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| Nancy Christie |
Nancy Christie is a writer whose work includes a non-fiction book, The Gifts of Change, and a short fiction e-book to be published next month, Annabelle. She hosts four blogs, and her work has appeared in a variety of magazines. She is based in the Youngstown, Ohio area.
Q: You write on your
website that in your work, you focus on the subject of change--it's even in the
title of one of your books. Why is that a topic of particular interest?
A: I suppose because change is challenging—sometimes in a good
way and sometimes in a very painful way. In real life, I have gone through a
lot of changes, some of my choosing, some not, and one of my coping mechanisms
when I am struggling with transitions is to write about it.
That is how my first book, The Gifts of Change, came about. My mother had been diagnosed with cancer at the
same time I had remarried and my daughter was expecting my first grandchild. A
lot of changes—a roller-coaster ride of changes! So I started writing journal
entries and a few years later, they came together in a book published by Beyond
Words—a book, by the way, that is out in three foreign editions! (A small brag
here…)
As for the fiction, I also tend to write about people in
various states of life evolutions. Some of them handle it well, some do not. (Side
note: I often feel absolutely terrible
about how hard they have it and wish I could fix things for them! The main
character in Annabelle, for example—my
heart just breaks for her! But my job is to tell their story, however it
progresses.)
For me, watching and writing about them often gives me
insights into my own changes and how to make the most of them, or at least,
survive them. And sometimes, writing their story affords me an escape from
whatever is worrying or troubling me in my life.
Q: As someone who writes
both fiction and non-fiction, do you prefer one type of writing to the other?
A: Fiction, fiction, always fiction. As a child, when I wasn’t
reading, I was playing let’s pretend. And once I learned how to write, I would
make up stories and then put them down on paper. (My mother actually saved one
of them! In a few more years, it might be classified as an antique…)
Writing fiction is, for me, the best way I can spend my
time, the way I feel most complete. When I am writing fiction, I know I am
doing what I am meant to do.
I have written one novel (a big surprise to me because I was
always a short story writer), and am working on two others in fits and starts.
And of course my short stories, which tend to be more literary and much darker
than my novels. I try to make time every day to work on fiction—it doesn’t
always happen but on the days that I do, I have a real sense of accomplishment
and completeness.
That being said, I do enjoy the other types of writing I do:
the “work” writing (magazine articles and corporate work), essays and the
non-fiction book project I am in the early, early stages of now. But my heart
and soul and passion has always been, and will always be, with fiction.
Q: Your work of short
fiction, Annabelle, will
be available in September as an e-book. What role do you see e-books playing
now and in years to come?
A: Well, here you
have me. I don’t even have a Kindle or iPad or Nook! I am a paper girl, I have
to admit. I love to buy books and rarely get rid of any! (Which explains why I
am getting ready to buy even more bookshelves!) I love the smell, the weight,
the feel of books.
That being said, my hope is that e-readers will make it
easier for people to read more, and anything that stimulates interest in
reading and supports writers has to be a good thing.
Interesting bit of miscellany: in Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles, one of the
characters (a Martian, of course!) reads from “a metal book with raised
hieroglyphs over which he brushed his hand, as one might play a harp. And from
the book, as his fingers stroked, a voice sang…” Perhaps that is what is ahead
for e-books—you stroke them and the author reads to you.
Q: You also are the host
of four blogs, most of which deal with writing. Do your blogs share readers, or
is each geared toward a different audience?
A: After The Gifts of Change
came out and when blogs were starting to get more popular, I knew that I needed
to start one—platform-building and all. And that led to the Make A Change blog, which
focuses on handling change, getting out of ruts and moving forward toward your
goals.
What I hadn’t anticipated was that I would get addicted to
this new way of writing. I mean, I didn’t have to pitch an idea to an editor—I
could just write what I wanted when I wanted all centered around change! Then I
started interviewing people for the blog to add their insights—it took on a life
of its own!
Then came The
Writer’s Place, a blog geared more to those who make their living or spend
their time writing. Then One
on One, because I love interviewing authors and writers, and already had a
notion for a book so figured I’d test the waters (and get to virtually “meet”
people in my industry) via the blog.
Finally, Finding
Fran, named after my first novel (still, alas, unpublished!) and devoted
just to fiction. It is probably the most personal of my blogs. I talk about
where I am at in my own projects, how and why I write fiction and of course,
about Annabelle!
I think I have gotten carried away with blogging…
Q: What are you working
on now?
A: Besides the marketing for Annabelle,
and the endless search for representation for my novel and short fiction
collection, I am doing little bits of work on the non-fiction book for and
about writers. And I’d like to get back to one of my two novels before I
totally lose track of what those characters are up to.
And then there is a short story I wrote long time ago that I
knew needed some tweaking. Going down to Florida a few months ago, I had a
conversation with my seatmate who, as it turned out, was visiting her family on
Amelia Island. And the more she told me about the place, the more I knew that
it was the exact right place for my protagonist in this story to end up at.
Strange how things come about…
Anyway, all that’s needed to finish the story is for me to
visit Amelia Island—well, first, to make a road trip in March from Ohio to
Amelia Island— I need to get the details right about the landscape, etc. since
my character makes that same drive. Uh huh. Might be a while before I get that story done!
Q: Anything else we should
know?
A: Just that I know how incredibly lucky I am that I get to do
what I most love doing — write — and to be able to do that for a living. Of
course, it’s been challenging—the life of a freelancer is not exactly a steady
influx of huge wads of cash!—but I can’t imagine doing anything else! (Which
probably explains why I have turned these few questions into a 1300-word long response!
Even my grocery lists turn out to be ridiculously long and involved!)
People
need to find something that feeds their soul and uses their gifts and then do it—maybe not full-time and maybe not
as a career, but at least enough to justify the ability they have been given.
Life is too short to not do it.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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