Author. Soul Mechanic. Someone who has done this work from the inside.
There are people who write about transformation because they’ve studied it. And there are people who write about it because they’ve lived it — because they had no other choice, because the alternative was not surviving.
Nancy Boyd is the second kind.
The Story
I’ve been declared dead three times.
Not metaphorically. Three times, clinical death. Three times, something sent me back.
I spent years trying to understand why — and what I was supposed to do with a life that kept insisting on continuing. The answer, it turned out, wasn’t a single revelation. It was a decades-long excavation. Of my own interior. Of what it means to be a soul navigating a human life. Of what’s actually underneath the wanting, the striving, the quiet persistent sense that something is off.
That excavation is what became the work.
I founded Bright Wings, Inc. in 1999 — not because I had it all figured out, but because I had learned enough to begin helping others navigate their own terrain. Twenty-five years later, the work has deepened into something I couldn’t have imagined at the beginning: a complete ecosystem of resources, programs, and communities for people doing serious inner work.
I’ve worked with hundreds of clients over the years. What I’ve learned from all of them is this: the people who find their way here are not broken. They are often the most self-aware, most sincere, most quietly exhausted people I’ve ever met. They’ve done the work. They just haven’t been able to get all the way to the source — and learn how to BE who they came here to be — fully, powerfully, joyfully.
That’s the work I do. That’s what all of this is for.
The Books
Writing is how I go deeper than any single conversation can take me. Every book I’ve published is an attempt to give readers the framework, the language, and the tools to do the real work — on their own terms, at their own pace, as far as they’re willing to go.
Coming Back to Yourself: A Living Truth Model for the Life You Already Know How to Live You are functioning well — and quietly disconnected from yourself. This book is for the thoughtful, self-aware person who knows something is off but can’t quite name it. Not a program to implement. A practice of returning — again and again — to what’s actually true for you.
A Living Truth: A Practice for Becoming — Despite Turbulence and Chaos — a practice for living the truth of who you are, despite everything in the way. Get your copy →
Lessons From the Edge: Taking the Wheel Before You Go Over the Cliff For moments of re-orientation. Your soul has been trying to warn you. This practical navigation guide helps you recognize the warning signs before crisis forces a reckoning — and gives you the tools to take the wheel while you still can.
The Code of the Soul: A Practical Guide to Upgrading Your Inner Operating System Fifteen practical practices for moving from ego-based to soul-based living. Not theory. Not inspiration. A working guide for people ready to upgrade how they actually operate.
Unblockable: The Last Book on Writer’s Block You’ll Ever Need Every writer gets blocked. Most advice doesn’t work because it doesn’t diagnose what’s actually causing the block. This book does. Identify your block, apply the right solution, become unblockable.
100 Fun Things to Do in Oregon: A Season-by-Season Guide to the State’s Best Adventures A different kind of guide — organized not by geography but by the emotions each experience evokes. Wonder, exhilaration, tranquility, connection. The soul of Oregon, for the reader who wants more than a tourist trail.
Healing the Wanting: The Foundation Trilogy
A comprehensive exploration of desire, dignity, and what actually nourishes us.
Healing the Wanting — Foundation Set
Signed box set of the three-book Foundation Trilogy.
The Foundation Trilogy is the heart of the Healing the Wanting series — a 15-book work in progress addressing the root causes of persistent emptiness and wanting. These three books form the essential foundation.
Book One: What You’re Really Hungry For Recognition — You can’t heal what you can’t see. This book teaches you to recognize what you’re actually dealing with before jumping to fixes that won’t stick.
Book Two: From Shame to Dignity Transformation — A complete framework for healing the core wound beneath all forms of wanting. Why grief is essential. How transformation actually happens. Six phases of the journey from shame to dignity.
Book Three: From Grasping to Gratitude Integration — Practical tools for maintaining freedom long-term. Making healing a way of life, not a project you complete.
Complete Foundation Trilogy — Amazon Signed First Edition Box Set — brightwings.com
Books 4–16 of the Healing the Wanting series are in progress.
