Born in Ohio and raised there and in
Rhode Island, I moved to California in high school and now live in the
Sacramento area with my husband Paul, my son and my daughter. You may
have seen Paul mentioned in many of my book dedications. He’s
terrifically supportive and very inspiring. Until recently, we had a
sweet dog named Murphy and a charming cat named Scooter. We lost both of
them last year to the ravages of old age, but they will live on forever,
not only in our hearts, but in Murph’s case, also in my September 2006
Bombshell SPIN CONTROL, which was dedicated to him and stars a little
puppy named Murphy. (Meanwhile, my daughter recently brought home a
long-haired Chihuahua puppy named Peanut, and even though we weren’t
really ready for another dog yet, the little devil has charmed us
completely.)
I’m an attorney as well as a writer. I also love to cook. For
relaxation, I write stories that will never, ever sell but that I just
love playing around with. As you can imagine, I love to read, although I
don’t do enough of it any more. I adore movies and am addicted to
several TV shows. Currently, I’m into Rome, Heroes, 24, and
Supernatural, with a couple of situation comedies thrown in for good
measure.
I’m asked this all the time, and my feeling is that ideas are
everywhere, but if you’re not in the mood to receive them, they won’t do
you any good. What’s the right mood? I guess I’d describe it as
“playfully receptive.” If you’re trying too hard, it won’t work. For
example, if you’re looking for a “blockbuster” idea, you’re putting way
too much pressure on yourself and your imagination. But if it’s just for
fun – a way to spend a nice, meaningless hour or so while you wait for a
bus or dry your hair – you’ll find ideas everywhere. I’m always in the
mood to play around with some goofy, dead-end plot, so reading the
paper, or watching a traffic jam, or hearing a new song – or an old
song, or any song – pretty much sends me flying for a pad and pencil.
Learn to play “what if?” for your own amusement – What if I found out I
was a witch? What if I picked up the wrong suitcase at the airport and
it was filled with money? What if that creaking sound in the hallway in
the middle of the night… Well, you get the idea (although I don’t
recommend that last one if you’re home alone).
In the idea game, it helps to be a born escapist always looking for
something to think about that has nothing to do with bills, or chores,
or deadlines. That’s me. But if you’re not an escapist by nature, learn
to be one. Put aside your feelings of responsibility, adultness and
guilt, and start daydreaming. Begin with something you know. If you’re
worried about the bills, make up a story about a woman just like you who
wins the lottery. Have fun with it. If you’re worried about a clogged
drain, imagine getting the darned thing unclogged, then coming back five
minutes later to find another, thicker clog accompanied by scary,
rumbling noises that sound like words being growled out deep in the
pipes. Something very sinister is going on down there!
Or my favorite – just soak in a bubble bath and let your mind wander.
The ideas will come to you. If they don’t, give them some ammo. Think
about the last movie you saw that had an unsatisfying ending, and write
a new ending for it in your head. Once you stimulate your imagination
that way, other ideas will follow, and pretty soon, you’ll have more
plots than you know what to do with, and you can throw away the
movie-ending one in favor of a fresh new story that’s all yours.
And remember, you don’t always have to start with the plot. Sometimes,
just imagining someone – a new imaginary friend or foe or lover – and
then having a conversation with them about their day, or the weather, or
a current event, will trigger an entire book. And even if it turns into
a silly story that no sane publisher would ever look twice at, you’ve
had a fun time with it. Enjoy it, then let it fade away. I promise you,
it’s not really gone. It’s in the back of your mind, waiting for you to
take it out and play with it again someday when you’re really, really
bored. And that next time, it might just morph into a useable plot! (But
if it doesn’t, who cares? Not you, you crazy escapist! You’re in it for
the fun at this point, and I predict you’ll have a blast if you give
this a playful try.)
I honestly believe writer’s block is a GOOD thing, because for me,
it’s almost always a signal that I’m about to make a mistake,
writing-wise. When I reach a part of a story where I stare at a blank
page (or computer screen) and just feel like the words won’t come, I
don’t fight it. I take it as a sign that I’m not ready to write that
scene yet – or worse, I’m approaching it all wrong – so I try the
following tricks.
First, if there’s time, I just go work on a completely different story
for a while. That’s wonderful medicine for writer’s block. While you’re
concentrating on the new one, your brain is working out problems, plots
and pitfalls in the other one behind your back, so when you return to
the first one, it often flows smoothly.
Alternatively, I jump ahead and write a different scene in the same
book. I almost always write the scenes of my book out of order, and I’m
pretty sure that’s why I rarely get writer’s block in the first place.
Rather than force a scene, I jump ahead, and it can be extremely
illuminating. Here’s a little example of why this trick is so useful:
I was working on a story where a princess decided to accompany a dashing
hero to a faraway land. This princess was very close to her father the
king, and I had great plans for the scene where she finally told him she
was leaving. I envisioned a poignant, tearful farewell, and I couldn’t
wait to write it. But every time I tried, the scene fell flat.
