It's a Journey All Right!

by Courtney Pierce

A funny thing happened on the way to writing my first book. Well . . . maybe not so funny, but let's give it a go..

The seeds of a book percolated inside me for over a decade, but I didn't do anything about it. After 25 years in corporate life, the routine had grown tiresome, and the constant business travel put me on the road to official burnout. So in 2011, when my company wanted to transfer me from Houston to New York City (a third relocation), I heartily declined. I wanted to move back to Portland, Oregon, to be closer to my family. It was also as far away from New York as I could get.

I needed a sabbatical. With a healthy buyout of my employment contract, I took a year off to recharge my batteries, the goal being to finally write that book. Dreamy images filled my thoughts: sitting on the patio with a cup of chamomile tea, typing away on my laptop, and taking long walks for inspiration. I made my fantasy a reality . . . for exactly two weeks.

Then the phone rang one evening. It was my Dad.

“Hey, Kid," he said. "Can I talk to you for a few minutes?” His tone made my heart pound. Something was wrong. My parents lived four hours away in Southern Oregon. I eyed my car keys on the kitchen counter for a possible impromptu road trip.

“Sure. What’s up, Bear?" I said. "Everything okay?” I kept my voice upbeat by using his nickname. We all had nicknames. Our real names were saved for being in trouble.

“I think we need to move up your way. Can you help us find a house?”

“What’s going on?”

“We need to be closer to you and better healthcare. Mom has colon cancer, and I have bladder cancer.”

My mind immediately created on image of bacon circling in the microwave while two cigarettes smoldered in an ashtray. But it wasn't the time to spew out a healthcare lecture.

That phone call was only the beginning. Over the next six months, my Dad added congestive heart failure to his health rap sheet, my Mom had her own heart attack after her cancer surgery, and my younger sister had a breakdown and attempted suicide. For a few of those months, three members of my small, close family were on the brink of death in the same hospital. 

My first book, Stitches, was in the gestation phase, and I feared my inspiration to write would be relegated to a mere pipe dream. Days were spent making the rounds in the hospital: Oncology, Cardiology, and the Psychology wings. The medical staff became an extension of my familial network with their words of encouragement.  My older sister and I stuck together like glue on the phone, but she lived too far away to help me in real time. 

Every day I’d sit for a couple of hours in each of my family member’s rooms with my laptop, attempting to heal with my story's theme of a found magical artifact that holds the secret of immortality—The Thin Man meets History Detectives with a twist of magic. 

Writing quickly became therapy. And the nurses took ownership of Stitches with me.

I believed that my story could give my family everlasting life, written in silence at their bedsides and read aloud when they stirred. And then something really did start to happen. In the darkest moments, my prose became progressively lighter and more humorous. Words became super fuel in the form of a simple return smile, a brightening of eyes, or a chuckle. The healing had officially begun.

They say that laughter is the best medicine. I can say with conviction that it’s true. And remaining true to the rules of writing craft, I hefted my protagonists over the hump of “all hope is lost” to land them squarely on their feet with courage and conviction. The hospital rounds of therapy dogs, meant for patients, elevated me, too, with each stroke of their fur.

Dad lived long enough to see Stitches in print. I lost him soon after its publication. And my Mom . . . well . . . she’s an Energizer Bunny. At eighty-five, she’s independent and indestructible, and seven years and six books later, Mom remains cancer free with a resilient heart. My little sister recovered and regained her independence. And to keep the inspiration going, I wrote the fictional Dushane Sisters Trilogy with Mom and my two sisters in mind. The trickster therapy dogs in that series were a celebration of my hospital time too.

The original manuscripts for all my published books are locked in Mom’s cedar chest, because she’s convinced that I’ll be famous one day. That's a mom for 'ya. I guess I really did have the ability to make my family immortal on the page. And in my next book, Big Sky Talk, Dad will forever live up to his nickname in the form of a reincarnated grizzly bear. We'll get to have another indelible conversation.

The light of Inspiration is brighter when emerging from the dark, but it takes a healthy dose of love and sacrifice to realize the reward.

Photo: Micah Brooks

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. She spent 28 years as 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.

Audiobook now Available!

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."

