I’ve Got Questions for Nancy Christie

Editor’s Note: This exchange is part of a series of brief interviews with emerging writers of recent or forthcoming books. If you enjoyed it, please visit other interviews in the I’ve Got Questions feature.

What’s the title of your book? Fiction? Nonfiction? Poetry? Who is the publisher and what’s the publication date?

Moving Maggie—A Midlife Moxie Novel
Fiction
BookBaby
Pub Date: eBook: 3/7/25, Paperback: 5/30/25

In a couple of sentences, what’s the book about?

Moving Maggie is about Maggie Cartwright, a 60-year-old marketing administrator in a small hospital whose single-minded focus on her career comes at the cost of her marital relationship. Her husband’s announcement that he wants a divorce coincides with the news that her job has been eliminated, due to a takeover by a larger healthcare system. Uncertain about what she wants to do next and, with the sale of their condo, in need of a place to live, Maggie rents a home in a small rural community. A series of unexpected opportunities helps her reclaim her “Move-Ahead Maggie” identity. But her need to regain her financial stability and professional status makes her resist opening the door to personal relationships and even a possible love interest. Can Maggie find the emotional moxie to take a chance on having a life that is richer and more balanced?

What’s the book’s genre (for fiction and nonfiction) or primary style (for poetry)?

Contemporary women’s fiction

What’s the nicest thing anyone has said about the book so far?

“Moving Maggie offers inspiration to any woman who has found herself suddenly boxing up remnants of what she thought was a secure life and having to find a new home for her heart. Extremely relatable, and at turns funny, touching, and poignant, Moving Maggie is a story of resilience and how, if we take the reins of our lives and answer the question ‘What do I want,’ we’ll find love, friends, and new opportunities where we least expect them.” Clarissa J. Markiewicz, author of Christmas In Whimsy

What book or books is yours comparable to or a cross between? [Is your book like Moby Dick or maybe it’s more like Frankenstein meets Peter Pan?]

The Ten Beach Road Books by Wendy Wax immediately come to mind, since Moving Maggie and Wax’s novels feature a diverse group of women, each with their own life challenges, who also support each other.

Why this book? Why now?

If I want to get all data-y, Moving Maggie and the two previous novels in the series are responding to numbers reflecting that women account for nearly 80 percent of fiction sales in the US, UK, and Canada, and are more likely to be avid readers than men, according to Pew Research Center.

But the truth is, I wrote Moving Maggie and created the Midlife Moxie Novel series because I wanted to read more books featuring middle-aged women. And they say you should write what you want to read.

And when I talk to women at my book signings, I hear the same thing over and over: they want books about women like them who are dealing with the same issues they are: empty-nest-itis, retirement (theirs or their partners), loneliness, health challenges, financial setbacks, a desire for a new life, a new career, a new something!

So I wrote these novels with that in mind, making sure I also included a secondary storyline showing the importance of female friendships.

Other than writing this book, what’s the best job you’ve ever had?

Well, since I’ve always been a writer and since this is my tenth book, I’d have to say that writing in general is the best job I ever had and the only thing I ever wanted to do.

What do you want readers to take away from the book?

My goal with Moving Maggie and the Midlife Moxie Novel series in general is to show women that being 50 or older doesn’t mean they’ve reached the end of the road and it’s all downhill now. Rather, I want my novels to reinforce the belief that life can still be full of possibilities and it’s up to midlife women to make the most of those options. Hopefully my characters will inspire them to find their own inner moxie and pursue their dreams.

What food and/or music do you associate with the book?

Hmmmm… If you asked this about Finding Fran (the second in the series) it would be chocolate, while for Reinventing Rita, the first novel, it would be any baked goods. For Moving Maggie, I would have to say coffee. Maggie (like me) is a definite caffeine lover!

What book(s) are you reading currently?

Since I write book reviews, I have a never-ending stack of books to read. I am working my way through two memoirs plus How we learn to be brave : decisive moments in life and faith by Mariann Edgar Budde, and there’s a novel coming my way via mail! My TBR pile is getting bigger and bigger and bigger…