Is Change Good or Bad?

 By Courtney Pierce

I’m always amazed by people who forge kindergarten friendships that last into retirement. Kids who grow up together share all those important rites of passage: first kisses, proms, graduations, first cars, marriage, kids, careers, upsizing, and finally downsizing. Life-long relationships provide a buffer of comradery to weather the emotional effects of change.

I had a different experience. 

Change was my friend. Every four or five years, our family moved to a different state in order to support my father’s career. I didn’t progress through elementary, junior high, and high school with the same set of friends. In fact, my family moved from New Jersey to California at the conclusion of my junior year. I didn’t even flinch about spending my senior year in a new high school located over three thousand miles away. I was excited about it.

There were upsides to all my early life changes. Every move allowed me to reinvent myself. The "new me” became quite comfortable with going in cold to meet people. After all, no change would last forever and held no long-term risk. My new friends had no pre-conceived notions about who I was. They never saw me in my kid years with goofy pigtails, zits, white go-go boots, or bad sixties hippie fashion.

My long career in the Broadway entertainment industry fanned the flame of change. Every two or three years, the company would go through a restructure, a merger, or an acquisition. New responsibilities, new people, new processes, and a new title graced the freshly printed stationery and business cards. I was transferred to Minneapolis for four years, and then transferred to Houston. Wow! I felt like a polar bear in a hot tub after that move. I welcomed all of it with open arms, but many of the staff had emotional difficulties with the transitions. Some people's comfort zones require everything to remain predictable and routine.

So much change had a downside too. Forging long-term friendships became quite difficult. I would engage people with limited access to the layers of me. Going deeper required an investment in longevity. Hence, I was equally comfortable being a loner or part of a group—two different sides. And when it came time to move again, the physical and emotional distance dissipated ties over time.

The protective bubble I’d perfected is now coming in handy, or maybe backfiring as the case may be. My husband and I are old enough now to be losing people from our lives, not emotionally but physically. Our elder family members are all in their eighties and nineties. Being from a small town, my husband is one of those with life-long friends, a few recently lost or battling illness. Just this past week, I lost my aunt at the age of 88. My uncle at 93 is in the process of giving up. The dominoes of change are falling in a different direction. How will it feel for us baby boomers to become orphans? Jeff and I long ago lost our fathers, but the tethers remain tight to our mothers. We both get a bit jumpy when the phone rings late at night.

The only thing we can control is our state of mind. No better example of this is the recent transformation of my Mom (the great fictional Ellen Dushane of the The Dushane Sisters Trilogy) at the ripe age of 87. After a six month wait, she got a new start when I flew to Oregon to help her acquire a companion--a Maine Coon kitten. 

This kitten, named Sally, has rendered my Mom twenty years younger. She laughs endlessly about Sally’s antics and no longer complains about the lack of geriatric healthcare (she’s right about that!). Mom’s aches, pains, and complaints have magically disappeared. I think it’s because she’s getting to be a Mom again, even if it’s to mother a kitten who's tearing her pristine house apart. My heart soars at the lilt in her voice.

I'm convinced that emotions play a major role in our physical health.

Now that my husband and I are settled in for our retirement in Montana, I need to recalibrate my thirst for change. I'm done with relocating. Now I have a long list of house projects: writing, the garden, landscaping, new inside paint, and divesting of “stuff” for others to appreciate. How many flower vases does one really need? I must have fifteen and use only the same three.

While I work through my to-do list, a new book is emerging. Current world events have allowed me to incorporate deeper spiritual meaning into Big Sky Talk. The real-life battle of good versus evil is taking place throughout the world, and the outcome by year's end will affect stories for the next hundred years. Massive changes are in store for our planet, which will inspire us to look back at history with new eyes. Who knew all those ground-breaking sci-fi, fantasy, and espionage movies over the past fifty years held so much truth?

