Meet Nancy Christie, Author of Traveling Left of Center and Other Stories @NChristie_OH

I welcome Nancy Christie to my blog today. Nancy is the author of the short fiction collection, Traveling Left of Center and Other Stories, as well as two short fiction eBooks, Annabelle and Alice In Wonderland, all published by Pixel Hall Press. Her short stories have appeared in literary publications such as EWR: Short Stories, Hypertext, Full of Crow, Fiction365, Red Fez, Wanderings, The Chaffin Journal and Xtreme. Nancy is also the author of the inspirational book, The Gifts of Change, (Beyond Words/Atria).

About Traveling Left of Center
Traveling Left of Center and Other Stories details characters in life situations for which they are emotionally or mentally unprepared. Unable or unwilling to seize control over their lives, they find themselves traveling left of center, allowing fate to dictate the path they take—often with disastrous results.

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?

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The characters in the stories all seem a little (in some case, a lot!) wounded or vulnerable. What draws you to write about these types of characters?
I’m not entirely sure. It’s not like I set out to write stories about odd, eccentric or unstable people. It’s just, for some reason, I am drawn to those types of people—perhaps it’s one of those “There, but for the grace of God” things. My fiction—or at least, my short fiction—tends to be about people who are damaged in some way: by what they have done to themselves or by what was done to them, by what they have received, what they gave up, or what was taken from them. They are, for the most part, struggling to navigate through dangerous waters. Some survive and move forward toward land, some are just treading water, and some don’t even know that they have lost the battle and are, even now, drowning.

I feel sorry for those people, wish I could do something for them, and perhaps, in the writing of their stories, that is what I am doing. Because somewhere out there, there is a real person who is held in thrall by his or her obsessions, who is controlled by past or present circumstances, who wants to live a happy, normal, balanced life but finds that the tightrope of life vibrates too much and maintaining equilibrium is but a dream.

Where did the idea of the cover art for Traveling Left of Center and Other Stories come from?
From the very beginning—even before I knew it would be a book!—I had an image in mind for the book cover. The cover is a literal interpretation of each character’s metaphorical journey on the road of life. Some of them zig-zag across the center line only to pull back to the right side at the last moment, while others cross once and never make it back in time. And then, there are the few who are merrily driving right down the center, every now and then drifting first to the left and then to the right, blissfully unaware that they are courting disaster. When I shared the concept with my publisher, it took only a few tweaks before we had the “ah hah!” moment and said “This is it!” and after a few revisions, we successfully “birthed” this book cover!

Do you outline your books or wing it? Describe your process.
I don’t outline my short stories—actually, very often I am surprised by where the characters take me and how the story ends! I tend to draft my short stories in one sitting—from start to finish—and then go back and work on them over a period of days, weeks, months—sometimes even years! What I find is that, in the process of editing and revising, aspects of the characters become clear to me or events find their way into the story that weren’t there in the first, skeletal draft.

When I wrote my first novel (as yet unpublished…sigh…), I hadn’t planned on writing one. I thought I was just writing a short story that just kept growing and growing and growing! When I figured out what it was going to be, I had to go back and make all sorts of editorial notes—who did what, where were they when they did it, etc.—because after 30,000-plus words, I couldn’t remember all the details!

I was more organized with the next one. (Also still unpublished but only because I haven’t been sending it out into the cold, cruel world yet!) I created a chapter outline and background sketches of the characters. The timeline I did on-the-fly because I didn’t know what was happening ahead of time. While I know that novel-writing requires that sort of organization and planning, I had to force myself to do it because what I really wanted to do was write the story so I could find out what happened!

How much time do you spend promoting your books?
‘Way more time than I spend writing, which drives me crazy! I probably spend several hours a day on various marketing tasks, from contacting bloggers to ask if they’ll host a blog tour to posting on social media to drafting press releases, to reaching out to potential reviewers and media people. It’s a necessary evil but I wish I had someone to do it for me! Even though my publisher, Pixel Hall Press, does a lot of marketing and PR on my behalf, I still have to do my bit, which translates to a bunch. There are so many authors out there that it’s easy to be overlooked.