Art and Imagination

by Courtney Pierce

As far back as I can remember, maybe age four or five, a small oil painting hung in my grandparents’ living room. It portrayed a young boy dancing in the woods. The ornate gilt frame measured twice the size of the canvas. The boy wore rolled-up linen britches and a frilly linen shirt. His waist coat appeared to be soft. Tousled brown locks topped his exuberant feminine face, so life-like that he appeared to move.

I named him The Dancing Boy.

There was nothing for a young girl to do at my grandparents’ house. The tick and bong of a clock in the dining room cut through the quiet to mark the passage of every slow hour. My paternal grandmother was a fairly terse German woman who held on tight to every minute of her escape from WWII. Whenever I visited, I would plan my own escape by spending an inordinate amount of time staring at that painting, chased by my own imagination. I made-up all kinds of stories about that young dancing boy. What did the music sound like to inspire him to dance? Why were his bare toes so dirty when he’s wearing fancy clothes? Did he run away from home? Did he have to dance in secret because his parents were too strict? Who are the two shadowy adults in the background?

As I approached my late-teens, my questions focused om the painting itself. I broke through my fear of my grandmother to dig a bit deeper into its history. She told me it was created in the early 1800s and had been given to her as a gift by her employer after an elaborate remodel of a guest bedroom. In fact, most of the furniture in my grandparents' Georgetown home were cast-offs from that wealthy family. She also told me the painting had been a rescued section of a much larger piece that had been destroyed by fire. 

To me, that little cutaway had become its own work of art.

After my grandparents passed away, The Dancing Boy hung in my parents’ living room for over thirty years. My Dad requested I research how best to have it professionally cleaned and conserved. Decades of cigarette smoke had veiled the luminous skin tones, vivid details of the boy’s frock, and richness of the woodsy vegetation. I took the piece out of its heavy frame for any indication of the artist. Nothing. But I did discover it had been painted on wood, not canvas.

I took The Dancing Boy to the Portland Art Museum for a deeper inspection by the curator. My Mom freaked a bit, however, because she was convinced that The Dancing Boy had been stolen by the Nazis and didn’t want me to get busted. Geez, Mom! And I thought I had a vivid imagination.

The curator’s eyes lit up when I showed him the painting. Under the glow of lighted magnifying glasses, he made all sorts of noises: “hmmm . . . ahhh . . . mmm.” Then he raised his head and nearly blinded me before switching off his headgear. “As far as I can tell, it’s definitely Early American, around the Revolutionary War," he said. "But without an identifying signature, it’s hard to say who might’ve painted it. Whoever it was, they were damn good.”

“Damn good to know,” I said. 

Then my imagination started to race with more stories. Maybe Ben Franklin had been in the company of the original painting, or Washington, Adams, Hamilton, or Jefferson. I suddenly heard tankards clinking and the scratching of quilled words on the Declaration of Independence. That would certainly be cause for a budding young man to dance in the woods. The possibilities were endless. I packed up the painting and hung it back on my parents’ living room wall, my soul having grown ten times in size that day.

On Christmas morning of 2012, my parents came by the house for our traditional exchange of gifts. We had spend limits in place, so gifts were usually gag-like in nature. My Dad had been failing rapidly, and I knew he would only exist in my heart quite soon. I sat him on the couch in the living room and handed him a cup of coffee. He pointed to the front door.

“Go out to the truck and get that big box in the back.”

I did as I was told, of course. I had no idea what my parents had given me, but my pulse raced like a hummingbird's. I brought in the box and set it on the floor in front of my father.

“Go ahead and open it,” he said. “It’s for you, not me.”

And when I did, I broke into tears. He had given me The Dancing Boy. I didn’t know what to say, but my Dad did:

“It’s yours now, kid. I wanted to be able to see the look on your face before I’m dead.”

Dad. A steel-belted marshmallow.

It took only fifty years to come up with the ultimate story about The Dancing Boy. The painting became the subject of magical realism in my second novel of the Stitches Trilogy, Brushes. The three-book series—Stitches, Brushes, and Riffs—centers on a baby boomer couple, Jean and Spence Collins, who find a magical artifact at an estate sale. When they discover it holds the key to immortality, they set off on quite the world adventure, but not without getting into serious trouble with the FBI. It’s a bit like The Thin Man meets History Detectives—with a twist of magic.

