We also have another occasion to celebrate today. You've dropped by during our 200th post. So, you get to join us in the celebration, Nancy! How exciting! :)
Can you tell us a little bit about your latest book? When did it come out? Where can we get it?
My short fiction collection, Traveling Left of Center and Other Stories, was
released in September 2014 by Pixel Hall Press. It’s available in both trade
paperback and e-book format through all major bookstores: chains, indies and
online through Amazon and the Apple Bookstore.
Is there anything that
prompted your latest book? Something that inspired you?
Like so much of my fiction, the
origins tend to be somewhat cloudy, since often the trigger for a story occurs
way before the story itself comes to fruition. But the overall theme—people who
have difficulty making the right choices or even knowing what choices are
available to them—is one that has intrigued me for a long time. We tend to
believe that we would always make the right choice, the wise choice, the
intelligent choice. But that is from the vantage point of not being in the
middle of a disastrous, overwhelming situation. Sometimes, clarity comes only
after we have selected Option A. Then we realize that Option B would have been
better. The good thing is that there are always more options, more choices,
more opportunities to get it right.
That's true. I am fascinated with the human condition as well.
So, when did you know you wanted to write? Or has it always been a pastime of yours?
I have always written—well, at least
since second grade!—and before I wrote I made things up. Playing “let’s
pretend” with my childhood friend Danny was great training for being a fiction
writer. In a sense, I still play a version of “let’s pretend” when I
write—although now I follow my characters and go where they take me.
Do you have any favorite authors?
So many: Agatha Christie, Mark Helprin, Isaac
Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Shirley Jackson, Enid Blyton, Jules Verne… And then there
are books that I keep by my bedside because they inspire me as a writer: The
Writer on Her Work (edited by Janet Sternburg), Silences (by Tillie
Olsen), Writing a Woman’s Life (by Carolyn Heilbrun), Negotiating
with the Dead (by Margaret Atwood), Making a Literary Life: Advice for
Writers and Other Dreamers (by Caroline See). There are lots more but
that’s a good start!
Oh, certainly some titles there to add to my Wishlist!
So, do you write in a specific place? Time of day?
So, do you write in a specific place? Time of day?
I try to do my fiction first thing
in the morning, before I get caught up with client projects. (I am a writer by
profession, and handle a variety of corporate writing projects as well as write
magazine articles.) If I can do 30 minutes of fiction, that’s a good day.
Anything after that is a bonus.
Are there any words you'd like to impart to fellow writers? Any advice?
Care about what you write. Don’t write because that is what the
market expects. Write what is real to you, what moves you, frightens
you, confuses you, brings you joy or sorrow or possibly both. Use writing to
uncover, discover, let go and set free.
And, even if it takes a long time to
have a piece or project accepted, don’t lose heart. Writing should be the
primary goal. If your work is good and you continue to develop your skills, you
will find a way to bring your work to light and find an audience who appreciates
and enjoys the story.
I agree. Thank you for stopping by to visit us today and celebrating our 200th post with us, Nancy! :)
Readers, here is the blurb for Traveling Left of Center and Other Stories.
TRAVELING LEFT OF
CENTER
There are some people who, whether by accident or design,
find themselves traveling left of center. Unable or unwilling to seize control
over their lives, they allow fate to dictate the path they take—often with
disastrous results.
TRAVELING LEFT OF CENTER details characters in life
situations for which they are emotionally or mentally unprepared. Their methods
of coping range from the passive (“The Healer”) and the aggressive (“The
Clock”) to the humorous (“Traveling Left of Center”) and hopeful (“Skating on
Thin Ice”).
The eighteen stories in TRAVELING LEFT OF CENTER depict
those types of situations, from the close calls to the disastrous. Not all the
stories have happy endings—like life, sometimes things work out and sometimes
they don’t.
In these stories, the characters’ choices—or non-choices—are
their own. But the outcomes may not be what they anticipated or desired. Will
they have time to correct their course or will they crash?
The Stories
ALICE IN WONDERLAND—Alice is constrained by circumstances
and unwanted obligations to live an unfulfilling life. Books are her only way
to escape, serving as sustenance to feed her starving soul. But what will she
do when there are no more pages left to devour?
ANNABELLE—A lonely young woman, all Annabelle wants is to
love and be loved. But she’s fighting by the twin emotions of fear and guilt,
unable to let go of the past and embrace the possibilities of a future. (Catch an audio clip here.)
ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN—Sometimes, what one fears most comes to
pass because of those fears. If Charlotte hadn’t been so afraid, would the
outcome have been the same?
BEAUTIFUL DREAMER—For Eleanor, it was becoming increasingly
more difficult to tell the difference between being awake and dreaming, reality
and fantasy. The boundaries were blurring. Would she be able to see clearly
again?
EXIT ROW—He wanted an escape. After all these years, he was
ready to go. But could he get away before it was too late?
MISCONNECTIONS—Anna’s recurrent dreams echo through her day,
as she attempts to reconcile her inexplicable feelings of loss with what would
appear to be a “perfect life.”
OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND—Despite being more than three
steps over the mental health line, he’s holding fast to his belief in his own
sanity. Or is the rest of the world crazy?
SKATING ON THIN ICE—Is it possible to overcome childhood
trauma? And, even if you do, are you ever really “cured” or simply skating on
thin ice, waiting for it to crack? Sarah is trying to skate across the thin
ice. Every day, she makes a new path on the surface of her life. So far, the
ice has held.
