morning, the staff frequently find that items have been pulled from the shelves and strewn across the floor. Dreamcatchers have also been removed from their boxes. And when the Lodge closes for the winter, the staff hears voices and "non-paying" guests moving around the empty hotel. It's no wonder. For hundreds of years, the trails of the St. Mary Valley were home to Native Americans, trappers, and hunters. Mountain men apparently make a lot of noise.

Lake McDonald Lodge

Lake McDonald Lodge sits on land that was deemed the "Sacred Dancing Place" of the Kootenai tribe. Could the spirits from these ceremonies be the cause of strange odors that grace the air and disappear? What about the complaints of noise from a loud party in Room 308 when the employees know the room is unoccupied?

And what about the ghostly pets that crawl into guests' beds at the

Many Glacier Hotel

Many Glacier Hotel? When the hotel closes down for the winter, a man in a top hat is frequently seen in the upstairs halls. In an interview with the hotel's caretaker, he was asked by reporters whether the incidents were true. The caretaker said, "If I say yes, then I'm crazy. If I say no, then I'm a liar."

It's hard to deny that something otherworldly is going on in these grand ole' dames of Glacier National Park. Maybe I'm gullible, but I want to believe, so I do. It's like method acting, I guess. To write about magical events, I have to be an "all in" believer, not just a "Daydream Believer."

While the majority of my research has been centered around the reincarnation beliefs of the Native-American tribes, the story is infused with personal details. They say that the most important people in our lives remain with us in various forms. In every culture there’s a unique bond between fathers and daughters—good and bad—and a father’s loss is life-changing for a daughter. The grief process can be filled with heartache, anger, regret, or unfinished emotional business. The last is at the heart of Big Sky Talk. 

My goal is to be both factually authentic and personal, but the two don’t always seamlessly meld together. An author can’t fudge on details to make the story fit together. It would be like trying to shove a marshmallow into a piggy bank.

Reincarnation beliefs vary among North American tribes, but there are a few universal principals: nature and the spirit world are intimately linked, the "spirit road" for the dead leads to the Milky Way, and that reincarnation, in either human or animal form, provides continuity to the soul. I chose to make one of my secondary characters of Blackfeet or Salish descent. I haven't settled on which tribe my character will be from yet, but my continued research will certainly guide me to make a choice.

As in my first three books, Stitches, Brushes, and Riffs, I’m thrilled to be back in the world of magical realism. I’ve always wanted to write a ghost story and to explore all of the exaggerated emotions that go along with creating one.  

Using reincarnation as the heart of my story allows me, the author, the supreme indulgence to button up all that unfinished business after the loss of my own Dad. Like my character of Aubrey Cenderon, I sense that he's still around in spirit. I'm sure he'll be reading over my shoulder as I write my character's conversation with a reincarnated grizzly bear, a dialogue of all the things I'd wished I would've said to him in those final days of his life. 

On second thought, forget the over-the-shoulder stuff. Dad would've wanted me to read it to him aloud. 

And so I will.

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: 

courtney-pierce.com and windtreepress.com 

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.

Disaster Turned Blessing

By Courtney Pierce

A bountiful and delicious Thanksgiving ushered in a promising Christmas season. Let the games begin! Lights, wreaths, decorating, and a daily dose of Christmas movies.

My husband, stepdaughter, and I gladly handed over the $5.00 permit fee to cut our wild Christmas tree on Montana state land. Deal of the century. There’s a lot of shopping acreage here in the Kalispell area, so we bundled up for the hunt under a gentle mountain snowfall. The tree we found wasn’t all perfect by retail standards, but that’s what gave it infinite appeal. We even snagged a small one for my stepdaughter’s bedroom. No worries about having enough decorations. Collectively, my husband and I have an ornament count that spans over forty Christmas seasons. I guess that amounts to eighty Christmases worth of decorations. We selected the best of the best, and we still had an embarrassing excess.

Over the holiday, I had planned to make huge progress on my next book, BIG SKY TALK. I was nine chapters in and excited to pick up where I left off.

Then disaster struck. 

The hard drive in my mere seven-month-old laptop crashed with a bang. I couldn’t access any of my files, including the first nine chapters of my book-in-progress, never mind the manuscripts of my previous six books.