I relived every wondrous moment of little-girl imagination when I wrote Brushes. And immortalizing The Dancing Boy forever on its printed pages means that I, too, have added to the painting's long history.

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.  

Coming Soon!
Book 3 of the
Dushane Sisters
Trilogy

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.

The Dushane Sisters Trilogy concludes with Indigo Legacy, due out in the fall, 2018. 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."

Hook Me Like Velcro

By Courtney Pierce

The burn of a good book is hard to beat. I’ll obsess about an engrossing story throughout the day: even while lathering up in the shower, retrieving the mail, or getting ready for work. If the book is part of a series, especially a trilogy, then it’s even better. The whole saga has a perfect beginning, middle, and end, and the plot has gobs of character development. A writer can only go so deep in three hundred pages, but in nine hundred . . . well . . . let the games begin.

Characters make a book worth reading, with all their flaws, hang-ups, and sympathetic qualities. They need to stumble, make the wrong decisions, and screw up. I live vicariously through their trials and tribulations to make my own seem benign.

My current obsession sits with the trilogy of Greg Iles, his Penn Cage series of Natchez Burning, The Bone Tree, and Mississippi Blood. I’m on the final leg of this painful journey of racial hate and passion for justice. The subject matter isn’t funny or ooey gooey. In fact, it’s tense, tortuous . . . and timely. I hated every minute of reading this series, because it’s uncomfortable and so wrong. Greg Iles had the courage of Hercules and Sinbad combined to write these books. They paint a picture of divisive Southern life, where bitter truth splatters the glass of a fictional frame.

These books pushed me to my emotional limit. They made me want to shout in anger. They made want to turn away. They made me think too hard. But there I was, Gorilla-glued to this story with the possibility of a bombshell resolution to the Kennedy assassination. Yes, Greg Iles did his research into an area that no one else dared to go: the Golden Eagles, an elite layer of the Klu Klux Klan. Beyond the Book Depository and the frame-by-frame slow-mo of the Zupruder film, a darker, more hateful motive sits below the tabloid dirt. The amazing underbelly of this trilogy is that the incidents in these books are rooted in true events. A real journalist’s research and notes provided the inspiration for this story. He was murdered before he could publish his findings.

This series might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I dove in because I like being yanked out of my comfort zone. Greg Iles’s writing style is so different from mine. My writer's tool bag is filled with humor, poignant sibling relationships, and a little romantic spice. The secret weapons of my personal style are quick dialogue and Murphy’s Law. Greg uses the shock of circumstances and shifting points of view to keep readers on edge. But don’t count this blog article to be a review of Iles’s books. It’s about what makes a book engrossing. 

Truth.

Readers can spot a phony in fiction. And it doesn't matter if the story is dramatic, funny, romantic, fantastical, or historical. All good stories all have something in common: the writer’s own experiences are buried in the dialogue and scene description. And when they do, readers are Velcroed into the emotion behind the words.

Writers sometimes consider their books a form of therapy. I know that I do. The pain and joy my characters feel bubbles up from my own experiences of love, family, the ridiculous, loss . . . and betrayal. It’s all there. My mantra is “fix it in fiction”. Characters can say and do everything that I wish I could in real life. Hence, my readers connect and send me notes about how real my characters seem.

When I wrote Stitches (my very first book) and The Executrix (my fourth book), my intention was to make each one a standalone story. Only through the urging from reader comments did each become the first of a trilogy series. What they didn't know, but intuitively felt, was that they were based on genuine people infused with my past and wishes for the future. It was easy for me to expand a standalone story into three books. They reflected the saga of what was happening in my life—in real time.

My own complicated beginning, dramatic middle, and satisfying end. Thankfully, fictional books can be a lot messier and much more interesting than reality.

