Nancy Christie's Blog, page 2

My Thoughts on… Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old by Brooke Shields

I don’t usually choose to read books penned by celebrities, probably because I feel that there would be no point of commonality between my life and theirs.

My preference is for nonfiction books that either deal with writing in one fashion or another (after all, I am a writer!), or books on topics about my gender (female) or my age (late middle-age, and I’m being generous).

But after reading a few excerpts from Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old and following that up by reading some media i...

Elizabeth Jaeger: On the Value of Sharing Grief with Others

I’m a firm believer in doing what I can to bring attention to other writers and authors. And when one of those authors and I share the same publisher—in this case, Unsolicited Press—I consider it a bonus.

And that’s why I’m happy to have Elizabeth Jaeger on my post, answering questions about her debut memoir, Stolen: Love and Loss in the Time of COVID-19. Before we get into the interview, here’s a bit about Elizabeth.

While Stolen: Love and Loss in the Time of COVID-19 is Elizabeth’s first book,...

Thoughts on writing and life for March 2025

How we, as writers, can make a difference in the world, one word at a time.

This is an edited excerpt from my March 2025 newsletter, The Writing Life. (Subscribe here.)

You can also listen to it on my Living the Writing Life podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.

I’ve often spoken about how much I enjoy book signing events. Not just because I get to meet fans who like my books and can’t wait to pick up the newest one, but also because the conversations often inspire ideas for my next novel....

Laura Gaddis: In Search of the Humanness of Stories

Laura Gaddis and I have a few things in common.

We share the same publisher, Unsolicited Press. We both live in Ohio—she’s in Oxford and I’m in Austintown. And we both write fiction and nonfiction.

But when it comes to her latest book, Mosaic, I freely admit that her ability to share her experiences with traumatic personal events—in her case, multiple miscarriages, grief, and motherhood, outstrips mine. I’m not sure I could have taken those life events and turned them into such a heartbreaking y...

Thoughts on writing and life for February 2025

Why libraries are so important in our communities

This is an edited excerpt from my February 2025 newsletter, The Writing Life. (Subscribe here.)

You can also listen to it on my Living the Writing Life podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.

Since this is Library Lovers Month, I want to talk about the important role libraries play in our communities. But first a little backstory.

When I was a child, I loved going to the library. Fortunately, there was one not too far from my home on the west...

Happy Birthday To Me!

Photo by Stephen Wheeler on Unsplash

While I am not averse to going out for dinner and having a cake with lots of icing for my birthday, there’s really not much else I need.

But I am taking this opportunity to ask for gifts—just not for me.

I am fortunate to have access to whatever books I want from my local library and bookstores. But not everyone has that privilege—and I do consider it a privilege to be able to get whatever books I want whenever I want them, and to have the time to read them.

...

31 Days of Rut-Busting Tips For Writers for 2025—Day 31

Make Your Commitment.

This is easy—and hard. It’s easy to say you are committed to your writing.

It’s not so easy to match action to words, commit to giving your writing the time and attention it deserves.

Each day, you must choose to make writing an important part of your life, regardless of its income-producing potential. It isn’t being published that makes you a writer.

You are a writer as long as you write.

Otherwise, you are just talking about being a writer, dreaming of being a writer, pla...

31 Days of Rut-Busting Tips For Writers for 2025—Day 30

Ignite Your Creativity.

You want to write. You have to write.

There is a burning deep inside of you that demands that you write.

Those are the wonderful days when you can’t wait to get to the computer or paper, when the hours fly by while you are caught up in what you are writing.

And then there are the other times, the times when you hit an inspirational dry spell.

You’re ready to write, you have time to write, but you are suffering from an internal blockage I refer to as “creative constipation...

31 Days of Rut-Busting Tips For Writers for 2025—Day 29

Develop Your Curiosity.

If you’ve ever watched children play, you know how integral curiosity is to them.

The inevitable question—Why?—is part of every conversation as is their insatiable need to take things apart and see how they work.

Writing requires that level of curiosity. We have to be open to the world, to people, to events and circumstances, and see what we can learn from them.

Otherwise, we are just writing the same thing over and over again: the same characters, the same situations, th...

31 Days of Rut-Busting Tips For Writers for 2025—Day 28

Find Your Courage.

Writing can be a scary process. You are putting your words out there to be judged, and sometimes it can be hard to take the critiques.

It can also be scary if there is something you want to explore—an event from your past, for example—but you aren’t sure if you have the strength to go down into that dark place.

And then there is the fear that surfaces when you try something new.

Maybe you’ve had a modest amount of success writing nonfiction books but now you want to try your h...