It's time to re-watch a few classics with fresh popcorn: Contact, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Signs, The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, Conspiracy Theory, and Independence Day. Oh . . . we can't forget The Manchurian Candidate, Soylent Green, Fahrenheit 451, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Hmmm...in War of the Worlds, our natural human immunity becomes the greatest weapon against the Martian invaders. H.G. Wells first serialized that story in 1897. What did he know that we didn't?

If that's not enough change for a junkie like me, then I can always tootle down to the bank and turn in our giant Tupperware tub of change.

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.

TRANSITIONS by Kathy Coatney

         Thank you Sarah and Judith for having me on Romancing the Genres.  Some of you may remember my past blogs were written as Kate Curran. 

Before

I am making several transitions as a writer this year. First is the name change. The reason I chose to use a pen name was because I also write children’s nonfiction picture books under Kathy Coatney. It made sense in 2014 when I released my first romance to take a pen name. 

What I have discovered in the four years since that first release is that it is double the work to have two names because I have to market both names. So I decided in November of 2017 to go to just one name Kathy Coatney with the idea being it will streamline all my marketing and give me more time to write. This HAS NOT been the case to date, but I believe it will be shortly.

So, to make a long story short, instead of seeing Kate Curran for my contemporary romances, you will now be seeing Kathy Coatney. It will be the same fiction, just under a different name. And if you’ve liked my Facebook page, you’ll see it listed under Kathy Coatney as well. So that’s the explanation about the new name. 

After

Next up—exciting news about the new year. I will be releasing a full series in January, February, and March. This is another transition I’m making as a writer since book two has been finished for several months. Instead of releasing it immediately, I decided to finish book three and release them back-to-back to give readers the opportunity to read them immediately rather than wait six months in between each book.

Granted this makes for a long stretch between releases since I can only get out two books a year with working fulltime as a photojournalist, but I’m hoping readers will enjoy having a full series ready and waiting for them. Only time will tell.

 On to the new series. The Falling In Love series are love stories told in reverse all set in the small town of Paradise Falls, Idaho. Book One, Falling In Love…Again is the story of Clare and Ethan Burke. The couple carved out a life in Paradise Falls, Idaho. While Clare built a career as an outdoor photographer, Ethan taught eighth-grade. They raised three children and had a happily-ever-after life until tragedy struck, and they lost their teenage daughter in a boating accident.

 Two years later, Clare and Ethan still love each other, but their grief has pushed them to the brink of divorce. When Clare leaves for a photo shoot into the mountains and doesn’t return, what really matters becomes clear. And with a blizzard looming, Ethan must move heaven and earth to find her. 

On sale now!

read an excerpt

Book Two,  Falling in Love With You, is the story of three best friends from childhood, Jon Sullivan, Abby O’Hara, and Noah Murphy. They built a friendship that survived the test of time—through childhood, marriage and loss. 

Noah always loved Abby, but Abby only had eyes for Jon—except Jon never loved her. Then Jon is diagnosed with ALS, and Abby convinces Jon her love is strong enough for both of them. After fifteen years of marriage, Abby discovers her love for Jon was only infatuation. Noah always owned her heart. Jon’s final request to Noah—"Confess to Abby that you’ve always loved her and give her the life she was meant to have."

But before Noah can profess his love, disaster strikes, and Noah fears he will never get the chance to fulfill his promise to Jon. 

Available on 2/2/2018

Order here for Amazon

Order here for all other stores

Read an excerpt

Book Three, Falling in Love for the First Time, is about the boy next door. Maggie Murphy is Noah’s sister from book two and she falls in love with the boy next door, Daniel Gregorio, a medic in the military. Maggie is a nurse at the World Health Center. They fall in love, marry and have a picture-perfect life until Daniel’s brother dies, his PTSD intensifies and their marriage collapses.

