How a Makeup Artist Founded a Conservative Publishing House for Children’s Books

Author Carrie Pierce at a book signing event at Barnes and Noble. Sandra Peterson

Carrie Pierce has seen it all. From her time working in the movie industry as a film and special effects makeup artist, to writing health and beauty articles, to penning books for children, and setting up her own publishing house, she has found her way.

As the author of “Abby Apple Tree,” a finalist in the Eric Hoffer Award for independent publishers, and “The Tale of Tommy Tomlinson’s Tennis Shoes,” currently being pitched for a screen adaptation, Pierce recounts her “long and winding journey” to publishing the two books. “I knew I wanted to be a writer,” Pierce told The Epoch Times, “but that’s a near-impossible feat … and I didn’t know the first thing about how to go about it.”

‘The Long and Winding Journey’

Pierce always loved books, even as a young child. “When I was very, very little,” she recalled, “I would actually carry books around with me everywhere, and I loved how they felt and smelled when you opened them.” As she learned to read, she marveled at how a person could “take those little squiggles on a page and turn them into messages that mean something.” She read the classics, the entire “Little House on the Prairie” series, books by Roald Dahl, and the Nancy Drew mysteries.

As an adult in the 1980s, Pierce worked in Hollywood as a makeup and special effects artist. She worked on film and TV productions, including a couple of HBO projects. In this field, she was never far from movie and TV scripts. She could “turn written words into visual stories” through her work. When the writer’s strike shut down Hollywood, she worked on getting her esthetician license, which she still holds today.

She then turned her attention to writing health and beauty articles for midlife men and women. These articles focused on the challenges of aging—from hormonal imbalances to stress, medical conditions, and medications, and how these related to skin, hair, and nails. She was able to put her knowledge and experience to good use. Through the thousands of articles she wrote in print and online, she reached a “sizable audience,” including international readers.

As she interacted with her readers, Pierce was led down a new path. “As I started dealing more and more with grandparents,” she elaborated, “they started conveying to me their frustration about being able to find wholesome children’s literature; it was becoming more and more of a challenge. They weren’t happy with what they were finding out there to read to their grandchildren, and ... so I kind of started thinking, ‘Well, why don’t I turn my hand and heart to that and see if I can come up with something to kind of help fill that void.’ That is how that transition came about ... just from meeting many, many midlife people that were incredibly frustrated with what was being fed to their children and grandchildren.”

Pierce has observed this troubling trend herself: “Over the last several years, ... I feel like the focus has been on turning children into little adults, and ... this push to hypersexualize children is deeply disturbing.”

From there, she and another author, Sandra Morgan, formed their own publishing company, called Morgan Pierce Media & Publishing. Now Pierce could finally write and publish the kind of books she felt were needed and wanted by the grownups she met along the way.

Turning Lemons to Lemonade

Carrie Pierce (L) and Chuck Roeth. Roeth published his mother's book, "Mister Deedle's Tree House," through Morgan Pierce Media & Publishing. Carrie Pierce

In 2022, “Abby Apple Tree,” her first children’s book—and the first published by her publishing company—was released. It’s about an apple tree that grows up in an unlikely habitat. A kind, grandmotherly pine tree takes her under her bough and gives her the encouragement and support she needs.

In her second book, “The Tale of Tommy Tomlinson’s Tennis Shoes,” Pierce brought out the whimsy and fantasy to reveal Tommy’s fear of the thing that goes thump-thump in the night. This picture book is meant to address children’s fears.

When Pierce wrote her books, she was dealing with her own struggles and anxiety. She was her late mother’s caregiver, and, before that, she took care of her father, who suffered for many years from Lewy body dementia.

She brought the raw feelings she experienced into her stories—not to be depressing or negative, but to broach these realistic topics in a kid-friendly and comprehensible manner. Life isn’t always “cuddly and beautiful,” Pierce elaborated. “I realize that everybody goes through that. We experience loss, ... fear, ... and terror, and we experience whether we push forward or fall backward and not be able to believe. There are struggles inherent in all of humanity. ... It’s important to be honest with children.”

Her stories have a message of light, hope, and triumph. “There are blessings all along the way, but sometimes we have to dig a little harder to find them. ... I don’t think we prepare children in a sweet, loving way to get ready for those things, and that is something I am passionate about.”

Publishing as a Ministry

Getting a publishing house off the ground is difficult. “It has been a true labor of love; ... it has been a journey of faith. We pray constantly over every project we take on,” she said. They’ve had to be very picky with the books they publish, avoiding books with dark themes that promote violence or books that embrace witchcraft or sorcery. “It is a ministry, and we’ve had to turn many books away because they were nothing but gratuitous darkness.”

For three years, Pierce’s publishing house has released books that are of “quality writing, free of agendas.” The messages are of “light, overcoming hope, and personal empowerment.” Furthermore, Morgan Pierce Media & Publishing wants to “offer a voice to Christians and more conservative-leaning voices that are often marginalized and squelched” in mainstream traditional publishing houses. It’s  a lofty goal—a detour many independent writers are taking these days.

She hopes her efforts—and those of other independent writers and publishers—could “collectively get young ones back to the magic and sweet innocence that is supposed to be childhood.”

From a childhood love for books to her time in show business, her stint as a health and beauty writer, and the devastating loss of her parents, Pierce realized that there are no accidents in life—no matter how random events may seem. “The hand of God guides us all the time ... whether we acknowledge or recognize it. ... It guides us to where we’re supposed to be.”