One-Hour Vacations

By Courtney Pierce

It’s a toss-up: a pedicure or a deep tissue massage, the serious kind. Either option is a great mini-vacation to indulge myself, but a combo of the two services just might entice me to cancel a trip to Disneyworld (not that I’d ever go there anyway).

Step one on the enjoyment meter is to shut off my phone. No intruders are allowed to bust into my bubble.

Step two is to use the restroom. Avoiding any interruption once we get going is mandatory. Who wants to get off the warm massage table or pull their wrinkled feet from the bubbling water to take a pee? Not me.

If I start with the massage, I like to supply my own CD of nature sounds, gentle rain, and a thunderstorm.  It speeds up the “turn to jelly” process.  I have an outstanding masseuse here in Kalispell. He even hangs from the ceiling and uses his feet. He’ll run his heels up my back and over my shoulder blades. It’s amazing.

I'm not a gabber or gossiper when it comes to services. I like to mentally go away while I'm being pampered. Pedicures allow me to pull out my notebook and write the old-fashioned way.

The pedicure is all about tools. Pickers, clippers, and files are essential for a fulfilling

session. They get rid of all the stuff that I can't reach or even see. I rest the back of my head in silence as the chair vibrates during the leg massage. I grab the remote for the back roll and pause.

To the undulating roller, I think about my indulgence. Suddenly I feel guilty. It's not about me. I never fought, never sacrificed. We women work through lists to make sure our families have what they want and need. We have and need so much, way too much.

Here it is Memorial Day. So many soldiers sacrificed their lives for me to be able to get that pedicure and massage A spoiled girl, a privileged girl, a girl who never had to push the way our forefathers did. That's not right. I need to work harder.

In my binoculars are two adult geese with fourteen goslings. They line up in a perfect line, like little soldiers, for their trek across the lake, not a single youngin' out of place. They are in a lock-down for learning to be independent, not to do nothing and sure they will be taken care of. But maybe not. There are threats from eagles and osprey that could turn their family of eight to a family of two or three.

The geese take care of their young, with only a minimal handout for them to hunt for their

sustenance. Daddy watches. Mama herds to make sure an eagle doesn't pick off one of her precious ones. There's only so much they can do.

And there you have it. The Yin and Yang of the Memorial weekend. I hung the American flag this weekend in honor of our fallen soldiers. It flies free and so do I.

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 

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.

Old Meets New Holiday Reads

by Courtney Pierce

A sign of the times. There are  two extremes of emotion driving my holiday reads this year. As a baby boomer, I like to brush the fur in the opposite direction on present-day issues while I bask in traditions from the past. Our ability to flex and bend, as well as be stalwart and righteous, are qualities unique to our generation. We’re sandwiched between the WWII work ethic of our parents and the go-go-go world of Millennials seeking to replace us. But the good news is that we boomers know how to shut down the computers, tablets, and cell phones to enjoy a good book.

So there are two books on my reading list for the holiday break. I want to immerse myself in poignant prose while I face the reality of today’s scary world. 

The first pick is an annual tradition: my 1866 antique edition of  Christmas Books by Charles Dickens, complete with tiny print and misplaced hyphens. Its Old-World aged paper crinkles with a turn of every fragile, double-columned page. The aroma of aged wood pulp draws me like treasures stacked in the back room of a used book shop. I can practically hear the delicate bell on the door as I reach for this book on the shelf.

This book contains five stories: A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life, and The Haunted Man. Several ghosts, a goblin, a fairy tale, and a love story. By today’s standards, the lengthy descriptions of detail are overdone, the paragraphs too long, and the text minuscule. But this kind of prose reminds me to slow down to appreciate every colorful word. Too often in a book, I race through the color to get to the point.

All five of these novellas carry a theme of redemption. The reconciliation of one’s inner soul must have been a conflict for Dickens himself, and everyone in merry ole’ England, because the stories struck a chord with the public. Guilt is one powerful, crippling emotion. I love to read these stories, though, as a thermometer for how well I’m doing in that department. I help others . . . check. I’m never mean-spirited . . .  check. I’m charitable . . . check. I love and respect my husband . . . check.