Available on March 2, 2018

All through January I will be sharing excerpts and having special offers on Book One.  I will be posting in my Facebook group, Kathy Coatney's The Beauty Bowl and in my newsletter. Come join my Facebook group and sign up for my newsletter to keep up with what’s new and help me ring in 2018 with the Falling in Love series!  ~ Kathy

My Life-Changing Event - A BIG one!

By Courtney Pierce

A number of cathartic events have happened in my fifty-seven years, most of which changed me for the good. The bad ones tend to fuel my sense of humor. Those juicy, truthful moments come out in my books. I write colorful stories with themes of getting older and growing young with wisdom: marriage, losing parents, aging siblings who act like kids, menopause, and dealing with all the stuff we collect over the years. My characters make crazy-bad choices for the right reasons, and they also make the right choices with questionable intent. The ridiculous truth ends up being funny because of the way my characters react to serious situations. I’ve reconciled so much of life through their antics.

Now I’m going to get personal, deeply personal for my readers and RTG audience. No funny pictures. Only truth.

I did get hit with a life-changing frying pan this summer―a heavy iron one. The hurt is fresh, so bear with me. My heart aches as I mow the lawn, take out the garbage, and separate the recycling. When I heard the dreaded words from my husband of thirty-seven years, “I never wanted you to find out,” panic and disbelief steamrolled over me. No air to breathe. In slow motion, the long-standing vows I treasured―counted on―shattered like the free-fall of Steuben-blown crystal. Our respected relationship, held on a pedestal by family and friends, toppled in eight short weeks from discovery to divorce. I did find out about another woman, in more detail than I could handle.

A wife knows every nuance of her husband’s behavior after decades of marriage. We wives are like cats that go on alert when the furniture is moved. We puff up. Little white lies are deflected to keep the peace. We swallow to assess and process. Denial sets in with the fear that something solid has become liquid and unstable. Then a mission starts to form after finding a Viagra pill in the lint screen of the dryer. That pill in his pocket wasn't meant for me. A new emotion takes over―an obsessive hunt for who barged in and redecorated my life without my permission. I confronted; he denied. It was me. Paranoid. He had to work through whatever he was going through. I wrote about obsession to find truth through my character of Olivia Novak in The Executrix, Indigo Lake, and the upcoming Indigo Legacy. Confession―she’s fictional me in marriage counseling, working through my husband’s mid-life crisis. The therapist spotted his dishonesty before I did.

A drastic change in behavior told me everything: the avoidance of my gaze, the lack of two-way conversation, the abandonment every Saturday for a whole day of errands―and the compulsive texting on his phone. I'd never violated his privacy before, but I had to know because I have an over-active imagination. The screen illuminated with the confirmation of my worst fear. The back-and-forth words “I love you” in virtual print rang hollow. They were texted to someone else, and texted back by someone else to him. My head went in a different direction than my body as I wanted to retch in the sink. A whirl of thoughts circled the assets of loved ones in my life: his family, my family, close friends, colleagues, and our cat. Our fifteen-year-old sweet calico would be divorced too, through no fault of hers.

Women boomers can get stuck between the chauvinist expectations of the ’50s and the live-in-the-moment, free-spirited enlightenment of the ’60s. Strong, accomplished women can become a threat to some men’s fantasies of being singularly adored, a need to be greeted at the door with a cocktail and a kiss after their wives kick butt all day. This will be a cornerstone of my future standalone novel, titled Unfair Ratios. Write from the heart. Fix it in fiction. Drag the needle over “The Girl from Ipanema” spinning on the turntable.

I’ve found this relationship shift to be an epidemic among boomers with long-standing marriages of unbroken trust, for both men and women. Many boomers want to redecorate their lives when they face their mortality. It can happen with the offer for a senior discount, the development of an illness, or an increase in the amount of hair in the shower drain, never mind that deadline reminder to sign up for Medicare. Those immortal rock stars, once rock-solid, begin to die. We listen to their hits and dance in the kitchen to not let go. Suddenly the old concert ticket stubs and high school yearbooks make an appearance to prompt searches to connect on Facebook. The folk music reunion specials on PBS make us pine for those special moments of youth―but they look different, sound different. Not quite the same. A betrayal of expectations that grown-up life would hold all those same feelings.