STILL LIFE—Mirror images of her life: how she wants it to be
and how it is. Which one would be her true reality—and does she even have a
choice?
THE CLOCK—Everyone has a breaking point. For Harold, it came
one fateful evening when the clock once again stopped ticking.
THE HEALER—Cassie didn’t ask for the gift. She didn’t want
the gift. For all the good it had done other people, it was killing her. All
she wanted was her own healing.
THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS—Mona was relying on the kindness
of strangers to rescue her. One stranger, in particular. However, thanks to the
interference of others, her plans keep going awry. But she’s not giving up yet.
THE SHOP ON THE SQUARE—His attitude of superiority had
gotten him quite far in life. Until a chance stop at a small Mexican town
illustrated that he had much to learn.
THE STORYTELLER—Connie makes up her stories as much for the
children’s sake as her own. But even her stories can’t stop the pain of reality
from hurting her listeners—or herself.
THE SUGAR BOWL—Although Chloe’s life story changes with
every listener, each time her tale has achieved its intended purpose. Until she
chooses the wrong person to tell it to.
TRAVELING LEFT OF CENTER—Her mama was forever telling her
that, on the highway of life, she was always traveling left of center. She
wasn’t a bad girl, mind you—just incapable of looking down the road and seeing
where her actions are taking her.
WAITING FOR SARA—Her daughter Sara is gone, and while it was
by her own choice, it was a decision ill-conceived and poorly executed. And so
Sara’s mother waits, alone and fearful, hoping against hope that someday her
daughter will return, safe and unharmed.
WATCHING FOR BILLY—Agnes was all alone until Billy came to
stay. Would he bring new purpose to her life? Or take what little hope she had
for companionship?
RETAILER LINKS
Here is an excerpt from the book.
Annabelle
“My father was a painter,”
Annabelle had said—was it at the second session or the
third?—“and my mother would pose
for him.”
Annabelle remembered watching her
father paint in the cold, clear light filtering into his studio. He used canvas
and oils the way God had used clay, creating life from inanimate objects. The
walls of the house were hung with his paintings—those his agent could not
convince him to release—and everywhere Annabelle looked, her mother’s dark eyes
would follow her, glowing on the canvas.
Sometimes, after a long session
in the studio, her mother would be pale and weak,
barely able to stand, so
colorless that one would think her a ghost. The portraits, by contrast, were
pulsing with life. Annabelle had feared that her father was drawing the very lifeblood
from her mother, leaving behind an empty shell.
And yet, her mother gloried in
the attention, willingly changing herself into any figure her husband desired,
just to be able to stand there, caught by his passion, while he painted.
His work sold quite well in
galleries across the country, but even if it had not, her
father would have continued to
paint, and her mother to pose.
And Annabelle-the-child would be standing,
somewhere just outside their line of
sight, watching. And waiting.
“Did your father never paint you,
Anna?” Jules’ question was spoken so softly in the
darkened room that it almost
seemed the words originated in Annabelle’s mind, and she answered them just to
hear her own voice echoing in the darkness.
Annabelle blushed, an ugly red
stain against her pale skin. “He did not paint children,” she answered
hesitantly, not adding that once she had asked—begged!—her father to paint her.
She had been young, five or six,
and perhaps a little jealous of the attention given her mother during those
endless sessions in the studio. Just once, she wanted her father to look at her
with the intensity he reserved for his wife—to fix her so clearly on the canvas
that there was no possibility of her ceasing to exist.
The promises she had made—‟I
won’t move! I won’t even breathe if you would just
paint me!”—were all in vain. Her
father had looked at her absently, his brush suspended in mid-stroke, and
Annabelle realized in that moment that he wasn’t at all certain who she was or
why she was there in his studio.
Her mother, with gentle,
insistent fingers, had urged her reluctant daughter from
the room, promising “another
time, darling. You’re too young to be a model for your father’s art. He needs
someone a little older, more knowledgeable. You are still unformed, innocent…
too young. You must wait,” and then the door closed and Annabelle was left outside
while her mother went back to pose for her husband.
Sometimes, when Annabelle
remembered that moment, she almost hated her
mother. She had wanted her
chance, and her mother wouldn’t let her have it. Perhaps she should have argued
or cried. She didn’t want to wait. She wanted her father to see her now.
But Annabelle was a good child,
an obedient daughter. Her mother said she must
wait. Therefore, she would wait.
If not for her father, then someone else—some other man who would be drawn to
her like a moth to a candle. It would happen. Her mother had promised.
Author Bio
Nancy Christie is a professional writer, whose credits
include both fiction and non-fiction. In
addition to her fiction collection, TRAVELING LEFT OF CENTER,
and two short story e-books, ANNABELLE
and ALICE IN WONDERLAND (all
published by Pixel Hall Press), her short stories can be found in literary
publications such as Wild Violet,
EWR:
Short Stories, Hypertext,
Full of Crow, Fiction365,
Red Fez,
Wanderings, The
Chaffin Journal and Xtreme.
Author Links:
Website: www.nancychristie.com
Google+: http://gplus.to/nancychristie
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/NChristie_OH
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1048768.Nancy_Christie
Nancy's Books:
Thanks so much for having me on your blog and congratulations on your 200th post!
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure! And thanks!
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