New Voices: Pearson Moore

Author Pearson Moore

Can’t Put It Down: The Essence of a Great Story

A great story is more than an interesting tale. A great story is memorable because of characters for whom we develop strong feelings of empathy, respect, or disgust. We remember Hercule Poirot and Captain Kirk because we feel kinship with them. We can never forget the Wicked Witch of the West and Darth Vader because they stir in us the deepest sense of revulsion. But even an interesting story with memorable characters will go unread if the reader cannot engage. A great story is so attractive, so engaging of the senses, that the reader cannot put it down. A great story, most of all, is well told.

As an author, my full-time preoccupation is the enlistment of your undivided attention. My single objective is to so captivate your imagination, to so immerse you in new worlds and ideas that you wish never to leave. I employ every tool in the wordsmithing shop, and if these are not enough, I make new tools and create new rules. Don’t care about incomplete sentences or real bad grammar, or even ‘bout bad spellin’. All I care about is keeping you entranced in the story. Sometimes I entice you with little extras. I write in a genre you enjoy. Or I complete years of research so my historical characters are authentic. Or I offer my story in an unusual prose style I feel more suited to sharing in the characters’ struggles.

In my first novel, “Cartier’s Ring,” I did all of these things. I wrote about a strong-willed, courageous young woman, Myeerah of Hawk Clan, who defies every social convention of her time to save herself and her family. Myeerah faces some of the worst affronts to humanity, including enslavement, beatings, and exile, yet she never loses hope. I bring in dozens of well-known historical figures to help tell her story, and I do something radical for an action-adventure historical novel: Every page of Cartier’s Ring is rendered in present tense, and Myeerah’s scenes are given in a first-person, just-like-being-there kind of style. I don’t know if “Cartier’s Ring” is a great story. Only you can make that judgment. But I can tell you that twelve years of research, including on-site work in Québec City and Saint Marie Among the Hurons (Midland, Ontario), and extensive use of primary documents informed every page of the novel that was three years in the writing. But I believe it’s the emotional depth of Myeerah's story that brings the novel to life. You will feel her pain, as she is beaten and enslaved, touch her tear-streaked face as she witnesses the ritual torture and execution of her brother, share in her joy as she overcomes deprivation and starvation, and cheer when she vanquishes her enemies.

I invite you to experience a story many are telling me is unforgettable. Myeerah of Hawk Clan awaits.

Thank you!


If you’d like to learn more, visit my website:  http://pearsonmoore.net/

If you’d like to read Cartier’s Ring all you need is a computer and FREE software  from Amazon. You do not need a Kindle device.

You may purchase Cartier’s Ring here.

LOST Identity


Direwolves and Dragons




Author Pearson Moore is author of several books and the Scribblers' New Voice this month. Please visit next Friday for another new voice in fiction.