Alumni Spotlight: Chierici on Working as a Writer
Paco Chierici (Pardee ’87) had a long and twisting path from graduating from the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University to becoming the published author of Lions of the Sky (Braveship Books, April 2019), a condensation of his dramatic experiences flying in the Navy for 20 years with a shot of fiction stirred in.
Chierici was in the Navy ROTC as a student at the Pardee School, and after graduating spent 10 years on active duty flying jets and deploying on carriers around the globe.
“I wrote as much as I could in those years but the state of the world kept us extremely busy, as it still does for those deployed,” Chierici said. “After leaving active duty I flew both commercially and in the Navy Reserves, but my schedule was much more in control.”
Chierici, enticed by the lure of Hollywood, wrote several screenplays before eventually combining his passion for naval aviation and love of storytelling to make the documentary, Speed and Angels, with fellow BU grad Peyton Wilson.
After working on the documentary for several years, Chierici returned to the type of writing he enjoyed most — fiction — and converted one of his earliest screenplays into the novel Lions of the Sky, which is being published in April 2019.
“On a macro level Lions is a condensation of my dramatic experiences flying in the Navy for twenty years with a frisson of fiction stirred in,” Chierici said. “The result is a fun, fast paced, authentic thriller about Navy pilots struggling to survive training in the F-18 then immediately being thrown into a very real, very dangerous scenario in the South China Sea.”
While Chierici says he didn’t have much time to write fiction while a student at the Pardee School, he did write — a lot. The writing skills he developed as a student still serve him to this day.
“Ton and tons of papers for extremely demanding professors. I’ve always loved creative writing but the rigors of academic writing helped forge a concise style and discipline that serves me well,” Chierici said.
Chierici said the former International Relations department — now the Pardee School — was what drove his initial interest in studying at Boston University.
“I came to Boston University because of the International Relations Department. The unrelenting tides of social and national impulses have always fascinated me,” Chierici said. “I am captivated by how the effects of economic and political movements sweep up countries and continents. And I am drawn to the individuals caught in those developments. The leaders and the pawns who guide and effect human change on a continental level, the ramifications of which leave their mark on the course of international relations for centuries.”
According to Chierici, Lawrence Martin-Bittman and Joachim Maître were two of the most influential professors he had while studying at the Pardee School.
“It was, in part, due to both these professors that I developed a deep interest in focusing on the individual’s story as they participate in wider global dramas,” Chierici said.
Chierici said his book deals with topics including sexism, blind ambition, greed and desire as well as the thrill and peril of combat — powerful, universal human conditions that interact as undercurrents against a much wider stage.
“While nations bicker over territorial rights, it is the men and women sent to represent their countries that actually feel the tip of the spear,” Chierici said. “Much like professors Bittman and Maître, my characters are swept up in the currents of international affairs. However it is their individual desires, fears, and ambitions as they are inexorably drawn towards a potential conflict with global ramifications which gives the story the compelling human aspect.”
Chierici also offered advice to current Pardee School students who are currently thinking about life after school, or who may be unsure of what kind of career path they want to pursue.
“It is both frustrating and liberating that first drafts, both in life and literature, often don’t meet our expectations,” Chierici said. “But you must lay them down to move forward. Eventually, perhaps by the tenth iteration, you will finally be able to express what you intended and in the style you hoped for. And you might find that you’ve written a much different story than you anticipated when you first began.”