Life & Work with Donna Black of Fayetteville, GA

 

Today we’d like to introduce you to Donna Black

Hi Donna, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Though I had done technical writing since college, I was in my early thirties when the fiction writing bug bit – relatively late compared to most writers. I started writing character sketches with the goal of having the reader see exactly what I was seeing when I described one of the many interesting people I encountered working in downtown Atlanta.

As the Fulton County arborist and later an Environmental Planner, I was constantly in contact with environmental issues in the metro area. One of the big ones was water quality and water supply. One day, I had an idea for a three pronged story involving a dire water shortage in Atlanta, a developer with potential destructive ego, and a woman desperately trying to balance a job in development that she loved and a family she adored. That was the impetus for my first novel, Risk Tolerance. It explores what the characters are willing to risk to gain what they desire.

The original goal was to write a complete novel. Frankly, I envisioned it sitting on my shelf in a three-ring binder. However, during the many years it took to write Risk Tolerance – while I was working in development and raising children – publishing on demand became available, so it was eventually published.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There was so much I didn’t know about fiction writing when I started. After working on my first novel, Risk Tolerance, for years, I joined a writer’s critique group with my precious and clever manuscript clutched to my chest. After a few rounds of critique comments from my fellow writers, I believe one my critiquers wrote more words in her comments than I wrote in the entire book. I will be forever indebted to her for that master’s class. I entered a steep learning curve. That curve continues, several years later, by the way. Writers will acknowledge that editing is never truly finished.

Also, the more one learns about writing, the more critical we become of our own work, so it is always a quest to write more clearly, more cleverly, more engagingly.

After self-publishing a few books, I’m now seeking an agent for traditional publishing of the next ones. Querying, as the process is called, is meat-grinder experience for writers, with rejection after rejection. For example, The Hunger Games was rejected sixty time before being published. It can be tough to keep at it.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
A few years ago, I left a career in real estate development to write full time. It would be easier to market my work, if I would stick to a single genre, but I can’t do that. Currently, I write a weekly natural history column for the Newnan Times Herald. The essays are posted as my ‘Wild Things’ blog. donnablackwrites.wordpress.com

I’ve written two books of poetry which explore a wide range of topics with an emphasis on nature and its intersection with humanity. Those are “Rain and Wind,’ and ‘Lucid Dreams.’

Then there’s the fiction, which consumes much of my creative time. After writing a couple of ‘heavy topic books,’ one about an emotional affair and one about escaping domestic violence, I needed some lighter fare. Lately, I’ve been working on a two-book series of magical realism. The genre is set in the real world with just enough magic to keep things interesting. Mine add humor and a bit of romance to the magic. These will be fun, escapist reads.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
We were always outside as kids, chasing butterflies, playing in the woods, and exploring. My fascination with nature has been a huge part of me since my beginning. I later studied biological sciences, formally. The study continues as I explore the natural world the greater depth.

I was the quiet kid, the cloud watcher, the dreamer. I now understand that I’m somewhat dyslexic which made it very difficult to learn to read, so I was not a voracious reader like my brilliant sister. It’s ironic that I’m now the writer since reading is the on-ramp to writing. But playing out conversations and scenes in my rich imagination all these years has finally found a outlet.

Pricing:

• Risk Tolerance $14.99
• The Memory Editor $9.99
• Rain and Wind – Collected Poems $9.99
• Lucid Dreams – Collected Poems $9.99
• Help! I Want to Write But… $6.99

Contact Info:

• Website: https://donnablackwrites.wordpress.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/donnablackwrites
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donnablackwrites
• Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/donnablackwrite

Image Credits
All photos by Donna H. Black