UCI alumna Courtney Deane’s (’04 English, sociology) new novel, When Happily Ever After Fails, opens with her protagonist’s life in shambles. Abigail’s parents are dead, her love life stinks, and her career is floundering. When she’s hired to teach tragic literature to sixth graders, Abigail rewrites the endings of the stories she’s supposed to teach. Tired of being stuck in her own tragic tale, the story of her own life begins to be revised in the process. Soon, to her surprise, her life begins to resemble the fairy tales she adores.

Deane’s inspiration for the book came from her own life. Like her protagonist, she had to deal with the death of both her parents. Her father died of ALS when she was 14, and her mother passed away when she was 28. During the difficult period surrounding her mother’s death, Deane channeled her grief into creativity through writing.

“I thought if I could write to work through my grief, maybe some good will come out of it,” she says.   

Good has come out of it. Her romantic comedy novel, When Happily Ever After Fails, will be published by SparkPress on April 9^th.

Taking initiative

Deane has been a self-starter ever since she was an undergraduate at UCI. She served as a community programmer for the Middle Earth dorms, was a humanities mentor, and participated in the Humanities Internship Program. She worked as a tour guide for the School of Social Sciences, served on the editorial board of an undergraduate research journal, and received the Robin M. Williams, Jr. award for her honors thesis in sociology.

“I didn’t receive these opportunities because I was a star. I sought them out. I gained a lot of great experiences and opened a lot of doors just by asking,” Deane says.

After graduating from UCI in 2004, Deanne attended the University of Southern California and received a master’s in journalism. Since then, she’s enjoyed a fulfilling career as a freelance writer for print, digital, and broadcast media, as well as for public relations and marketing clients.

“A lot of journalism is pitching ideas and identifying trends. I attribute the fact that I can easily spot trends and spin them into interesting story angles to UCI and my background in sociology. My degree in sociology has been absolutely invaluable to my career,” she says.

Grief to growth

With life echoing fiction, Deane has shifted the genre of her life by finding her own happily ever after. Today, she has a career, husband, and daughter that she loves. The side project she turned to in a time of grief has resulted in a forthcoming book, for which she is proud. While she may have achieved her happily ever after, she’s candid about the struggles and lessons she’s learned along the way.

“I was a bit naive in thinking that since I was a professional writer and could write articles, marketing copy, and blog posts, I could also write fiction,” she says about tackling her first novel.

After a bumpy start, Deane went back to the drawing board. She studied storytelling and fiction before delving into another draft. Deane’s persistence has served her well with writing and in life.

“I focus on what I can control and give it my all,” she says. 

On a personal level, she’s found the writing process to be healing.

“In the past, I shielded myself from my emotions and insisted that I was fine, strong, and resilient. It was crucial for me to project this image of strength,” she says.

But on the page, she has been able to be more open and vulnerable with her emotions. While her heroine is a work of fiction, many of her thoughts and feelings are Deane’s own. It’s been therapeutic for Deane to feel like she doesn’t always have to project strength.

Beautifully achieved

These days Deane is busy promoting her book while simultaneously juggling a full-time job and the demands of being a mother to a two-year-old. She hopes her voice and story will resonate with readers and that she’ll connect with those who have experienced setbacks.

“Did writing this book have the catch-all, solve-everything effect that I assumed it would when I started it when I was 28?” Deane asks. “No, but I think my goal of creating something positive and beautiful was achieved. Or at least I hope so. And I hope readers agree.”

—Jill Kato for UCI School of Social Sciences