There are scores of us discarded wives who count ourselves among the Gray Betrayed. But no one will ever see my gray. No way. I’m still that tow-headed blond girl, married at twenty, who grew up. I’m going to be smokin' hot in life’s third act, me and my Post-menopausal Zing (a real syndrome worth Googling). A new author photo is forthcoming. Post-marriage-me will be better, a free-me reaching for my unrealized potential.

But how does one unlove someone after nearly four decades? Darned if I know. There are no tears left to shed. I’m on a day-by-day self-discovery of my identity as one, not two. All I know is that life is too short to settle for mediocre. Start with new bedding and a re-paint of the bedroom. No shoes in the house. Rearrange the furniture and art on the walls. Change the smoke detector batteries. Make it mine, and mine alone. 

And then there’s that prod of Zing I mentioned, an insatiable urge for intimacy. It happens to women in their upper fifties who’ve never had children. I don’t know how to date. I don’t want to catch a disease. I can’t even think about a relationship with any semblance of trust. I'm assured that when I least expect it the trust will spark with someone wired like me. But I do have one unattached man in my life. He lives in my nightstand. My doctor―God love him―recommended this extra-curricular activity to relieve the stress. He said it’s perfectly healthy. Okay . . . I’m a good student. I love me as I pay the bills and swagger around like Slim Pickins searching for his horse. An itch I can't scratch.

My Mom and two sisters have been amazing, just as I captured them in the Dushane Sisters Trilogy. They rallied to protect the injured middle cub, and I treasure them for it. I certainly wrote truth in the series, but I didn’t know how real their arms would become.

There you have it. My life-changing event. Am I angry? You bet. But my new path is illuminated with the bright lights. I’m taking the high road, the only road I know that's not fraught with danger. I'm going to be a hitchhiker on that road to what life has to offer. Route 66 is pretty barren of predators these days. 

And like my cat, I’ll land on my feet―better, stronger, and independent. A tougher writer too. Time to double-down. The other side holds the promise that my life isn’t falling apart, but that the pieces are finally coming together. Sage words from my massage therapist. It’s all going into my writing, and the pain will be tragically hilarious. That’s how I deal with tragic things. Stay tuned.

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Milwaukie, Oregon. 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. 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, She Writes, and Sisters in Crime. 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 at  Amazon.com and through most major online book retailers

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 early 2017. 

Transitioning Time

     Fall is a time for transition.  With the fall equinox comes shorter days.  I welcome this time of year and I’ll tell you why.

One of the pumpkins we grew this year.

     The garden starts turning brown and the last of the harvest is canned or frozen.  No more watering, weeding or picking.  Yea!  Pumpkins are turning orange and getting ready for their Halloween debut, on one of my very favorite holidays.  Yea!  With hoe and shovel the garden is turned over and left to rest till spring.  No more garden maintenance. Yea!
   
     I see fewer birds in the garden since most are heading south for the winter.  A few stick around because my hubby feeds them.  We do get to enjoy some wild life, and actually we see more varieties in the winter, quail, doves and other birds.  The deer come up to the fence looking to nab some sunflower seeds too.  We often find their tracks in the mud or snow.

     As a writer, I enjoy the fall and winter months. This is my time for getting back to the business of writing.  I can see out my office window and enjoy the change of color in the trees, the rain and eventually the snow.  Cold, short days keep me at the computer and in my chair.  What’s better than a cup of hot tea, a bulky, warm sweater and a juicy work in progress?

I also find I read a lot more in the winter.  When it is cold outside and the rain is pouring, I flip on the gas fireplace; grab an afghan, hot chocolate or tea, and a good book.  And just relax for an afternoon or evening.

