Friday 6 September 2013

Interview with Lynn Donovan

As part of the Wishing Well Curse Tour hosted by Itching for Books I sat down with author Lynn Donovan to talk about her writing. Check it out:
 
 
 
Zeke Clay is down on his luck. He’s lost everything—an apartment, an education, a girlfriend, his job… When a mysterious letter comes from a law firm in Colorado, he decides things just might be looking up. Now he stands to inherit a fortune, but it comes with a price. He must break a family curse and restore true love. What does he know about breaking a curse? And who is this Great Uncle Luther Clayton, who claims Zeke is the one? Can he piece together the clues left by his dearly departed? Who can he trust? The Apache Indian attorney? Her great nephew? The leather-clad, Harley riding Pastor? Least of all, himself? What about the Ghosts? …And why does his three-year-old tattoo bleed every time he gets near the wishing well?
 
 
 
About the Author
Lynn Donovan writes from her heart and her passion for Jesus Christ. She is a daughter, wife, mother of four and grandmother of seven who has five decades of experiences to draw from when creating her stories. She categorizes herself as the "sandwich generation" because she is caring for her mother who has Alzheimer's and is one child away from an empty nest. 

Besides blogging, Lynn enjoys reading and writing mainstream fiction and speculative fiction, but you might find a historical romance among her collections as well. She currently lives in Southwest Kansas but looks forward to building a home in Colorado. She attends a Creative Writing class at the local college to sharpen her talents and increase her creative juices. 

 
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 Hi everybody!  Vicki, thank you for having me here today. You are a lovely hostess.


  1. What inspired you to first begin writing?
I’ve always been the one who made up stories. When we played cowboys and Indians, or whatever, I was the one telling everybody how our “story” went.  When I was in my late twenties, I wanted to write and I had some interesting ideas, but just didn’t know how to get started. I took a creative writing class with my neighbor and loved it, but still just couldn’t get going. When I was in my early thirties, I sat down and starting putting my ideas into a computer and took an on-line writing course. It was during this time that The Wishing Well Curse story-line came to me. The inspiration was from Gordon Lightfoot. If You Could Read My Mind, Love.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta0a3DFUU0Y. The story was a lot different then, but it was the beginning of what you see in print today.  Almost three years ago, my mother and sister came to live with us. Mom has Alzheimer’s and my sister has special needs. She is blind and deaf and has mental limitations. So I now take care of them. But this gives me a lot of free time, so… two years ago I started writing.


  1. Why do you keep writing?
Well, again, I have a lot of free time, but now that I’ve started writing, I cannot stop. Ideas come to me from everywhere. Dreams, Car rides, vacations, news reports, you name it. Things give me ideas for stories, and I just have to get them, at least, sketched out. I hope and pray I can continue to write until I’m six feet under!


  1. What sort of habits or rituals do you have when you actually sit down to write?
Hmm.


  1.  What books would you recommend to readers just getting started in Paranormal Fiction?
I LOVE Steven King. Although I write Christian Fiction and he does not. His language is rougher than mine, but he can create an amazing, way out there, paranormal fiction. His Bag of Bones floated in my head the whole time I wrote The Wishing Well Curse.


As far as books to help one write, I recommend Jeff Gerke’s: The first 50 pages and The Art and Craft of Writing Christian Fiction, and Plot vs Character. Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King. There are many, many others, but these are what got me going.


  1. Finish this sentence: "If I wasn't writing I would..."
Read, Paint, Cook, Crochet, Go camping, Writing, oh no can’t do that…Gardening. I attend an oil painting class at the local college every semester (along with my sister) I have a lot of my paintings pinned on Pinterest. http://pinterest.com/mldonovan10/my-paintings/ And, so far, I have attended a Creative Writing class two times. It’s only offered once a year. I enjoy the creative jump start it gives me!
Other than that…Oh I know:  I have four grandkids (ages: 9, 3, 2, 1) within a 180 mile radius, I spend a lot of time talking to them on the phone and they come to visit pretty often. I also have three more in the Austin, TX area (Ages: 16, 13, and 1). We text and send pics. They make me happy!!!

Thank you Vicki, this has been fun. I love what you’ve done with your place, and that coffee cake was amazing! Did I detect almond?

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