Living The Writing Life Podcast with Nancy Christie

Just a few thoughts on why we need to match our goals and plans to our definition of writing success.   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!  

Ramona Reeves’ interlinked story collection, It Falls Gently All Around and Other Stories (University of Pittsburgh Press), won the 2022 Drue Heinz Literature Prize and is set in Mobile, Alabama, where she grew up. She has been awarded an AROHO fellowship, a residency at Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, a scholarship from Community of Writers, and the Nancy D. Hargrove Editors’ Prize. Ra...

Just a few thoughts on what three gifts we should give ourselves to foster our creative 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!

Just a few thoughts on why our most important goal as writers should be to connect with our readers.   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!

  Erica Bauermeister is the best-selling author of four novels, including The School of Essential Ingredients and the 2020 Reese’s Book Club pick The Scent Keeper. She has also written a memoir entitled House Lessons: Renovating a Life and is the co-author of two readers’ guides to books: 500 Great Books by Women and Let’s Hear It For the Girls. Erica’s fifth novel, No Two Persons, will be publish...

Just a few thoughts on how an insignificant object from our past can become a guidepost for our writing 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!

Chante Thomas is a twenty-eight-year veteran fifth-grade teacher in Shaker Heights, Ohio and has been writing children’s stories over the span of her career. In 2017, she decided it was time to bring her stories to life and published her first book, Where I’m From , sharing the geographic story of five diverse children with roots in the United States, Africa, and Asia. Her second book, Go To Schoo...

Just a few thoughts on the importance of developing a mission statement to guide you through your writing 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!

Juliet Marillier was born and raised in Aotearoa New Zealand. She is a graduate of the University of Otago and has had a varied career that included music teaching and performing. She now lives in a historic cottage in Western Australia, where she writes full time. Juliet’s historical fantasy novels and short stories are published internationally and have won numerous awards. She is the author of...

Just a few thoughts on the importance of having the right role model at the right time for our writing life   Did you enjoy this excerpt from my writing newsletter?  Sign up for my newsletter, The Writing Life with Nancy Christie , and receive a free writing-related tip sheet as a bonus!

Corie Adjmi is the author of the short story collection Life and Other Shortcomings, which won an International Book Award, an IBPA Benjamin Franklin award, and an American Fiction Award, and the forthcoming novel, The Marriage Box, named a Must-Read New Book of 2022 that is due out in 2023. Her prize-winning essays and short stories have appeared in dozens of journals and magazines, including Huf...

Just a few thoughts on how we can use our creative ability to free ourselves from negative thoughts and beliefs Did you enjoy this excerpt from my writing newsletter?  Sign up for my newsletter, The Writing Life with Nancy Christie , and receive a free writing-related tip sheet as a bonus!

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. Lost & Found grew out of “Losing Streak,” a New Yorker story that was anthologized in The Best A...

Just a few thoughts on the need to protect the light of creativity. 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. Did you enjoy this excerpt from my writing newsletter?  Sign up for my newsletter, The Writing Life with Nancy Christie , and receive a free writing-related tip sheet as a bonus!

Adrienne Reiter is a communications specialist, writer, and author of three novels: Twist , Chosen , and her latest, Lounge Act that’s been called a “sexy thriller with attitude.” She writes mystery, speculative, literary fiction, and, by her own admission, is a compulsive blogger. She is also a co-host on the podcast, Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun , where she swaps terrible tales, and general ghoul...

Just a few thoughts on the surprises and joys that come from sowing seeds in a literary garden. Did you enjoy this excerpt from my writing newsletter? Sign up for my newsletter, The Writing Life with Nancy Christie , and receive a free writing-related tip sheet as a bonus!  

Gregory Erich Phillips is the author of three award-winning novels: Love of Finished Years , The Exile and his most recent novel, A Season in Lights . Gregory comes from a prolific literary family, and he carries on that tradition by writing aspirational stories through strong, relatable characters that transcend time and space, transporting readers into the world of his fiction. Gregory is also a...

Just a few thoughts about the importance of staying focused on your goals, even if you think it’s too late for you to achieve them, because, after all, you never know. Did you enjoy this excerpt from my newsletter? Sign up for The Writing Life with Nancy Christie and receive a free writing-related tip sheet as a bonus!

Dana Spiotta is the author of five novels : Lightning Field (2002), Eat the Document (2006), Stone Arabia (2011), Innocents & Others (2016), and her most recent, Wayward (2021) that was called by the New York Times a “virtuosic, singular and very funny portrait of a woman seeking sanity and purpose in a world gone mad.” Dana has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Cri...

Just a few thoughts on how reaching the top (i.e., success) requires us to take one step after the other—without giving up. Did you enjoy this excerpt?  Sign up for my newsletter , The Writing Life with Nancy Christie, and receive a free writing-related tip sheet as a bonus!

Casie Bazay is a former middle school teacher whose debut novel, Not Our Summer , was released in the spring of 2021 by Running Press Kids. A freelance writer, and editor, Casie lives on a hay farm in Oklahoma with her husband and two children, and in her spare time, enjoys exploring the great outdoors, spending time at the barn with her horses and goats, reading, and watching movies. Casie also l...

Just a few thoughts on how love for the craft of writing can survive, despite setbacks, disappointments and frustrations.   Did you enjoy this excerpt?  Sign up for my newsletter , The Writing Life with Nancy Christie, and receive a free writing-related tip sheet as a bonus!

Deborah Tobola is a memoirist, poet, playwright, and co-author of a children’s book. Her work has earned four Pushcart Prize nominations, three Academy of American Poets awards and a Children’s Choice Book Award. Her memoir, Hummingbird in Underworld , won a Next Generation Indie Book Award in Social Justice, a Nautilus Silver Book Award in Heroic Journeys, a Readers’ Favorite bronze medal in Non-...

Just a few thoughts on how sometimes the wisest course of action is to take a step back and do something completely unrelated to what you are supposed to do—in short, to give yourself a breather, to recoup and regroup.   Did you enjoy this excerpt?  Sign up for my newsletter , The Writing Life with Nancy Christie, and receive a free writing-related tip sheet as a bonus!

Karen Schubert is the author of the poetry collection The Compost Reader (Accents Publishing) and five chapbooks including Dear Youngstown (NightBallet Press), I Left My Wings on a Chair (Kent State Press) and Black Sand Beach (Kattywompus Press). Her poetry appears most recently in Reunion: The Dallas Review, Olney Magazine, Poor Yorick, New World Writing and Read+Write: 30 Days of Poetry. Karen...