Fall and winter are refreshing times for me both as a writer and a reader.  Added bonus, the holidays are right around the corner.  Yea!

    Do you read more in the summer or winter, or does it make a difference?

Transitions and Birthdays



Judith Ashley

With nothing coming to mind, I asked my granddaughter what ideas she had for my September post. She suggested I write about living with a teenager. I went to bed with that thought in mind and woke with another idea that includes living with a teenager.

Marking the Seasons/Transitions is the suggested topic for this month. When I woke, what was on my mind was Birthdays. And, this summer was full of special birthdays.

June: My youngest granddaughter’s birth month. Her 16th! It seemed to me that every day of the month we did something related to her birthday. Preparations included a mani/pedi, hair trimmed, and a massage. On her special day she had a professional photo shoot and included several of her friends; pizza party and sleepover. The next morning was breakfast out. Then Sunday was a combination birthday and Father’s Day BBQ with 30 people spending time with her including people she hadn’t seen in 10 years! Before the month was over, we had dinner at The Olive Garden, one of her favorite restaurants.

My aunt and cousin

July: My maternal aunt’s 103^rd birthday celebration was enough of an incentive to get me on a plane to Long Beach, CA. I spent 3 days with family – most of one day with my aunt. We reminisced about the past and talked of the present. Her philosophy is to take one day at a time. She and another friend of mine who reached 100 years of age have a similar life philosophy…they don’t stress out about things over which they have no control and they are good at discerning what’s what.

Best Friend

August: My aunt’s daughter i.e. my cousin and two best friends celebrate birthdays this month. I was able to pre-celebrate my cousin’s day with dinner out and then a ‘happy birthday’ call on The Day. I was called in to work unexpected on one of my friend’s birthday so spaced that off. She got a long, apologetic email from me several days later. Good friend that she is and because she celebrates The Month of her birthday I was absolved of any wrong doing. Two days ago I called my other friend to wish her a Happy Birthday. As we were talking I was reminded that my previous calls with her during August were to inform her of the death of one of our colleagues. We’ve reached that stage/age in life where that is a common occurrence.

In looking at my summer, I started it with a celebration of youth and the joys and tribulations of living through the teen years and ended it with a celebration of a long (40+ year) friendship and the thought that we don’t have another 40 years ahead.

You can visit me at www.JudithAshley.blogspot.com for more about my Long Beach, California trip and family connections. And, you’ve a standing invitation to check out my website at www.JudithAshleyRomance.com

September our guests are all Western Romance Authors. If you live in North America and leave a comment with your email address, you may win Linda Lael Miller’s Big Sky Country. Don’t tell anyone but I bought a second copy and only noticed it when I pulled the book from my TBR pile – thought that other cover looked familiar! LOL

© Judith Ashley 2012

Labor Day and Transitions

I grew up on the east coast and back there, school started right after Labor Day. Since it was a holiday, Dad was home and that meant we got the grill fired up. It also meant one final day at the beach.  As long as the tide was in, we were at the beach. It helps that it was only two blocks away. We all trooped down to the beach safe in the knowledge that even if our mother wasn’t there, someone’s mother was always available to keep an eye on things.

September is viewed by many as a time of transitions.  It’s hard to talk about fall when it’s going to be 110 here in a few days. I’ll give it a shot.

One of my favorite things about fall was the leaves changing. Yes, we could take rides up to Vermont and New Hampshire for some fantastic views. But my favorite was tramping through the piles of red, yellow and green leaves that spilled onto the sidewalk from someone’s front yard.

 Here in Southern Arizona we do have season changes, just not as severe. It gets cold, it does snow, just usually up in the mountains. It can stay there as far as I’m concerned.  I still like the fall, the temperature goes down under 100. This makes me happy, even if there are no colorful piles of leaves to walk though.

What is your favorite thing about Labor day and how do you handle transitions?