After I release the final book of The Dushane Sisters Trilogy, Indigo Legacy, in the coming

Coming Soon!
Summer, 2018

months, I’ll start a new book, possibly a standalone to become a trilogy, or an even longer series. It will be completely new, with a setting in Montana. I might weave in a bit of rootin' tootin' shootin' with a couple of itchy, scratchy Baby Boomers: a clairvoyant woman and a prideful sheriff.  And guess what? I'm married to a man with pride, own  a home in Montana, and I've even learned how to shoot a gun to protect myself from fuzzy mountain predators. There you have it. My money shall sit where my mouth is.

And like the surf of life, all the former jagged rocks of truth will tumble and roll to polish new characters, smooth and set in stone. I hope they’ll be the kind that catch your eye on and get tossed in a bowl on the coffee table.

Photo: Loma Smith Photography

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Milwaukie, Oregon, with her new family. She writes for baby boomers. By day, Courtney 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, she 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 at:

courtney-pierce.com and windtreepress.com. Both print and E-books are available through most major online retailers, including Amazon.com

The Dushane Sisters Trilogy concludes with Indigo Legacy, due out in summer, 2018. There's love in the air for Olivia and Woody, but will their family history 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. Will the Dushane sisters finally get the answers they've been seeking 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."

This Crazy Business of Publishing

By Courtney Pierce

When I wrote my first novel, Stitches, the thought of being published was the furthest thing from my mind. I wanted the challenge of plotting a compelling story, to learn the craft, and to dive into the story that burned in my imagination. I took a sabbatical from corporate life to write that story, a deeply personal story of immortality filled with humor and adventure. Now, two trilogies later, I’m finishing my sixth book, Indigo Legacy, and I’m back to balancing work, a new family, and my writing.

But there was no greater feeling than finishing that first book in 2012, a creation born from the pure joy of pushing through the process and challenging myself with questions. To turn over the manuscript to the first reader was a test of fortitude, self-confidence, and my openness to criticism. I developed that much-needed thick skin.

I came up for air in a swirl of adventure, humor, and magical realism, only to feel a bit lost atHow to get Published and critiquing queries for a hefty fee. They weren't selling many books. Publishers were only interested in celebrity memoirs and established authors with a proven track record, those who could make them money without a marketing budget. What to do next? The publishing industry was in chaos in 2012, and so were retail bookstores, both big chains and independent ones. Life for the average reader had shifted to be an E-book experience―at a rate of $.99 or free. Only a select few were making a decent living from being a writer, earning pennies on the dollar for the long hours invested. The book business was about volume...in the millions. The industry had been plunged into a perfect storm of capitalism: an antiquated, crumbling process in need of rebuilding, fueled by new technology. Amazon was living up to its name. Literary agents had shifted their focus to teaching workshops about

And then a funny thing did happen on the way to being published.

The lone writer―the little gal―suddenly could have her own voice.

I could do everything myself: Tweet, Facebook, set up a website, hire an editor and cover designer, format and produce a book at the push of a button. Not easy, mind you, but I would’ve had to do much of it anyway. If I was prolific and built my audience with a steady stream of books, then the publishing industry might chase me. Publishers aren’t in the business of making dreams come true. That’s my job.

I made the choice to be a pioneer. I decided to go it on my own, and the process was liberating if not amazing. As a first-time author during that tumultuous period, my chances of getting traditionally published were a long shot at best. Self-publishing allowed me to control my timeline, protect my content, and retain ownership of my copyrights. I taught myself the business, and I got better at it with every book. But most of all, I found my audience, without delusions of grandeur. If I didn’t sell millions of books, I wasn’t a failure. I’m thankful for those 73 Million baby boomers, just like me. Those boomers who bought my books and personally connected with me showed me the way forward.

My sense of purpose is to stay true to my audience…and to myself. Chasing trends doesn't work to be successful. That can't always be measured in dollars. I write for the pure joy of it. I’ve circled back to my roots of why I got into this crazy endeavor in the first place. 

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Milwaukie, Oregon, with her bossy cat. She writes for baby boomers. By day, Courtney 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, she 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 at:

courtney-pierce.com and windtreepress.com. Both print and E-books are available through most major online retailers, including Amazon.com

The Dushane Sisters are back in Indigo Lake. More laughs, more tears...and more trouble. Protecting Mom's reputation might get the sisters killed―or give one of them the story she's been dying to live.

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."

