Passion For Writing Evolves Into Novel About The Virgin Mary
Pat Pfeiffer wanted to write a novel today’s readers could relate to.
The main character would be a teen who suddenly found herself pregnant. She’d marry and became an imperfect and exhausted wife and mother. She’d struggle to pay the bills, raise her kids and make sense of a confusing world.
Her name: the Virgin Mary.
This isn’t a Kitty Kelley-type expose. Pfeiffer isn’t trying to dig up dirt on a beloved saint. Her goal is to show Mary’s human side, a side many people never think about.
“I see her as a mother whose kids are fighting and whose eldest is about to get himself killed by breaking every rule,” said the Otis Orchards writer. “She was a person like us, a woman experiencing the same things we experience today. She flubbed-up sometimes - and it was OK.”
Agents, editors and publishers told her it would never sell. She’d never make money off this idea.
“I think they were probably right,” Pfeiffer said.
Still, she spent 10 years writing “Above All Women: The Story of the Virgin Mary.” Earlier this year, she and her husband got a $17,000 loan and had it published through a Christian publishing house called WinePress Publishing.
At age 71, it’s Pfeiffer’s first novel - and she’s sold about 600 copies so far.
“I’m not going to get rich,” Pfeiffer said, “but the message is getting out.”
Pfeiffer took up writing in her early 50s, after her seven children grew up and her Valley home grew quiet. A correspondence course in writing perked her interest. She decided to attend a weeklong Christian writing conference in Portland, where she met agents, editors and other new writers. She joined Spokane Writers and got into a novel critique group.
She organized an annual three-day writing conference in Spokane, which ran from 1979 to 1989. Every writer, editor and instructor she met gave her new ideas and tips for improving her own work. Her first project was a biography of a Montana pioneer, a project she’s now turning into a novel.
Her idea for a story about Mary came while teaching a Sunday school class.
“You don’t see Mary in the Bible hardly at all,” said Pfeiffer, who became curious about the untold portions of her life. “I knew it was something I had to write.”
Pfeiffer studied the Bible for references to Mary and clues about her life. She studied the culture and history of Mary’s time.
“I tried to put myself in her place, in her culture,” Pfeiffer said.
And when necessary, she used her imagination.
Pfeiffer went on to become president of Spokane Writers. She published several articles in Christian magazines and was named writer of the year at a national Christian writers conference. She now teaches beginning fiction-writing classes through Spokane Falls Community College’s community education department.
Her students praise her for her energy and enthusiasm. She doggedly pursues her writing goals, popular or not. Perhaps that’s why she didn’t blink when publisher after publisher told her there was no market for her Virgin Mary novel.
After publishing it herself through WinePress, Pfeiffer began selling it in text form on the Internet and in book form through two distributors. It’s available at a handful of local bookstores, including Gusdorf’s Books, Auntie’s Bookstore and Christian Gift/Evangel Book Centers. She also sells it herself.
Pfeiffer gets a handful of buyers each week. She doesn’t keep exact counts because she’s too busy working on her new novel.
It’s based on the life of another great woman: one of Pfeiffer’s ancestors.
“She was the family mystery,” Pfeiffer said. “She escaped the French Revolution without losing her head.”
It’s a story about love and survival - and of the struggles of starting over.
Pfeiffer thinks today’s readers will be able to relate.
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