Patricia Perry Donovan's Blog, page 3

In Race for Oscar Gold, Live Action Shorts Shine

Why am I reviewing films when a stack of books beckons? Because it’s Oscar season, and movies, even the short ones, speak volumes about storytelling. Like short stories, short films have only a limited window in which to engage their audiences. And like their literary counterparts, short films generally cede the spotlight to their more … Continue reading In Race for Oscar Gold, Live Action Shorts Shine

Winning Words: How a “Win A House” Essay Contest Inspired My Novel

Photo: Peaches&Cream What if a few hundred well-chosen words and a nominal entry fee could land you a lakefront cabin, a Maine bed and breakfast, or a Vermont weekly newspaper? This premise is not as farfetched as it sounds; the essay-contest-as-sales-technique is alive and well and capturing the fancy of thousands who submit heartfelt essays … Continue reading Winning Words: How a “Win A House” Essay Contest Inspired My Novel

Winning Words: Quirky Essay Contests Sell American Dream

Photo: Peaches&Cream What if a few hundred well-chosen words and a nominal entry fee could land you a lakefront cabin, a Maine bed and breakfast, or a Vermont weekly newspaper? This premise is not as farfetched as it sounds; the essay-contest-as-sales-technique is alive and well and capturing the fancy of thousands who submit heartfelt essays … Continue reading Winning Words: Quirky Essay Contests Sell American Dream

Resurrecting a Darling: Conclusion of Mia’s Story

Talk about a cliffhanger. I didn’t set out to make readers wait three months for the conclusion of “Still Life,” a spinoff tale about Mia Bailey, a secondary DELIVER HER character who refused to give up the ghost. But as it happened, life intervened—in the form of family demands, developmental edits for my next book, … Continue reading Resurrecting a Darling: Conclusion of Mia’s Story

NaNoWriMo 2016: Why It’s a Novel Idea for Me

Am I doing NaNoWriMo this year? Yes, but not for the obvious reasons. In spring of 2011, I rode an elevator to the eighth floor of a Manhattan office building, clutching the first pages of a short story I’d begun prior to the star of this beginners’ fiction writing class. Once I located the classroom, … Continue reading NaNoWriMo 2016: Why It’s a Novel Idea for Me

Boninovo Love Locks Burnish Suicide Safety Net

On a dizzying cliff in Boninovo, Croatia, high above the Adriatic, padlocks of all shapes and colors cling to a chain-link fence, couple’s names engraved or Sharpied on their metal flanks, their keys flung into the sea below in dramatic pledges of undying love. “Love Lock” sites like this one have multiplied around the world, from Paris to … Continue reading Boninovo Love Locks Burnish Suicide Safety Net

Resurrecting a Darling: Mia’s Story, Part 2

When we left off in Part 1 of this four-part serial, artist Mia Bailey, a DELIVER HER darling whose back story was snuffed during the novel’s editing, had returned home after receiving a troubling message from a prison case worker regarding inmate Felix Delgado, Mia’s birth father. Missed Part 1 of “Still Life?” Catch up … Continue reading Resurrecting a Darling: Mia’s Story, Part 2

Resurrecting a Darling: Mia’s Story, Part 1

Though writers are routinely advised to ‘kill their darlings,’ even accomplished authors mourn the death of those extraneous passages and characters as their fingers hover over the Delete key. Happily, technology affords writers a means of putting those darlings on ice, a digital graveyard where the dear departed can cling to the hope of a … Continue reading Resurrecting a Darling: Mia’s Story, Part 1

A Deleted DELIVER HER Romance: For Iris and Carl, What Might Have Been

To alert readers who detected a frisson of attraction between Carl Alden, the beleaguered transporter of DELIVER HER, and Iris Bailey, the White Mountain storekeeper who, with her husband Cam, comes to Carl’s aid when his teenage charge goes missing: you’re pretty perceptive. Spoiler alert: This post discusses a minor DELIVER HER plot point. In … Continue reading A Deleted DELIVER HER Romance: For Iris and Carl, What Might Have Been

On Mother’s Day, Letting Go of Past Imperfect

Make no mistake: no one would ever nominate the fictional Meg Carmody for Mother of the Year, especially after the desperate mom in DELIVER HER went behind her husband’s back and made an impetuous decision about her teenage daughter that would alter her family’s life forever. But while it’s hard to applaud Meg’s actions, some … Continue reading On Mother’s Day, Letting Go of Past Imperfect