Colorful characters come alive in Courtney's trilogy about the Dushane sisters. Beginning with The Executrix, three middle-age sisters find a manuscript for a murder mystery in their mother's safe after her death. Mom’s book gives them a whole new view of their mother and their future. Is it fiction . . . or truth? 

Get out the popcorn as the Dushane Sisters Trilogy comes to a scrumptious conclusion with Indigo Legacy. Due out in 2017.

Magical Realism - My Immortal Journey

by Courtney Pierce

Sometimes it takes magic for characters–and their author–to appreciate the real. It can be a voyage and return of the highest order. What emerges from the experience is enlightenment and wisdom. In 2011, my first book, Stitches, became just such an endeavor. The magic of touch. Its magical realism and themes had me so hooked that I turned the story into a trilogy. Brushes and Riffs followed: transformation through art, and immortality born from music.

After abandoning a 20-year corporate career, my husband and I moved back to Oregon to care for my elderly parents and my younger sister, each in a full-blown health crisis. The trauma birthed a new venture: I became a writer.

The story of Stitches emerged from a year of wringing my hands and tapping on a laptop at three hospital bedsides. While not a normal environment for inspiration, out of the experience came an inspiring tale of a middle-age couple transitioning into life’s third act. They're stumped by what to do with the remainder of their lives after the drudge of nine to five. An innocent visit to an estate sale yields a fantastic find: an old chest. Inside a hidden compartment is an ancient piece of fabric that holds the key to immortality. The woven bird images come alive with stunning results. Attempts to rationalize the fabric’s magic plunge this couple deeper into its secrets, which sends them on a rollicking international quest for answers. History Detectives meets The Thin Man . . . with magic.

What I couldn’t fix in real life, I fixed in prose.

The books’ themes pose thought-provoking questions to the reader. If given the opportunity to become immortal at the end of your natural life, would you choose to exist for eternity? Or would you leave behind a legacy and allow death its due? Choices. Each has benefits and consequences. Over three books, my characters make their decision. 

Of course, the magic in the story is a metaphor, my literary attempt to keep my family intact with possibilities. As circumstances in real life became increasingly dire, my writing took a lighter and more fun turn. I threw aside my grief to ask no more of life than what if . . .

The genre of magical realism―the fantastic in a real world―is a powerful vehicle for addressing life’s challenges that are too overwhelming to rationalize. Magic transports us into the realm of wishes and dreams, and also presents us with trials and unfair circumstances to arm us with courage.

Halloween originated as a celebration of those who are immortal to us, even if for only one day. My mother and sister survived their ordeals, but my father did not. Dad's soul will live on inside the character of a softhearted, gruff FBI chief for eternity. And my soul will live on, too, for having re-created him on the page. That’s the real magic.

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Oregon with her husband of thirty-six years and bossy cat. She writes for baby boomers. Her novels are filled with heart, humor, and mystery. Courtney has studied craft and storytelling at the Attic Institute and has completed the Hawthorne Fellows Program for writing and publishing. She is also a board member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association and is active with Willamette Writers, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and Sisters in Crime.

Colorful characters come alive in Courtney's latest novel, The Executrix. When three middle-age sisters find a manuscript for a murder mystery in their mother's safe after her death, the book gives them a whole new view of their mother. Is it fiction? . . . or truth? Sibling blood becomes thicker than baggage when Mom becomes larger in death than she was in life.

Visit Courtney's website at www.courtney-pierce.com. Her books can be purchased at Windtree Press, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo Books, and at several independent bookstores in the Portland area.

Hope Comes in Many Forms

By Courtney Pierce 

As a novelist, one question readers frequently ask me is, “What inspires a new character for you?” The answer is easy: ordinary, run-of-the-mill people become my characters. I hope to find the best ones at the gym when I’m on the elliptical machine . . . working hard to go nowhere.

Photo: Vlado at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

But hope is everywhere here.

As I scan the mid-morning crowd, those deep into their huff-and-puff private worlds, I pick out one person and let a new character unfold. The combination of body movement and expression tells a story about a person’s mood, determination, and inner desire. I’m particularly fond of the elderly; the road map of their lives is on full display.