Finally I skipped ahead to the scene where she and the hero were packing
up his tent. He asked “How did your father react when you told him you
were leaving?” and she said, “Tell him? Are you insane? If the king
suspects – even for a minute – what we’re planning, he’ll lock me up and
never let me see you again.” With tears in her eyes, she added, “We will
leave without saying farewell. He will be furious and broken hearted.
And my heart will be broken too. But tell him? Never.”
Clearly, my subconscious was miles ahead of me! I was still discovering
the plot – the nuances – but that didn’t mean the plot wasn’t already
plotted. It was a living, breathing, albeit imaginary, entity, and it
simply wasn’t going to let me screw things up!
I’ve had the same experience when I just can’t make a scene work, then
suddenly realize that if I simply switch the Point of View character, it
writes itself. In any case, writer’s block tells me there’s something’s
wrong with the set-up, and either it will come to me naturally if I
don’t rush it, or I can start exploring options like setting and POV, or
as mentioned above I can jump ahead and see if someone in the future
knows why the scene isn’t working.
Writer’s block is a good thing. Embrace it. Make it work for you.
If none of the solutions described above help, then the book just hasn’t
percolated long enough in your head yet and you need to give it time. So
just write something else. Something you don’t care about at all, just
for the fun of it.
And be aware of the times when Writer’s Block isn’t the culprit. Because
if something else is terribly wrong or distracting in the rest of your
life, sometimes you need to deal with that before your brain will let
you write. For me, that has happened with the death of a loved one. I’m
too numb to write, sometimes for weeks or months. For other writers, the
death of a loved one inspires hundreds of pages of words that come
pouring out, so we’re all different that way. If that’s the kind of
block you’re experiencing, give yourself a break. That scene – that book
– those characters – will wait for you, and when you’re ready, they’ll
welcome you back. I promise.
Well, the good news is, I finally got the rights back to the first two
books – A DREAM APART and A DREAM EMBRACED. I had to do that before I
could try to find a publisher for the rest of the series, since Pinnacle
wasn’t interested. Now my agent and I are trying to decide what the next
move should be.
There will be seven books in all someday, chronicling the further
adventures of Aaric the Moonshaker, Kerreya, Jason and Eric, and of
course, Molly and Matthew. Will Aaric find true love? Please don’t ever
doubt that. Will the lake wizards try to ruin everything? Of course. Are
Jason and Eric the twins whose rebirth was foretold so many centuries
ago? Hmmm….
As you witness the rebirth of the mounds civilization, you will also see
some incongruous love affairs, most notably, AJ and Nikki. Yes, Molly’s
half-sister is a lake witch, albeit a reluctant one, sent on a mission
to recover the copper ax. But she doesn’t count on falling in love with
AJ, and must make some amazing sacrifices - perhaps even her life - to
remain true to him.
So many of you have written to me since the series debuted in 1995, and
I’ve done my best to keep track. But please feel free to contact me at
www.katedonovan@hotmail.com
again with more current info so that I can let
you know when, and how, the rest of the books become available. In the
meantime, please know how much it means to me that you appreciate this
story, which is truly my favorite, my inspiration, and my life’s work.
If anyone knew how many weird paranormal stories I have underway,
either on paper or in my head, they’d lock me up. For those of you who
enjoy those sorts of stories, I hope I can supply one soon. There’s a
ghost story, a UFO, a psychic, and a telepath, along with a vampire
story (where the vampire’s a bad guy, so it’s a little out of step with
current tastes), and a reincarnation romance that’s a lot like TT, only
different. I’ll keep you posted. I’m so busy with Bombshell I’m not
actively trying to sell paranormal at the moment, but part of me yearns
to get back to it, so at the first opportunity, I will.
CHARADE -- October 2007; Book Three in
the new Athena Force series. The new ATHENA FORCE books will be
published one per month from August 2007 through July 2008 as single
continuity titles (much like the Mediterranean Nights series, which is
currently on the shelves). You can see the first two covers at
www.amazon.com and
www.barnesandnoble.com, and hopefully,
mine will be up there soon too. The lineup is:
LINE OF SIGHT by Rachel Caine
THE GOOD THIEF by Judith Leon
CHARADE by Kate Donovan Read Excerpt
VENDETTA by Meredith Fletcher
STACKED DECK by Terry Watkins
MOVING TARGET by Lori A. May
BREATHLESS by Sharron McClellan
WITHOUT A TRACE by Sandra K. Moore
FLASHPOINT by Connie Hall
BENEATH THE SURFACE by Meredith Fletcher
UNTOUCHABLE by Stephanie Doyle
DISCLOSURE by Nancy Holder