Dickens was a master craftsman of emotion. What I love most is that he awarded each character—even the minor ones—with the perfect name to define their personality. The stories are punctuated with names like Ebenezer Scrooge, the miser of A Christmas Carol, and John Peerybingle, a slow, lumbering, but honest man from The Cricket and the Hearth. Then there’s Dr. Jeddler, the elderly philosopher who looks at the world as one enormous practical joke in The Battle of Life. And finally, The Haunted Man describes an eerily gloomy vision of Mr. Redlaw, a chemist surrounded by his drugs, instruments, and books.

These stories are still fresh. They’re still relevant. People will never change their nature, no matter what the era.

From the nature of the heart comes the primal need to survive. My second holiday book is titled Sheep No More by Jonathan Gilliam. This is a hard-hitting book about attack survival. I’m not one to spout about politics or my personal beliefs, but I do feel increasingly unsafe. Don’t get me started on that . . . but I knew I couldn’t turn my back on a world that wants to strip me of freedom and liberty, and then ask me to pay for someone else to have it. The wake-up calls have been constant on multiple levels: on the ground, in the air, and through my computer.

What I look forward to embracing in this book is the power of one. My husband and I want to control our own destiny. We don’t want to wring our hands and whine that the government isn’t taking care of us in an emergency. There are things we can do as individuals to keep ourselves and family members safe. The first, and most important, asset is heightened awareness. I want to educate myself, and then tuck the information in my hair like bobby pins. I have to think of this next level of survival skill as when I learned to backpack in the mountains or hunt to fill the freezer. I don’t need to use these resources every day, but they’re there should I need them.

The last holiday read is my own book, delivered just under the wire. Indigo Legacy is now available after over two years of work to polish just the right ending to The Dushane Sisters Trilogy. Talk about making a book personal! Geez! Of course, I’ve read it so many times now that I must leave it in the hands of my readers. It still makes me laugh out loud and reduces me to tears. The story takes place during the holidays, so Indigo Legacy is a legal holiday read. And like Dickens, it's filled with betrayal, guilt, loss, gain, love, and best of all . . . redemption.

Happy and safe holidays to you all!

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Milwaukie, Oregon, with her husband. stepdaughter, and their brainiac cat, Princeton. Courtney writes for the baby boomer audience. By day, she is an executive in the entertainment industry and uses her time in a theater seat to create stories that are filled with heart, humor and mystery. She has 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. 

Check out all of Courtney's books: 

courtney-pierce.com and

windtreepress.com 

Print and E-books are available through most major online retailers, including Amazon.com.

Available Now!
Book 3 of the
Dushane Sisters
Trilogy

The Dushane Sisters Trilogy concludes with Indigo Legacy, available now. There's love in the air for Olivia and Woody, but will family intrigue get in the way? Ride along for the wild trip that starts in a New York auction house and peaks in a mansion on Boston's Beacon Hill. 

The Dushane sisters finally get to the truth about their mother.

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."

To be a Mother or to be an Author?

To be a mother or to be an author? A question many mothers debate in this world is either to be a full time mother or to be out in the work force. I married and had my family young. That had been my plan all along, yet I never really thought about what that impact would have on my dreams. So many young women (and men) have these ellaborate dreams of what they're going to do as adults.


They plan and plan and plan. And then life gets in the way.
Isn't that what we always say? Life got in the way. My life? Three children. Now, I wouldn't trade them for anything in this world, but being a mother at the age of 20 isn't all it's cracked up to be. I had my youngest a day before my 25th birthday and for the next several years I spent all my time raising them to be intelligent, thoughtful, helpful people. But where did my dreams go? Unfortunately down the tube.

For as long as I can remember I told stories, acted out fantasical worlds and characters, wrote them down on paper or in the dirt, etc. etc. etc. When the kids came I told them stories and enthralled them with my worlds. But as with everything that time was short. They didn't need me as often. My dream began to rear it's head out of the desert sand. And so did the guilt. Sure there were plenty of mothers out there that worked for a living and raised their kids. I knew plenty of them, but I'd always felt once I had kids until they were grown they would need all of my attention.

Even now, after finally having self-published two of my short stories I still feel guilty when I'm working and they need me. My first thought is to drop everything I'm doing and go to them. Then I take a deep breath, wait for a second and if they are still asking I go. If the moment has passed for them I return to my work with a lighter heart.



What makes you feel guilty to do even though you shouldn't?



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