Please tell us your experiences with social media. What are your favorite and least favorite parts of it?
To be honest, I’m not sure I have a favorite part of it. I post as much as possible without being a nuisance but I find it hard to keep up with what everyone else is doing, even those people I follow. I prefer blogging to writing those short tweets. I do like using social media to promote the authors and writers that I interview on my writing blogs, though. I appreciate the fact that they were willing to share their thoughts on my blogs (Finding Fran, One on One, and The Writer’s Place) and I hope that my tweets and Facebook posts bring them some new readers.

Where do you do most of your writing?
I’d love to say that I write on some special paper in some special notebook using some special pen but the reality is I am a keyboard writer. I hate to transcribe and sometimes can’t even read my own notes, so I write using the computer. But most of the times, the ideas for the story come when I am far from my electronic secretary. I’m out on a run or mowing the lawn or driving along somewhere and, for no reason whatsoever, the opening lines of dialogue fill my mind and it’s off to the races! Sometimes, if it will be awhile before I can get back to the computer, I have to stop myself from going too far lest I forget all the good parts!

As to the actual space, I write in my office, although there have been times when I was traveling that I booted up my laptop between flights and drafted a story that came to me en route.

What is your latest book, in the works or just published?
My latest book is called Traveling Left of Center and Other Stories. It came out in print and eBook on September 9, and I am still in the “new mother” frame of mind! When my publisher sent me the ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) to proof, I carried it around everywhere I went, just because I was so excited by the prospect of having my fiction in print. In a nutshell—and how appropriate that is!—the characters in Traveling Left of Center and Other Stories keep going “left of center,” which puts them at risk of crashing. Some of them know what they are doing, other ones are convinced that it’s everyone else who is on the wrong side of the road, so to speak. The collection has gotten some positive and interesting reviews—everything from “complex, varying, and thoroughly imaginative” to stories with a “creepy tinge,” which the reviewer meant in a nice way!

Were you “born to write” or did you discover your passion for writing later in life?
I was always a reader—the best gift anyone could give me was a book—so I would imagine that influenced me. And as a child, my next-door neighbor Danny and I were always making up stories, acting out scenarios, creating our own worlds out in the woods. From making up stories to writing them down was a natural progression. I wrote my first short story (actually I called it a book—it even had a cover!) in second grade. There’s a lot to be said for not having all those electronic games that only require button pushing. When children are left to their own devices and have nothing but their imagination to work with, they can be very creative.

What was your “writer dream”—your goal— when you began to write? Has it changed over the years?
I don’t think I had a dream. Certainly, I never pictured myself holding a book with my name on it. Writing is such a natural part of me that I never thought about it as an occupation or a goal, any more than I would think about breathing as a profession. It was just something I did. Of course now, with two books—Traveling Left of Center and Other Stories and my non-fiction book, The Gifts of Change—in print and two short stories as e-books plus others that have been published in literary journals, I do have a dream or two. Great reviews in The New York Times. Accolades from well-known literary fiction writers. An award or two to stick somewhere on my bookshelf—next to about a dozen foreign translations of my collection!
Or maybe my accountant telling me that my royalties have pushed me into a different income bracket!

Why do you write fiction?
To understand what I see or feel or am going through. To serve as a conduit for imagined characters whose voices are as loud to me as those of real people. To play with “what if” without exposing myself to any real danger—physical, mental, emotional, psychic. To escape—but I’m not sure if it’s a case of “escaping to” or “escaping from”! To get it out to make more room for new “its”—while fearing all the time that there are no more “its” left to make room for!

For more about Nancy, visit her website and follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Stacy Juba

Stacy Juba has written sweet and sassy chick lit novels, mysteries about determined women sleuths, and entertaining books for young adults and children. Her books include the Storybook Valley chick lit series and the Hockey Rivals young adult sports novels.

Stacy is also a freelance developmental editor and online course creator. Sign up for her free masterclass, How to Create Your Editing Game Plan. 

Stop by her other websites and blogs: Shortcuts for Writers and Hockey Rivals.

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