**Author Peek** Interview with Donna Schlachter
**Author Peek** Interview with
DONNA SCHLACHTER!
INTRODUCING…Donna.
Before we get started talking about your writing, tell us a little about yourself, where you’re from, what you do for a living (if you’re not a full – time writer) what hobbies you have, etc. Whatever you’d like to share to introduce yourself.
I am a Canadian by birth, American by choice. I was born in Newfoundland, Canada, which is where my book, The Physics of Love, is set. I am an accountant by training, a writer by calling. I also proofread legal transcripts, and am a full-time wife and homemaker. I am married to the best man in the world, Patrick, who fully supports my writing and has pushed me when I wanted to give up. I love to read, watch DVD’s (I hate commercials), and live a fairly quiet, clean, boring life. Which is probably why I like to write—so I can live vicariously through my characters.
1. How did you get started writing?
I heard about NaNoWriMo, and wondered if I had at least one book in me. So I sat down to write the first in my mystery series, since I love reading mysteries. I started on November 11th—I know, NaNoWriMo starts on November 1st—and was already behind when I got writing. Wrote about 45,000 words and realized I didn’t know whodunit. So I stopped writing for an entire day until I figured that out, then finished the book by writing 7500 words on November 30th to reach my 50,000 words goal. Then I had to go back and re-write the book about 3 times to make it passable.
2. What genre(s) do you write in and why?
I write historical suspense. I love mysteries, as I said already, probably because I am very legalistic and love justice. In mysteries, the bad guy is always caught and pays the price. I discovered a love for history when my husband and I were preparing to travel and I needed to think of a way to make it a business trip. So I said, “let’s go to a museum and I’ll set a book there.” Well, I didn’t write that book—at least, not yet—but I did find some great stories about the Pony Express, which I have written about.
3. What do you think about when you’re alone in your car?
Since I don’t drive—I know, gasp!—my husband is just about always with me in the car. But when I am alone, I’m usually plotting in the next stop along the way into our GPS, or wondering how this town got its name or whether I can fit in just one more cemetery today.
4. What is your favorite part of writing?
Writing “The End”. No matter how well the writing has gone, or how easy the characters were to work with, there is something very satisfying about those two words.
5. What is your least favorite part of writing?
Editing. I once said to hubby, “I wish I could just write and let someone else do the editing.” Wise man that he is, he responded, “Then you’d never get any better because you wouldn’t learn how to correct your mistakes.” He is right.
6. Pick two celebrities to be your parents. Who would they be and why?
Agatha Christie and Sean Connery. She because of her love for the mystery, and he because he just gets better-looking the older he gets.
7. Where do you get the ideas for your stories?
Magazine articles, stories in the newspaper, cemeteries, obituaries, museums, old books, the lyrics of a song.
8. Tell me about your ideal reader .
He or she – but probably she – loves to read historical suspense set between 1860 and 1960, and is willing to wait six months to a year until my next book comes out. My ideal reader wants a clean read written from a Christian worldview. That’s just who I am.
9. What is your “go to” routine that helps you get in the mood to write? Special beverage? Music? Etc.
I start with prayer. Focusing on my source is important to me.
10. Tell us about your next book & when is it being published?
The Physics of Love releases October 31st at www.amazon.com
Short blurb: a woman looking for love, a boy looking for family, and the man who found both.
Longer blurb: Set in 1930’s and 1940’s Newfoundland, this story is as rugged as the island setting. Years of struggling to survive in a harsh environment have created a unique group of people, isolated by the miles of ocean surrounding them who long to connect with each other. Laura, motherless since she was 12, has sought her father’s love and attention ever since; however, his heart is buried with his dead wife. He has nothing to give. Richard, the son born of a backseat liaison sure to anger her father, stands between the life Laura thinks she wants and the life she will be relegated to in the small town of Carbonear. So she does the unthinkable—she leaves him. Richard grows up thinking Laura is his sister, only to learn when he is a teenager that she is his mother, that his father is really his grandfather, and that the woman he calls Mom isn’t even related to him by blood. But instead of destroying him, Richard sets out on a journey to prove he is wanted and he is part of a family that would love him if they really knew him. In the process, he finds everything—and more—that he longs for.
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Links to Donna’s website, blog, books, etc.
Paperback: http://amzn.to/2eYygc0
www.HiStoryThruTheAges.wordpress.com
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/DonnaSchlachter
