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.

 

Life-Long Readers and Life-Long Learners

Hi, I’m Judith Ashley, author of The Sacred Women’s Circle series, soul nourishing romantic women’s fiction that honors pagan spiritual practices. My stories show you what life could be like if you had a place like The Circle where you are unconditionally accepted, supported and loved. And where, with this support, you do overcome obstacles and find your happily-ever-after.

You may wonder what Romancing The Genres is doing celebrating Children’s Book Authors.

The answer is simple:

The earlier a child

appreciates books,

understands the value of getting lost in a story,

comprehends that answers to all questions can be answered in the pages of a book,

experiences the joy of holding a book, turning the pages (paper or digital) and losing track of time and the myriad of challenges of day-to-day life

The more likely that child will be a life-long reader.

However, while that is mostly true, it isn’t 100% true. I’m a life-long learner and early reader. I read to my son from the time he was born until he was in elementary school. I read to both my granddaughters and also to my great granddaughter.

Are they life-long learners? Yes

Are they life-long readers? No

While my dyslexia is minor it was more severe in my son and even more so in my granddaughters. The truth is it’s easier to become a life-long reader when reading is easy. And it’s much more daunting when those letters and words have a life of their own.

My life-long love of books means I have book shelves full of keepers, stacks next to the couch and then the most important ones next to my computer.

Is there a children’s book next to my computer? Yes

What children’s book have I read over and over and yet over again?

The Velveteen Rabbit, by Marjory Williams with Illustrations by William

Nicholson. My current copy is especially dear to me because it is a gift from my longest and very bestest friend, Michele.

What is it about this book that touched my heart the first time I read it enough that I’ve read it over and over again?

Love makes us real. And that love always sees us as beautiful in body, mind and spirit.

As I add years to my age, I look for the me I used to see when I looked in the mirror. She’s there – I see glimpses in the smile, the look in my eyes, the way I hold my head. But I also see the me with white hair and extra pounds. The me who no longer jogs and is thankful she can still walk unaided.

My favorite passage is when The Skin Horse is talking to The Velveteen Rabbit about Nursery Magic and what happens to make a toy real.

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. … Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. … Once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

While I may cringe when my granddaughters call me “cute” I do know that they see me as Real. Not as an old lady with white hair who doesn’t move as fast as she once did. They see the grandma who loves them for now and for always.

Looking in the mirror, I can see her too. She’s got wisdom in those Rawson blue eyes, her heart beats strong and loves rushes through her veins. Love for her grands and great grands but also for the memories of reading Dr. Seuss, singing the alphabet song a bajillion times, celebrating first steps and first words and all those life events one has to grow old to experience.

What are your favorite memories either of your own early reading experiences?

You can find all of my books at your favorite e-book vendor. Be sure to ask your local library if you’d prefer to read my books through that resource.

Learn more about Judith's The Sacred Women’s Circle series at JudithAshleyRomance.com

Follow Judith on Twitter: JudithAshley19

Check out Judith’s Windtree Press author page.

You can also find Judith on FB! 

© 2020 Judith Ashley