Today I'm pleased to welcome author Nancy Christie as part of her 'Birthday Blog Tour' for her new collection of stories recently published by Pixel Hall Press. Here is her personal story of perseverance and commitment to her passion for writing.
When I think about how I
went from writing individual stories to having eighteen pieces published as Traveling Left of Center and Other Stories it is less a case of going right, left or straight ahead and more like the
Beatles’ song: “The Long and Winding Road.”
And it has been a long and winding road—long,
because I started writing short stories in second grade (many many decades ago!) and winding because
my writing has followed a very hit-or-miss pattern. There were some years when
I wrote like mad, other years, when I wrote not so much or not at all—not
because I didn’t want to but because of personal responsibilities or my own
fear that if I tried, there would be nothing there.
But every now and then,
a story idea would pop into my head
and slide out my fingertips and there it was—badly
in need of revision, needless to say, but at least something I could work with,
fix up and ultimately, be proud of.
The stories that make up
Traveling Left of Center and Other
Stories took years to write, and while some were submitted and a few
accepted, many never left their home to venture out into the cold cruel
literary marketplace. But a number of them did share a common theme—characters
who can’t or won’t get their lives together—ideal for a fiction collection.
And when I wrote the
short story, “Traveling Left of Center,” I realized that was the perfect name for the entire book because it typified
what each story was about: characters crossing the center line, sometimes
getting back on time, sometimes not.
And so I took the next
step, bravely offering the collection concept to agents and publishers. I felt
so strongly about the idea that even their rejections didn’t get in my way. I
could see the book—I even knew what
the cover image would be—and I wouldn’t give up until my vision became reality.
In the meantime, I kept sending
stories to literary magazines, and while I received more rejections than
acceptances, the occasional “yes, we’ll take it” responses gave me enough
confidence to keep going.
Then, in one of those
serendipitous occurrences, I connected with Sally Wiener Grotta, a fellow
member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors who had just started
a publishing company, Pixel Hall Press.
She was looking for stories, I had them in spades, and we went from releasing two
as short fiction e-books to selecting 18 to publish in print and digital format.
So what did traveling this
“long and winding road” teach me? To not let rejection or fear stop me from doing
what I love so passionately: writing. As wonderful as it is to be published,
it’s the writing, after all, that matters. The doing of it, with all that it entails.
As long as I am writing,
life is good.
Nancy Christie is a
professional writer, whose credits include both fiction and non-fiction. In
addition to her fiction collection, Traveling
Left of Center, and two short story e-books, Annabelle and Alice in Wonderland (all published
by Pixel Hall Press), her short stories can be found in a variety of literary
publications.
A member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors
and Short Fiction Writers
Guild (SFWG) and creator of “Celebrate Short Fiction” Day, Christie hosts
the monthly Monday Night Writers group in Canfield, Ohio.
Visit her website at
www.nancychristie.com
or connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or at her writing blogs: Focus on
Fiction, The Writer’s Place and One on One.
Comments