Romance Women's Fiction Literary Fiction Biographies & Memoirs BIOGRAPHY
Kirsten Pursell is an American author. The Scarlet D is her fifth novel. Her fourth book, Long Enough to Love You, earned numerous awards in women’s fiction, divorce fiction and romance. Previous works include her memoir, On Becoming Me: Memoir of an 80’s Teenager, and two additional novels: Harvard and Company Clown.
Outside of writing, she is an avid swimmer who enjoys training and competing in open water and pool events near and far. She is fluent in German, loves to channel her inner mermaid through SCUBA adventures, and will travel just about anywhere given the opportunity. Time with her now adult children is her favorite (a nonfat latte a strong second). She lives in the San Diego beach community of Ocean Beach.
Pursuing my passion for writing now that the nest is empty, the kids are grown and flown, and I can be whatever the next version of me is that I want!
The longer story...
Once upon a time in college I had a professor ask us to describe who we were. My answer was simple: I am me. People thought it strange that I didn't identify as student, athlete, daughter, psycho, confused, etc. To be honest, by the time I had gotten to college I had been through enough to know that the only thing I was ever going to truly be was me in all its iterations. Most days, I am happy as can be with the me I am. Meet me, you'll understand.
About me the writer: First and foremost, I love to write. I realize that love of writing does not a writer make. While I have written a screenplay, several books, and dabbled in blogging as the mood strikes, I have gone the safe route and self-published my books because most of us would say we write for ourselves not for the potential fame, glory, and windfall of cash that a lucrative publishing deal or Hollywood rights might provide. But I have been getting strong feedback beyond my tried-and-true following of readers making me realize my writing should be shared with a broader audience than my limited social media following. (I believe we can't take ourselves too seriously and having the ability to poke fun at ourselves is paramount to survival!)
While the bulk of my actual career was spent doing consumer related marketing, I have, however, spent the last couple of decades managing and carefully crafting the successful launch of my three now grown and flown children into the world. Yes, I left corporate America for the much less glamorous world of childrearing. My expertise broadened to include logistics, multi-tasking, coaching, encouraging, strategizing across multiple spectrums and personalities, while all the while encouraging them to be their own people. Mission accomplished. Now what? Reinvent myself or just dig deep into what I love to do? Or quite possibly some combination? That is the objective! No more excuses for not putting my works out there.
All my writing has strong female characters. My screenplay, Allegiance, is about a woman determined to find her former lover in war-torn Sarajevo. It is a love story between woman, man, and country.
The three novels I have written have varied strongly in theme. My first novel, Harvard, is a contemporary romance told in alternating narrative: her voice and his voice. (There is some irony to Harvard in that my daughter will graduate from there in 2022, over ten years after I initially wrote the book!) The second novel, Company Clown: The rise and fall of a corporate icon, is a contemporary fiction book taking a not so glamourous, tongue-in-cheek look at the world of advertising (Some of the characters inspired by real-life people I met working in the industry). And my most recent novel is my memoir entitled On Becoming Me: Memoir of an 80’s Teenager. It is not how I remember those times but my words as I wrote them in journals, diaries, poetry, and letters. (Think Go Ask Alice but with current reflective narrative mixed in.) I was a competitive athlete who endured injuries that forced me to quit at sixteen. I had no idea who I was without the sport that defined me and the struggle to find my place very real and relatable on so many levels today. The underlying themes of teenage angst, joys, fears, discoveries, heartache, and growth transcend time. Plus, it was the 80's, undeniably one of the most iconic decades ever.
I am a happy, upbeat, glass half-full kind of person. I think age is just a number and will not go down without a fight. I love to tell stories and believe mine are different enough to set them apart in a cluttered world of storytellers. I am the kind of person you take a chance on because I work my ass off to deliver the best product with memorable characters and storylines (the handful of reviews on Amazon will tell you as much!). |
