Living The Writing Life Podcast with Nancy Christie

Thoughts on writing and life for December 2023

Just a few thoughts on the importance of being willing to make revisions: in writing and in life.

Did you enjoy this excerpt from my writing newsletter? Sign up for The Writing Life with Nancy Christie, and receive a free writing-related tip sheet as a bonus!

In Conversation With … Molly Giles, author

Molly Giles is the award-winning author of six story collections and two novels. Rough Translations won The Flannery O’Connor Prize the Boston Globe Award, and the Bay Area Book Reviewers’ Award.

Other notable accolades have been awarded from the Small Press Best Fiction Award for Creek Walk, which also earned a Commonwealth Silver Medal Award for Fiction, and was a New York Times Notable Book. Bothered won the Split Oak Press Flash Fiction Award; and All The Wrong Places won the Spokane Prize for Fiction.

Molly’s work has also earned The O. Henry Award and the Pushcart Prize, and she has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Marin Arts Council, and the Arkansas Arts Council. Wife With Knife was the Leapfrog Global Fiction Prize.

Her latest book, the novel The Home For Unwed Husbands was released in August 2023, and published in the U.S. by Leapfrog Press and by Can of Worms Enterprises in the U.K.

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

In today’s conversation, we’ll be talking about longevity as an author: how to keep the creative spark alive and strong.

 

 

Thoughts on writing and life for November 2023

Just a few thoughts on why we need to take regular breaks to refresh and renew our creative spirit.

 

Did you enjoy this excerpt from my writing newsletter? Sign up for The Writing Life with Nancy Christie, and receive a free writing-related tip sheet as a bonus!

In Conversation With … Gillian Felix, author and entrepreneur

Gillian Felix has been writing since she was old enough to hold a pencil, and as of this writing, she is the author of 10 books. She enjoys creating characters that could be your next-door neighbor, but would you want them as your neighbor is another story.

Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, Miss Felix moved to the United States in 1998. She has been involved in the entertainment industry for over ten years. She is trained in the Meisner and Stanislavski technique of acting, which she credits as an asset to her character development and writing.

Miss Felix is also an entrepreneur and advocate for children's and women's rights. Her company, Karma Centric Solutions builds SEO compliant websites for small business and provides marketing from a karma centric perspective.

For more about Gillian, visit her Plain Talk Book Marketing website and her Karma Centric Solutions website. You can also follow her on LinkedIn, Instagram (GillianFelix23 and PlainTalkBookMarketing), Goodreads, and on Facebook (Family Portrait Novels and Plain Talk Book Marketing). You can find her book, Adriana, A Banovic Series Book 1 here and information about her Family Portrait Novels here.

In today’s conversation, we’ll be talking about how to find our way back to writing after an unplanned (and unwelcome) hiatus.

Thoughts on writing and life for October 2023

Just a few thoughts on why our focus as authors should be on building relationships, not just on selling books.

Did you enjoy this excerpt from my writing newsletter? Sign up for The Writing Life with Nancy Christie, and receive a free writing-related tip sheet as a bonus!

In Conversation With … Egyptologist Mary Ann Marazzi, PhD

Mary Ann Marazzi is an Egyptologist with a doctoral degree in Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology/Egyptology, who has 27 years of experience working at archaeological sites in the US, Italy, and Egypt.

She has taught art history and world cultures at colleges and universities, edits academic journals and has written numerous articles for educational publications and children’s magazines.

For more about Mary Ann, visit her LinkedIn page.

In today’s conversation, we’ll talk about her work as an Egyptologist and how it is about discovery: what is found, what isn’t found (which is a discovery in and of itself), who those people were and how they lived.

And the correlation between that and fiction writing, which is about uncovering the truth about the characters and the surprises that can result from unexpected “finds.”

Thoughts on writing and life for September 2023

Just a few thoughts on why we need to put our money (and time) where our mouth is when it comes to our writing career.

 

Did you enjoy this excerpt from my writing newsletter? Sign up for The Writing Life with Nancy Christie, and receive a free writing-related tip sheet as a bonus!

Thoughts on writing and life for August 2023

Just a few thoughts on why it’s important to pay attention when Opportunity knocks and then decide how to handle the summons.

 

Did you enjoy this excerpt from my writing newsletter? Sign up for The Writing Life with Nancy Christie, and receive a free writing-related tip sheet as a bonus!

In Conversation With … Joyce Maynard, author

Over her fifty-year career, New York Times bestselling author Joyce Maynard has published hundreds of essays as well as twenty books, both fiction and non-fiction, including the memoir At Home in the World and the novels To Die For and Labor Day, both adapted for film.

Maynard’s newest novel, The Bird Hotel, was published May 2023. How the Light Gets In, the sequel to her novel, Count the Ways-- named an Amazon Best Book in 2021—will be published in spring, 2024.

Maynard is a fellow of Macdowell and Yaddo. Every winter for over two decades, she has led the Lake Atitlan Memoir workshop, Write by the Lake, in Guatemala.

For more about Joyce, visit her website and follow her on Instagram @therealjoycemaynard.

In today’s conversation, we discussed the impact on us, as women and as writers, when the landscape of our lives shifts and our home—both literally and metaphorically—is no longer familiar to us, and how that affects our ability to write.

Thoughts on writing and life for July 2023

Just a few thoughts on why it’s important to learn to “enjoy the ride” when writing.

 

Did you enjoy this excerpt from my writing newsletter? Sign up for The Writing Life with Nancy Christie, and receive a free writing-related tip sheet as a bonus!