Traveling Left of Center & Other Stories by @NChristie_OH is a Celebrate Mothers Event pick #fiction
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  • N. N. Light
    • May 8, 2022
    • 6 min read

Traveling Left of Center & Other Stories by @NChristie_OH is a Celebrate Mothers Event pick #fiction



Title: Traveling Left of Center and Other Stories (Unsolicited Press)


Author: Nancy Christie


Genre: Contemporary Fiction — Short stories


Book Blurb:


"Nancy Christie has written my perfect summer book, short stories that I couldn't put down" Sylvia Bradley

"Girl," my mama had said to me the minute she entered my hospital room, "on the highway of life, you're always traveling left of center." Traveling Left of Center and Other Stories details the experiences of characters in life situations for which they are emotionally or mentally unprepared. Unable or unwilling to seize control over their lives, they allow fate to dictate the path they take, while their methods of coping range from the passive and the aggressive to humorous and hopeful. In each of these eighteen 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 beauty of these stories: they feed our paranoias, our fears, but also our dreams" Kathy Nida, NetGalley "...each story is unique, well-rounded and gives a tantalizing peek into difficulties of the human condition" Terri LeBlanc, Second Run Reviews "Ms. Christie's mastery of the short story is remarkable" Margaret Gust, Coastal Breeze News "Christie gives the reader a provocative slice of Americana that is equal parts real and gripping" Charles S. Weinblatt, reviewer, New York Journal of Books Runner-Up in the 2016 Best Indie Book by Shelf Unbound


Excerpt from “Waiting for Sara”:


“Mom, it’s Sara.”


Her voice was distorted by the miles of wire separating us—how many miles I could only guess.


“Where are you?”


So many of our conversations began like that, with Sara making contact, and me desperately trying to keep that contact alive, sending out my love like a rope to bind her to me.


“Things haven’t been goin’ too good here.” Her voice was slurred. Alcohol? Drugs? I couldn’t tell.


“Sara.” My voice sharpened with worry. “Tell me where you are. Are you okay?”


“Cool, Ma.” Her voice faded away, and then came back again. “So what’s happenin’?”


“I’d love to see you, Sara. Tell me where you are, and I’ll come get you. Or give me your number and I’ll call you back.”


The phone company could trace a number, I thought. I’ll tell them it’s an emergency. I'll tell them we were cut off. We were cut off. Between my daughter and me, there was a chasm deeper than the Great Divide. And every spar I threw across fell to the bottom, the echoes endlessly crashing through my life.


“So, look, I gotta go.” There were sounds in the background—doors slamming and voices raised in anger. “But, hey, it’s been great, y’know,” and then the line was dead.


I didn’t want to put the receiver down, even when the buzzing was replaced by the recorded voice asking me to “please hang up now.”


Finally, I replaced it on the cradle—gently, the way you close a door when the baby is sleeping and all you wanted to do was peek inside without awakening her.


When Sara was a baby, I used to open and close her door a hundred times, afraid that if I missed checking her every fifteen minutes, she would die. Crib death was my big fear then, followed by child molesters and kidnappers as she grew older.


I hated seeing those pictures on milk cartons—smiling faces snapped in their school-picture pose, with the plaintive cry “Have you seen this child?” emblazoned below. I didn’t want to be reminded of what could happen to any child—my child—despite a mother’s careful concern.


Now, I wanted to take her high school graduation picture and send it to Sara, pleading, “Have you seen my daughter? Please bring her back.”


It has been at least four years since we lived together. One cold November morning, she packed her clothes, her favorite stuffed bear, and the small stash of marijuana she thought I didn’t know about into the suitcase I had given her for her eighteenth birthday, and left. Just like that. I had no warning, no way to prepare.


Well, no, that isn’t strictly true. A blind person could have seen it coming—the logical culmination of shouted words and slammed doors, of hostile stares and muttered phrases.


A blind person, yes, but not a mother. Past experience with a two-year-old’s tantrums was little preparation for a teenager’s rebellion or an adult child’s rejection.


Sara’s thirteenth birthday had marked the beginning of battles between us, leaving me bewildered, hurt, and angry—sometimes all at the same time.


“But why can’t I go?” Sara’s voice was shrill, carrying through walls into the kitchen, where I was peeling potatoes for dinner. That was her job, but it seemed easier to do it myself rather than argue with her. Lately, quarrels had become the only form of communication between my teenaged daughter and me.


“You’re only in junior high. You’re too young to go to a concert. It’s dangerous. People get crazy at those things!”


“Well, it’s stupid!” She flounced into the room, wearing a skirt that was far too short. I had told her any number of times to let the hem down, that it was verging on indecent. But she wouldn’t listen. “Everybody is going—all my friends! You just don’t want me to have any fun! I hate you!” screaming the last words as she slammed the front door behind her.


The knife slipped on the potato skin and sliced my finger. I watched the blood well up through the tears in my eyes and tried very hard not to let her words cut my heart. All the parenting books said that this was a typical teenage stage and not to take it personally.


Good advice. If only I could follow it.


She didn’t come home that night. Instead, she slept at her girlfriend’s house, while I paced the floor and debated calling the police. In the end, I simply waited for her—the way I had waited for her to be born.


Overdue, yet stubbornly refusing to cooperate with nature, Sara was born by cesarean section. At the time, I thought it was my body that refused to surrender this new life without a fight. But perhaps it was Sara herself who was not ready to be born. Did she somehow know how difficult life would be? Was she trying to hold off accepting the responsibility for her own existence?


In the recovery room, I had marveled at her body, counting fingers and toes over and over again, rejoicing in the reality of her presence. I pictured us functioning as a single unit—mother-and-daughter—sharing joys and happiness in a peaceful home.


Not surprisingly, reality was different.


Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):


Sale price for May is $14 when purchased directly from Unsolicited Press










What makes your featured book a must-read?


In Traveling Left of Center and Other Stories, there are tales that depict the mother-daughter bond from a variety of perspectives, just like they can be in real life. Some are healthy, others derailed by with the dysfunctions of those involved. And then there is the humous title story, “Traveling Left of Center”: one very optimistic daughter who keeps choosing men that aren’t the best for her, and one long-suffering mother who loves her daughter and her grandbabies, but sometimes… But all the stories will make you think about the women in your life: mothers, daughters, and those who aren’t related to you by blood but still hold a place in your heart.


Giveaway –


Enter to win a $25 Amazon US or Amazon Canada gift card



Open Internationally. You must have an active Amazon US or CA account to win.


Runs May 5 – May 13, 2022.


Winner will be drawn on May 14, 2022.



Author Biography:


Nancy Christie is the award-winning author of two short story collections: Traveling Left of Center and Other Stories and Peripheral Visions and Other Stories (both published by Unsolicited Press); two books for writers: Rut-Busting Book for Writers and Rut-Busting Book for Authors (both published by Mill City Press) and the inspirational book, The Gifts of Change (Atria/Beyond Words). Her short stories have appeared in numerous literary publications, with several earning contest placements. Christie’s third collection, Mistletoe Magic and Other Holiday Tales, will be out in 2023.



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