Swift Six Author Interview – Donna Marie West #Scifi
Name: Donna Marie West
Please introduce yourself (250 words or so): I am a Canadian educator, translator, author, and freelance editor. I’ve loved the written word as far back as elementary school, but I only started writing seriously around the age of 40. I’ve now published some 500 drabbles, short stories, and non-fiction articles in a wide variety of Canadian and American magazines, web sites, and anthologies. I love the unusual, unexplained, and mysterious, and I’ve written quite a few stories and nonfiction pieces using using these themes.
I’ve always been involved in horses and they still make up part of my day job. In my free time, I like to read, watch TV, and do research for my current projects. I’m actually one of those strange people who loves to do research! I live in Québec, Canada, with my long-time partner and two beloved kitties.
Tell us about your book(s) – title, genre etc (short): The title of my current novel is The Mud Man, published by Manta Press in 2022. It’s about the discovery of a man’s body in thawing permafrost soil, only it turns out that he is actually still alive! Veronica, the archaeologist who becomes his guardian as he recovers from his ordeal, and Dom, the Mud Man, learn to communicate, and eventually he is able to tell the people around him about his life in neolithic British Columbia. The question remains as to whether he will be able to adapt to living in the modern world. I consider the story to be New Adult contemporary fiction, with nuances of history, science, and prehistoric versus modern culture. I suppose it can be classified as science fiction, if I have to put it in a slot.
When did you start your writing adventure? What was the inspiration for it? I’ve been writing seriously for about twenty years. As far as The Mud Man goes, it was inspired by the many reports of discoveries of frozen animals in thawing ice or permafrost and, especially, the viruses, bacteria, and worms that have actually been revived and found to thrive after being frozen for thousands (in some cases, many thousands) of years. Then there was the discovery of Otzi the Iceman, a frozen (but very dead) 5000-year-old body found in the Tyrolean Alps a few years back. I wondered what might happen if somehow, someone like him could be found frozen but alive. And Dom the mud man was born.
What writing plans do you have for the future? I am working on a religious/alternative history series I call The Line of the Blood. Book one, Next in Line, was published in 2020 and received great reviews, but it was pulled from publication when the publisher closed their doors. So, I am currently looking for a new publisher for this series. I hate the idea of self-publishing but of course, that remains an option if no alternatives pop up.
What do you like to read? The same things I like to write: paranormal, mysterious, religious history, alternative history. So, anything that touches on those themes, fiction or nonfiction.
What piece of advice do you wish you’d had when you’d started your writing adventure? Write what you are inspired to write, and don’t listen to anyone who laughs at you or tells you you’re wasting your time.
Author bio and book synopsis
Bio: Donna Marie West is a Canadian educator, translator, author, and freelance editor. She has published some 500 drabbles, short stories, and non-fiction articles in a wide variety of Canadian and American magazines, web sites, and anthologies. She loves the unusual, unexplained, and mysterious, and often finds ways to weave these themes into her stories.
Donna spends her precious free time reading, writing, and doing research for her current projects. She lives in Québec, Canada, with her long-time partner and two beloved kitties
SYNOPSIS OF THE MUD MAN:
When archeologist Veronica Booth is called to consult on a dig in northern BC, she expects to see the usual remnants of neolithic jewelry and tools. Never in her wildest dreams does she imagine finding a man’s body preserved in a thawing bog. More shocking still—he’s alive!
The mud man, as Veronica comes to think of him, is medevacked to the hospital suffering from multiple traumatic injuries, frostbite, and extreme dehydration, He carries no identification, and the remaining shreds of his leather clothing reveal no zippers, buttons, or tags. Veronica, suspecting he may be more than an indigenous hunter who has suffered a tragic accident, becomes his guardian.
The mud man matches no missing persons report and his DNA is like nothing on record, although he has markers found in several Native American tribes. Carbon-14 dating of his clothing and other items come back with the unbelievable date of 9,500 years! His doctor tells Veronica that the patient is loaded with a previously unknown, seemingly mutated form of the Bacillus F. bacteria, which he hopes to eradicate with antibiotics.
Veronica learns that three-million-year-old specimens of Bacillus F. found in thawing permafrost soil in Siberia proved to be alive and thriving. Some Russian scientists even believe it could double the human lifespan. She can’t help speculating if the mud man’s bacterial infection could explain his miraculous survival.
Weeks pass, and the mud man regains consciousness, although he is not unscathed—doctors were unable to restore circulation in his toes or the ends of his fingers, which have had to be amputated. When the hospital insists that the patient be transferred to a long-term care facility, Veronica has him moved to the private hospital run by her ex-husband, Dr. Walter Cooper. While she genuinely has the invalid’s best interests at heart, Walter sees this man with no identity as the perfect donor for his well-intentioned but questionably ethical stem cell and gene therapy treatments for traumatic brain injuries.
As he regains his strength and learns to manage basic daily activities the man, who calls himself Dom, confirms Veronica’s suspicions. He has no concept of the modern world. Veronica, her assistant Chloe McLean, and Ty Forestall, the Native American nurse/physical therapist assigned to Dom painstakingly learn to communicate with him. Dom proves to be a gifted storyteller, and they learn that the mutated bacteria that kept him alive while frozen for millennia also extended his natural life—he appears to be in his mid or late thirties, but he’s actually three times that age.
Veronica has been documenting everything, and somewhere along the way, her scientific objectivity and personal motives are superseded by a desperate hope that Dom will recover from his grief over everything he has lost and learn to live happily in the modern world.
Meanwhile, Dr. Cooper has been using samples of Dom’s stem cells and other genetic material to treat his patients, with encouraging results. When Veronica refuses to let him continue using Dom as a lab rat, they agree that there is only one alternative.
A year after he was dug out of the mud, Veronica and Walter propose that Dom take them to the place where they suspect he was infected by the mutated Bacillus F. bacteria. He agrees. Walter arranges the trip for himself, Veronica, Dom, Chloe, Veronica’s mentor, and a wilderness guide recommended by Ty.
They find the site, and Walter takes samples of soil and water, hoping that back in his laboratory he will find the bacteria with the miraculous properties. After that, as promised, they take Dom to his people’s homeland north of Tetachuk Lake. But once they reach their destination, they learn— too late—that Dom has plans of his own.
Links/Social media:
https://www.amazon.com/author/donnamarie.westhttps://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7876668.Donna_Marie_West
https://www.facebook.com ; https://www.mantapress.com
Link for purchase on Amazon.com: https://a.co/d/cSe0jQl
Link for purchase on Amazon.ca: https://a.co/d/jfa6Bny
Link for purchase on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61032314-the-mud-man
