Nancy Christie's Blog, page 26
June 28, 2022
Working With an Indie Bookstore: Interview with Ashley Bohinc of The Learned Owl Book Shop
The Learned Owl Book Shop
Tips from Ashley Bohinc of The Learned Owl Book ShopAs bookstores begin scheduling in-person events, authors are dusting off their special book-signing pens and brushing up on their meet-and-greet strategies.
Doing a book signing is no sure thing when it comes to sales numbers or reader turnout, and any author who expects every event to be an unqualified success is bound to be disappointed.
At the same time, there are tactics that authors can employ to help shift the t...
June 24, 2022
Living the Writing Life podcast with author Kathryn Schulz
On my Living the Writing Life podcast, my guest Kathryn Schulz and I discuss the concepts of loss and discovery, both from the personal perspective and from that as a creative.
Listen to the episode here.
Kathryn Schulz is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of Being Wrong and her most recent book, Lost & Found—an insightful and moving exploration of grief and love, and how those two emotions have the power to change us, transform us, and expand our concept of who we are and how we can live.
You can catch my review of her book here.
.June 22, 2022
Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 6.22.22
The post Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 6.22.22 appeared first on The Writer's Place.
June 21, 2022
My Thoughts On… The Lonely Stories edited by Natalie Eve Garrett
There is the condition of being alone and there is the condition of being lonely. The first is defined as separated from others or isolated, while lonely is more of an emotional state: being sad from being alone.
The two are not mutually exclusive—one can be both lonely and alone, but one can also be lonely when surrounded by people. And being alone is not necessarily a bad or unpleasant thing. In fact, as many discovered during the pandemic lockdown, it can be a very desirable situation—at leas...
June 17, 2022
My Review of Whatever Happens, Probably Will by John W. MacIlroy
This review originally appeared on Focus on Fiction.
Among the many quotes I have saved on short stories, this one by Will Self stays in my mind: “A short story is a shard, a sliver, a vignette…”
It's a description of this literary form that also perfectly describes the stories in Whatever Happens, Probably Will by John W. MacIlroy.
Start with the first story in the collection: “The Painting.” Just a story about a man following his wife’s directions on how to hang a painting and yet…
Each story, whether it’s set in a New England factory town, a cemetery or a courtroom, drops the reader into the setting just long enough to eavesdrop on what’s being said—or sometimes, not being said.
There is the element of the unexpected, which is what life is like. We think we know what’s going to happen, but then something shifts, something changes. Or maybe it isn’t so much that it changes as we become more aware of what the story is behind the words and actions.
MacIlroy’s collection runs the emotional gamut from lighthearted to tender to heartbreaking. Each story is beautifully written with no extraneous words, no unnecessary details—just enough to make you feel like you have been there, witnessing what transpired. And when you get to the end of each, you are left with the sense that a door has closed, but only just barely, that if you push on it, you can re-enter that particular world and find out more about what the characters are doing or saying or feeling.
But only if they let you.
June 15, 2022
Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 6.15.22
The post Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 6.15.22 appeared first on The Writer's Place.
June 14, 2022
FAQs about the author-publicist connection: Interview with Mickey Mikkelson
What to know about the author-publicist connection from Mickey MikkelsonI first connected with Mickey Mikkelson, founder of Creative Edge Publicity, after I had his client, novelist Gregory Erich Phillips, on my podcast, Living the Writing Life. (Catch the interview by clicking this link.)
Mickey subsequently sent me a list of his clients, in case any of them would be a good match for either my blogs or my podcast. This isn’t the first time a publicist has reached out to me and is a great examp...
June 8, 2022
Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 6.8.22 from Kim Lionetti
The post Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 6.8.22 from Kim Lionetti appeared first on The Writer's Place.
June 7, 2022
Thoughts on writing and life for June 2022
Photo by Eyasu Etsub on Unsplash
Just a few thoughts on the need to protect the light of creativity and how the power to do so rests with us: in our hands, in our minds, in our belief that we have something worth thinking, worth saying—something worth writing.
This is an excerpt from my newsletter, The Writing Life for June 2022. You can also listen to it on my Living the Writing Life podcast.
When it comes to the creative process...
May 25, 2022
Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 5.25.22 from Ethan Rutherford
The post Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 5.25.22 from Ethan Rutherford appeared first on The Writer's Place.