Something New from Bright Wings Press
Learn more about the series here
For the young readers in your life — and the adults who read to them.
Meet Jerry Stinkerton — lead detective, blackberry enthusiast, and the grumpiest creature in Berryville with the biggest heart in the forest.
The Stinkerton Detective Agency Mysteries is a cozy woodland mystery series for readers aged 6–10. Each book brings a new puzzle to Berryville — a strange footprint, an unclaimed burrow, a berry patch stripped bare in the night — and one reluctant but brilliant detective who wouldn’t have it any other way.
Funny. Warm. Just mysterious enough to keep young readers turning pages past bedtime.
Book One — The Footprint Mystery — is here now!
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Book Two — The Mystery of the Midnight Burrow — is here now!
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Book Three — The Mystery of the Missing Berries— is here now!
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Book Four — The Mystery of the Uninvited Guests — is here now!
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Join the reader list and be the first to know when new books arrive — and receive Chapter One of the Footprint Mystery plus Matinka the Baker’s Famous Blackberry Crumble recipe. She doesn’t share it with just anyone.
Count Me In →
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Why I Write for Both Grown-Ups and Kids
People sometimes ask how the same author writes books about healing shame and desire —
and books about a detective agency staffed by skunks.
Fair question. Here’s the honest answer: they’re the same work.
I’ve spent over twenty years helping adults find their way back to themselves —
recognizing the patterns underneath their struggles, learning to meet hard moments
with curiosity instead of dread. The whole time, I’ve been telling people the same
thing: trust what rises from within. It knows things.
Then one night, mine decided to prove it. I went to sleep an author of books for
grown-ups and woke up with an entire children’s series sitting in my head like a
delivery left on the porch: a peaceful woodland village, a detective agency
staffed by skunks, the characters, the first mysteries — complete, uninvited, and
non-refundable. I didn’t outline Berryville. Berryville arrived.
It took a perceptive colleague to point out what my dream had actually been up to.
The Stinkerton mysteries never lecture and never frighten. They just let kids
watch characters solve problems the way I wish we all learned to: observe first,
judge slowly, ask good questions, work together, and keep your sense of humor the
whole time. Kids think they’re reading a funny mystery about skunks. They are.
They’re also quietly practicing skills that some of us pay good money to learn
at fifty. Twenty years of pattern work, and my subconscious smuggled all of it
into a bedtime story without asking me.
My adult books help grown-ups untangle life’s knots. My children’s books hand kids
the thread early. Either door leads to the same place — though I’ll admit only one
of them was built on purpose.
The Background
Bright Wings, Inc. — Founded 1999. Twenty-five years of working with individuals navigating inner crossroads, life transitions, and the quiet persistent sense that something important is being missed.
Bright Wings Press — The publishing arm of Bright Wings, Inc., established to create the resources that didn’t fit neatly into any existing category. Not self-help. Not spiritual guidance. Soul navigation manuals. Learn more →
Soul Mastery Dispatch — Nancy’s Substack publication. Writing, perspective, and occasional offerings for people doing serious inner work. Read and subscribe →
The Bright Wings Transformational Show — Video conversations and teachings on conscious navigation. Watch on YouTube →
Work with Nancy
Nancy’s work is available in multiple forms — from self-directed books and programs to live group experiences to ongoing community support. The right entry point depends on where you are and what you’re ready for.
Browse the Soul Mechanic’s Garage → The complete menu of available resources, programs, and offerings.
Take the free Soul Type Assessment → Not sure where to start? This free 10-minute assessment identifies your unique navigation style and helps clarify your best next step.
Book a conversation → For those who want to talk directly about where they are and what might help.
Meet the Soul Mechanic → The work, the approach, and the ecosystem Nancy has been building for twenty-five years.
Stay Connected
The Soul Mastery Dispatch arrives when there’s something real to say — writing, perspective, and occasional offerings for people doing serious inner work. No noise. No pressure. Easy to leave whenever you like.
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