I got a windburn zooming to my local computer to a repair shop. Two days later, the news made my stomach drop to subzero. I needed a new hard drive, and nothing on it could be saved. The squeaky-clean new drive held none of my files. However, the tech gave me back my dead one with a glimmer of hope. He suggested that I contact a specialty data recovery company with more sophisticated equipment to attempt to find my files. Luckily, there was a reputable one in Missoula.

I know, I know. I can hear your voices chastising me for not backing up my files and documents for the last six months. I never had a problem before, so I had become complacent. Shame on me. And shame on Scrivener, my writing program, for switching from storing the proprietary files in the cloud to saving them on my hard drive. The company never informed me about the change in their process.

I should’ve figured that computers aren’t the work horses they used to be. They’ve gone the way of televisions and cell phones. Count on them lasting about a year ̶ or seven months in my case ̶ with more plastic parts to lower the price tag.

After a promising discussion of my situation with the data recovery company, I mailed off my blown hard drive and crossed my fingers. I resigned myself to the real possibility that I would need to start over with my novel. After all, my head held the story. No one could take that away from me.

Then something started to happen: I actually got excited about re-writing those first nine chapters. It was a chance to start fresh. In a quandary, I had written three different opening chapters and couldn’t decide which one worked best. I had nothing to lose by shaking out the Etch-A-Sketch.

Some writing coaches recommend chucking your first drafts in order to breathe new life into a blank page. And as painful as it can be, Stephen King recommends we should “kill our darlings.” First drafts are an indulgence of the author; second and third ones are for the readers.

Maybe there was a higher purpose for my data woes. But all those hours. All those outlines. And all those imaginative brain cells I had killed off. Was I being lazy? Was I trying to be a speed demon to make my own fake deadline? Possibly.

I sucked it up and started my book over while I waited to hear the verdict from the tech pros. The longer the silence loomed, the faster I wrote, convinced those draft chapters were lost. In the new ones, I incorporated more detail, evened out the flow, and cut what I thought was superfluous. The characters started to bloom with personality. My brain fired on all pistons with the freshness of it all. It was like going into a new job with oodles of direct experience. I made better decisions. I dug in with instinct, not superficial details. I let the characters lead me to bring them to life. All five senses came alive with vivid imagery. I didn't have to monitor the small stuff: the color of the protagonist's eyes, what kind of car she drove, or the style of her clothes. I was now creating living, breathing people.

As I dove into the new Chapter Four, my cell phone rang. The data recovery company calling, just like Avon.

“Good news, Courtney! Your data is 98% there,” the Tech said. "But it's going to take us about a week to extract it." 

“That’s great,” I said. "I hope my new manuscript isn't part of the 2% of roadkill. Is this going to cost me my first born child that I can't have at sixty?"

He laughed out loud. "This is a Level 2, so it'll be about $700."

Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled to get back my files, but my writing bubble deflated a bit, and not just about the price. The original drafts of those nine chapters sent my mind into a scramble. Sorting out all of the versions would be like re-installing the old toilet in a newly remodeled bathroom.

When I downloaded my Scrivner files, I created a new folder for those old chapters, but I don't think I'll open it. I'll keep going with the new version. That folder will only be a crutch in the event I get stuck.

And in the meantime, I'll enjoy the holiday with my original plan to spend the time with my family, go out for a snowshoe hike, target shoot to practice for next hunting season, and move forward writing BIG SKY TALK.

And I promise to back up my work at least once a week. The mega-capacity thumb drive I purchased should do the trick, along with the additional external hard drive my husband gave me. I’m also going to email myself the most important files as back-up to the back-up to back-up.

Happy Holidays to you all! Stay safe and warm, and I'll catch up with you in the New Year.

Photo: Micah Brooks

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Kalispell, Montana with her husband, stepdaughter, and their brainiac cat, Princeton. 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 She Writes. 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: 

courtney-pierce.com and windtreepress.com 

Audiobook now Available!

Available Now!
Book 3 of the
Dushane Sisters
Trilogy

Audio book coming soon!

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 2020!

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 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.