Breaking Away from the Crowd

By Courtney Pierce

Today I have the opportunity to expand beyond my regular post as a Genre-ista to guest blog about this crazy writing biz. As I tap away on the draft of my seventh book, Big Sky Talk, I'm pleased to say that the hefty word count in my literary backpack has earned me the “write” to impart some wisdom. It's a tough business that I now take quite seriously. It didn't start out that way when I wrote my first book, Stitches.

Wisdom lesson #1: No two stories are alike, but chasing a lucrative trend means that you're too late. (As Rocky used to say to Bullwinkle, “That trick never works!”)  Since there are only seven basic story structures in all of literature (according to author Christopher Booker), a fresh take on those plots needs to be unique and loaded with personal style. An example is Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series fitting squarely within the framework of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

My first series, the Stitches Trilogy, unpacked my imagination with wild abandon. It's structure fits squarely into a "Voyage and Return". Stitches, Brushes, and Riffs became the books I desperately wanted to read and couldn’t find. These books contain everything I love: mystery, crime, heart, humor, naughty pets, and magical realism. I even re-invented ancient Egyptian history to solve the mystery of a supernatural artifact. My baby boomer characters embark on a trek to England, tracked by an FBI agent, and then I plunge them into a tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Queens to solve the mystery of immortality. I didn’t give a hoot if the series became a bestseller or not, because I was having way too much fun with the research and story composition.

While I wrote my first three books, I sharpened my craft in the Hawthorne Fellows literary program at the Attic Institute. I was inspired to make the impossible possible The most important lesson I learned, though, was to shed my fear of actually finishing the books and sending them out into the world.

Photo: Script Magazine

When I met with several literary agents about that first series, I was forced to squeeze the Stitches Trilogy into a genre box. Heck! I wasn’t Romance, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Sci-Fi, Young Adult, LBGT, Erotica, Steampunk, or Dystopian. My stories were clean, poignant, humorous, and written for the over-fifty crowd, specifically baby boomers like me. Our behavior is driven by Peter Pan Syndrome and adventure. We also have emotional shrapnel stuck under our aging skin, which even the sharpest of tweezers can't extract. I vividly remember being sixteen and turning sixty this year. The decades in between were a blur of a career and responsibility.

Wisdom lesson #2: A story without serious conflict is boring. It takes courage for an author to reduce their beloved characters to tears and push them to their limits. But redemption is oh-so-sweet when I have the power to fix it all in unexpected ways.

I didn’t feel like a bona fide writer until I started my second trilogy about the wacky Dushane Sisters: The Executrix, Indigo Lake, and Indigo Legacy. That series revealed a lot of  personal stuff, and I had to muster up the courage to dig deep within myself. The big difference from the first series was that I wrote the Dushane Sisters Trilogy with readers in mind. As a result, my humor got edgier. My story line got tighter. And the conflict got more uncomfortable. I heaped so much trouble on the three sisters that digging them out became downright hilarious.

Wisdom lesson #3: Release a reader’s imagination. Characters are best developed through what they say and do, not through their backstories or intense physical description. If a novel isn’t made up of 80% dialogue—characters talking—then the book slows to a crawl. A simple three-word comment can say much more than a whole paragraph of explanation about what’s behind it.

I must do a good job with this particular wisdom lesson, because the first book of each trilogy started out as a standalone story. My readers' insisted that I keep the characters going. So buoyed by confidence, I expanded each story to a trilogy. And I’m glad I did. Telling a story in three full-length novels—a complete beginning, middle, and end—allowed me to challenge myself and my craft. Each series became a much bigger story than what I could create in one novel of eighty-thousand words.

Wisdom lesson #4: Behind every successful novel is the author’s truth. The story and characters may be purely fictional, but readers know when the emotions and actions aren’t genuine.

This last wisdom lesson is one I’d go to the mat for. As an author, I must have a real-life reference for the emotions I project on my characters. Otherwise, their credibility—and mine—suffers, and they cease to be believable. How can I possibly know what my character feels about losing a parent if I haven’t personally experienced that devastation? I would also find it difficult to write about a character’s crumbling marriage had I not suffered through a divorce myself.

My intention with Big Sky Talk is to create a tight, intense story that engages readers and makes them think. Set in Kalispell, Montana, a ghost story unfolds among the magic of wildlife, mountains, lakes, and nature's dangers. Themes of aging, losing parents, and taking emotional risks will fill the pages. The cast includes an orphaned retiree, an about-to-retire sheriff, an injured grizzly bear . . . and a rifle. That's certainly a combo I can have fun with!

Now, it's back to work to employ my own advice. True to my words, I am a pretty good shot with a hunting rifle, have lost a parent, been alone after decades of marriage, and am about to retire. I'm planning for Big Sky Talk to be a standalone novel. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Unless my readers tell me otherwise.

Photo: Micah Brooks

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer splitting her time between Milwaukie, Oregon, and 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.

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Check out all of Courtney's books: 

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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."

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.

Shout Out for Charity

June 2015

by Courtney Pierce

As a baby boomer, I’ve maintained my idealistic view of the world and the belief that one person can initiate change for the good. It must be my combination of dogged determination and Peter Pan Syndrome. I blink, wide-eyed like a child, when we humans make bonehead moves that benefit the few and devastate the many. That makes no sense! What are we thinking?

Beneath the humorous and emotional prose in every one of my books lurks a theme of charity. Serious adult problems are met with an adolescent response and humor. My characters charge ahead, creating no end of trouble for themselves to reach a goal that benefits someone else. In my first trilogy series, Stitches, Brushes, and Riffs, a boomer couple unravels the question “What would you do today if you had the chance to be immortal at the end of natural life?” My characters make that decision over three books and – no spoilers – become inspired to make their mark on the world with a touch of magic. They accomplish their mission through what they love: art, music, and animals.

David Castillo Dominici

In my current series, The Executrix, three middle-age sisters stumble into their charitable aspirations after their mother dies. Each sister makes a mess of their benevolent path in their own way, but when they come together they’re unstoppable at honoring their mother’s memory, transforming an unruly poodle into a service dog, and helping an elderly mobster reconcile his life by writing his memoir. The fun continues in the sequel Indigo Lake, which if I can stop laughing will be out by the end of the year.

None of us wants to fade away. We want to leave something behind to say “I was here.” Through the gift of story, my goal is to make readers laugh, cry, and to whip up endorphins that inspire. Charity starts with empathy, whether for a character, a cause, or a connection to something bigger than ourselves. Then it must become tangible. For some, a donation of money or a trip to Goodwill completes the circle. For others, charity can be as simple as holding the door open for a stranger or taking a second trip around the block to search for a neighbor’s missing tabby cat.

I wrote a short story last year called The Nest for the Windree Press Christrmas anthology A Gift of Christmas, which was based on my husband’s and my deep love of animals. The inspiration for the story came from a true incident of our finding a baby owl temporarily blinded from hitting a window. While I fictionalized the tale with magical realism and characters from my Stitches series, the real process of nursing the bird back to health was magical truth. After leaving a healthy donation to the kind vets who helped us, we walked on air for weeks. The bird was finally released back into the wild with our hearts lifting its wings.

Small gestures can generate big returns.

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. 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. She is also a board member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association.

In Courtney's latest novel, The Executrix, three middle-aged sisters come together after the death of their mother, and the manuscript they find in her safe will test the thickness of sibling blood. While Mom’s prose makes her larger in death than in life, it is the elderly neighbor and his unruly standard poodle who 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.