There are some people who, whether by accident or design, find themselves traveling left of center. Unable or unwilling to seize control over their lives, they allow fate to dictate the path they take—often with disastrous results.
TRAVELING LEFT OF CENTER details characters in life situations for which they are emotionally or mentally unprepared. Their methods of coping range from the passive (“The Healer”) and the aggressive (“The Clock”) to the humorous (“Traveling Left of Center”) and hopeful (“Skating on Thin Ice”).
The eighteen stories in TRAVELING LEFT OF CENTER depict those types of situations, from the close calls to the disastrous. Not all the stories have happy endings—like life, sometimes things work out and sometimes they don’t.
In these stories, the characters’ choices—or non-choices—are their own. But the outcomes may not be what they anticipated or desired. Will they have time to correct their course or will they crash?
The Stories
ALICE IN WONDERLAND—Alice is constrained by circumstances and unwanted obligations to live an unfulfilling life. Books are her only way to escape, serving as sustenance to feed her starving soul. But what will she do when there are no more pages left to devour?
ANNABELLE—A lonely young woman, all Annabelle wants is to love and be loved. But she’s fighting by the twin emotions of fear and guilt, unable to let go of the past and embrace the possibilities of a future.
ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN—Sometimes, what one fears most comes to pass because of those fears. If Charlotte hadn’t been so afraid, would the outcome have been the same?
BEAUTIFUL DREAMER—For Eleanor, it was becoming increasingly more difficult to tell the difference between being awake and dreaming, reality and fantasy. The boundaries were blurring. Would she be able to see clearly again?
EXIT ROW—He wanted an escape. After all these years, he was ready to go. But could he get away before it was too late?
MISCONNECTIONS—Anna’s recurrent dreams echo through her day, as she attempts to reconcile her inexplicable feelings of loss with what would appear to be a “perfect life.”
OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND—Despite being more than three steps over the mental health line, he’s holding fast to his belief in his own sanity. Or is the rest of the world crazy?
SKATING ON THIN ICE—Is it possible to overcome childhood trauma? And, even if you do, are you ever really “cured” or simply skating on thin ice, waiting for it to crack? Sarah is trying to skate across the thin ice. Every day, she makes a new path on the surface of her life. So far, the ice has held.
STILL LIFE—Mirror images of her life: how she wants it to be and how it is. Which one would be her true reality—and does she even have a choice?
THE CLOCK—Everyone has a breaking point. For Harold, it came one fateful evening when the clock once again stopped ticking.
THE HEALER—Cassie didn’t ask for the gift. She didn’t want the gift. For all the good it had done other people, it was killing her. All she wanted was her own healing.
THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS—Mona was relying on the kindness of strangers to rescue her. One stranger, in particular. However, thanks to the interference of others, her plans keep going awry. But she’s not giving up yet.
THE SHOP ON THE SQUARE—His attitude of superiority had gotten him quite far in life. Until a chance stop at a small Mexican town illustrated that he had much to learn.
THE STORYTELLER—Connie makes up her stories as much for the children’s sake as her own. But even her stories can’t stop the pain of reality from hurting her listeners—or herself.
THE SUGAR BOWL—Although Chloe’s life story changes with every listener, each time her tale has achieved its intended purpose. Until she chooses the wrong person to tell it to.
TRAVELING LEFT OF CENTER—Her mama was forever telling her that, on the highway of life, she was always traveling left of center. She wasn’t a bad girl, mind you—just incapable of looking down the road and seeing where her actions are taking her.
WAITING FOR SARA—Her daughter Sara is gone, and while it was by her own choice, it was a decision ill-conceived and poorly executed. And so Sara’s mother waits, alone and fearful, hoping against hope that someday her daughter will return, safe and unharmed.
WATCHING FOR BILLY—Agnes was all alone until Billy came to stay. Would he bring new purpose to her life? Or take what little hope she had for companionship?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
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 literary
publications such as EWR:
Short Stories, Hypertext,
Full of Crow, Fiction365,
Red Fez,
Wanderings, The
Chaffin Journal and Xtreme.
Her inspirational book, THE GIFTS OF CHANGE,
(Beyond Words/Atria) encourages readers to take a closer look at how they deal
with the inevitability of change and ways in which they can use change to gain
a new perspective, re-evaluate their goals and reconsider their options. Christie’s
essays have also appeared in Woman’s Day, Stress-Free Living, Succeed,
Experience Life, Tai Chi and Writer’s Digest. She is currently
working on several other book projects, including a novel and a book for
writers.
Exclusive:
1. What
inspired you to write "Traveling Left of Center"?
I’m not entirely sure. It’s not like I set
out to write stories about odd, eccentric or unstable people. It’s just, for
some reason, I am drawn to those types of people—perhaps it’s one of those
“There, but for the grace of God” things.
My fiction—or at least, my short
fiction—tends to be about people who are damaged in some way: by what they have
done to themselves or by what was done to them, by what they have received,
what they gave up, or what was taken from them. They are, for the most part,
struggling to navigate through dangerous waters. Some survive and move forward
toward land, some are just treading water, and some don’t even know that they
have lost the battle and are, even now, drowning.
I feel sorry for those people, wish I could
do something for them, and perhaps, in the writing of their stories, that is what I am doing. Because somewhere
out there, there is a real person who is held in thrall by his or her obsessions,
who is controlled by past or present circumstances, who wants to live a happy,
normal, balanced life but finds that the tightrope of life vibrates too much
and maintaining equilibrium is but a dream.
“Dream”—and there it is again. The idea of
what we want and what we have. For some of us—perhaps for most of us—the former
is the dream and the latter is the reality and never the twain shall meet.
2. Who
should read this book and why will they enjoy it?
This was a difficult question because it’s
not like I had set out to write the type of book that certain demographic would
find appealing or valuable. But if I had to describe my typical reader it would
be someone who enjoys reading about characters in difficult or bizarre situations
and the choices they make. A reader who feels compassion for those who are
lost—or maybe just relief that, at least so far, he or she is on the right side
of the center line.
3. What
made you want to become a writer?
That’s a difficult answer because, in all
honesty, I never wanted or made a conscious decision to be a writer. It just
came naturally to me. I was making up stories from a very young age and always
had a vivid imagination, playing “Let’s pretend” and “what if” with my best
friend Danny. From making up stories to writing them down was a natural
progression. I wrote my first short story (actually I called it a book—it even
had a cover!) in second grade.
Writing fiction gives me the freedom to
imagine certain circumstances and scenarios, and then watch my characters cope
with them. Of course, that freedom comes at a price—the cost being an inability
to let go of the characters, to close the book on them, so to speak. They
become real to me and so, years after I have written about them, I grieve for
lonely, lost Annabelle, for Connie who gives to the children as a way of coping
with her empty life, for Sara’s mother, who longs to turn back the clock and
hold her daughter once again.
In a sense, fiction is also my coping
strategy. Like most people, I have had my share of pain and loss,
disappointment and heartbreak. Many times, I will use fiction as a way to heal.
The stories, while not necessarily mirroring my own experiences, do explore the
attendant emotions. I watch from a distance, as my characters deal with their
own private anguish, and little by little come closer, until eventually, I can
allow myself to face my own. Their grief and pain becomes mine—we share, and in
that sharing, I can move on.
4. Do you have a theme you return to time and
again?
Probably
change. I mean, that is the constant we all face, isn’t it? We are only
fooling ourselves if we think we can control everything that happens to us. So,
that being the case, what do we do? How do we handle change—happy change, sad
change, confusing change? That’s the predicament my characters find themselves
in.
Thank you, Nancy, for sharing these insights into your life and work!
