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Donna thought she would grow up and become an artist, even to the point of getting her degree in art and business. Life provided plenty of opportunities to express her artistic skills, but a new passion for writing began to flourish and eventually squeezed out the desire to pursue art for art's sake. Her daughter Vanessa and granddaughter Audrie have picked up that torch and are creating wonderful children's art. See Nessa Dee Art.
Donna's first novel started because of motion sickness. She couldn't read in a car or on an airplane, even the smell of a newspaper made her nauseous because she knew it harbored small print. So when traveling on long trips, she began a story in her head that she picked up again and again, re-thinking and re-imagining it until one day almost twenty years later, she decided to put it down on paper.
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Donna was no stranger to writing. She had written many poems and articles and even several school and community plays. She wrote a weekly newspaper column, which helped her get in the habit of writing regularly. Naively, she thought that was all the skill she needed to be able to write a novel, but after weeks of agony and only thirty pages to show for it, she decided that was too hard. Little things like having to spell characters' names the same way throughout the story or having the setting details and language be historically accurate in a historical novel tripped her up. [Side note: humongous didn't come into usage until the 1960's].
Working in a high school and coming across so many edgy, coming-of-age books for young adults was the impetus for her to finish her first novel, Grace Falling Like Rain. She didn't mind a book tackling tough subjects, but when it didn't offer hope and resolution to problems, she had a problem with that.
"If we're attempting to prepare kids for life, then we need to offer them material that teaches survival skills like forgiveness, reconciliation, selflessness, respect, honesty, hard work, and such, and I like to do that within a compelling story."
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After the first book, someone told Donna that they wanted to know what happened to Jimmy, one of the main characters. Donna decided she would like to find out herself, so she began book number two in what has become the Taylor Family Saga. Mercy's Face pulled some characters from book one and introduced new ones. That book led to Torn Asunder and researching the Fence-Cutters' War in Texas.
Book four, Anchor Point, is a contemporary story, but connected to the original series by some of the Taylor descendents. Donna has several more contemporary story ideas she plans to pursue, but will also bring some of the Taylor family line through the 20th century.
Donna is a former public library director and currently a school librarian near Austin, Texas. She lives in a restored Victorian home with two of her best friends in life, her parents. Her globe-trotting son pops in for occasional visits, and her daughter and family live nearby so she often enjoys the company of the joys of her life, Audrie and Finn.
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