On one particular morning, a year or so ago, my gaze pulled from a petite female jogger with a bouncing ponytail to an elderly man. He'd plunked down on the seat of an arm-strengthening machine. The way he grabbed the two handles made him appear to be bracing for the big dip on a roller coaster. All he had to do was push. What's the big deal? I thought as I studied him. But the man's fictional story peeled away in layers like an onion.

His physical characteristics started the process: well into his eighties, somewhat paunchy around the middle, thin gray hair in a wispy comb-over. The skin on his neck and jowls appeared to be filled with sand, as if preventing his head from flying away. His lower eyelids drooped to reveal the shiny pink inside, relenting to his doctor’s orders that he replace cholesterol pills and blood thinners with a dose of exercise. Purple bruises from a run-in with invisible obstacles dotted his arms as confirmation. 

But something else . . . soft and yielding. I dug for more.

Photo: Idea Go-FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The man stared at the handles, as if willing them to move. At one time in his life, he probably could have pushed them to a blur. Maybe he used to be a whisky runner during prohibition, possibly a mobster who slapped the backs of his gumbas over eggplant Parmesan. He had saved lives, taken lives, and laid awake at night, haunted by the lives of those who hadn't been so lucky to dodge the bullets.

The machine's mechanism appeared to have been bolted in place, immovable, a trick. And then the old man did something that paused my loopy trek on the elliptical machine. He entwined his hands in his lap and stared at his swollen, arthritic knuckles. Was he . . . hoping? Praying? Remembering? Crimes didn't keep this man awake at night; the loss of that injured kitten, stuck in the wheel well of his Lincoln, is what kept him tossing and turning for fifty years. One little fella he couldn't save. The man’s thoughts became a vibrant aura.

Photo: Keerati-
FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Sprites of story.

I had attached a name to him: R. D. Griffin, a widower with the nickname Ardy. The sag of his lower lip . . . loss. He longed for his deceased wife to be waiting at home, dishing out a steaming plate of those special scrambled eggs she used to make. The standard poodle he'd rescued from a shelter waited at home by the front door. Ardy be home soon. Yellowed newspaper articles about his crimes sat in an open scrapbook on the kitchen table. Another life, a former life, before entering the Witness Protection Program. Too quiet to go home. No passes; one more try to make it right.

After another unsuccessful attempt to push the handles, Ardy returned his hands to his lap, convinced he was weak. But he was far from weak, just worn out. No one was left in his life to impress with heroic feats, no one who cared that he'd been something special back in the day. Living large and long had carried painful disadvantages without his wife. No phone calls from his buddies to transform painful memories into celebrated escapades. Now, Ardy was getting ready to pull the hardest job of his life, armed only with hope. He didn't fear the reaper; Ardy only wished to not die alone and that someone would love his dog as much as he did.

The old man pushed. This time the handles inched forward. My own arms tightened as I stretched my hope to him from fifteen feet away. Success! I blew out a breath. I hadn't realized I'd been holding it.

Ardy slid off the seat and lumbered away from the machine, disappearing and emerging as he passed behind the row of windows to the front door. That was it. All he could do. 

Photo: Photostock-
FreeDigitalPhotos.net

His story became mine, awarding me with the ability to transform this seemingly ordinary man into a character. Real to me. He became the elderly character of R. D. Griffin in my latest novel, The Executrix.

I re-started the elliptical machine and zeroed in on Ponytail Girl. 

So, what’s her story?

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Oregon with her husband of thirty-six years and bossy cat. She enjoys writing for baby boomers. Her novels are filled with heart, humor, and mystery. At least one trickster animal steals the show. For the past three years, Courtney has studied craft and storytelling with best-selling author Jennifer Lauck at the Attic Institute and has completed the Hawthorne Fellows Program for writing and publishing. 

Colorful characters come alive in Courtney's latest novel, The Executrix. When three middle-aged sisters come together after the death of their mother, the manuscript they find in the safe will test the thickness of sibling blood. Mom story becomes larger in death than in life. But it is the elderly neighbor and his dog, Pogo, who just might inspire the story that will change the sisters' future. 

Visit Courtney's website at www.courtney-pierce.com. Her books can be purchased at Windtree Press, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo Books, and at several independent bookstores in the Portland area.