Nancy Christie
Nancy Christie has been making up stories since she learned how to write, and she plans to continue as long as her fingers can work the keyboard. She’s the award-winning author of six books including Reinventing Rita, her most recent book and first novel. Nancy is the host of the Living the Writing Life podcast and founder of the annual "Celebrate Short Fiction" Day, and is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, Women's Fiction Writers Association, and the Florida Writers Association.
Facebook: @NancyChristieAuthor/
Instagram: @nancychristie_author
YouTube: Midlife Moxie Novel Series
Favorite non-reading activity?
Anything physical and outside! I spend so much time at my desk in my office that going outdoors is a welcome break. What do I do? Walking or biking (Two years ago I went for my first Harley ride and even though I was just a passenger, I count it as an activity!), mowing the grass and other yardwork (I am probably one of the few people who actually enjoys weeding!), gardening (I get ridiculously happy when I see my vegetables and herbs coming up, and if they survived the winter and returned, I am ecstatic!), and even shoveling snow (within limits, of course). There is something reassuring when I push my body to its limits. It helps counter the feeling that I am getting older—even though I know that is inevitable!
Is your go to comfort food sweet or savory? Is it something you make yourself? Does food inspire your writing?
Definitely sweet! As I write this, I have just polished off two chocolate chip cookies and am drinking a super-size chai! I love to bake, and that activity found its way into my first novel, Reinventing Rita, about a 50-year-old woman who is hit with a series of unexpected and unwelcome events that forces her to reinvent herself, and leads to her revisiting her almost-forgotten dream of becoming a professional baker. When I worked on Reinventing Rita, all my friends benefited because I had them taste-test my recipes! And now I am posting a new recipe each month on my website. My next novel, Finding Fran, also has some gastronomic components to it as well as Fran’s predilection for chocolate candy bars when the going gets tough. (Gee, I can’t imagine what inspired that…) I’ve also written short stories that food figured into. Bottom line is that I like to eat and so do my characters!
Have you ever experienced Imposter Syndrome?
Definitely with my first book, The Gifts of Change. Not only was I new to being an author—up to that point, I was a magazine writer and freelance copywriter—but I also struggled with being known for writing an inspirational/motivational book when I had neither the degree nor the training. But the book did well, in spite of my doubts. I guess being a mother who can’t resist telling everyone what to do and how to do it translated well into that genre!
When my first fiction collection, Traveling Left of Center and Other Stories, came out, I felt much more assured, I think because I had been writing short stories forever. But now with Reinventing Rita, I have had a touch of IS (Imposter Syndrome) again because it’s my first novel—and the first of anything is scary!
Not all books are for all readers… when you start a book and you just don’t like it, how long do you read until you bail?
I will usually give it a few chapters unless: 1) the book depicts graphic violence, 2) there are lots of errors that should have been caught by an editor and/or a proofreader, 3) I just can’t relate to any of the characters, and/or 4) the plot is unrealistic. In those cases, I can close the cover pretty quickly! Otherwise, I’ll hang it in there until the bad outweighs the good or I am simply bored with the story.
Conversely, if I read a book I love, I make sure to at minimum write a review and post it on all the major retail sites and on my own blog (depending on if it’s fiction or nonfiction, it will either appear on Focus on Fiction or The Writer’s Place), and many times I have reached out to the author for an interview on my podcast, Living the Writing Life.
Is there another profession you would like to try?
If I hadn’t become a writer, I would have liked to have been an archeologist. Even as a child, the idea of uncovering past lives—of finding people long dead and learning how they lived—fascinated me. I suppose in a way that’s what my fiction does: it reveals the lives of people that no one knew about and tells their stories: what motivates them, what they fear, whom they love, what they want to be and what holds them back. That being said, I am afraid of spiders and scorpions, so maybe not.
