#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Donna Conrad
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I’d like to welcome Donna Conrad to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!
Things you need for your writing sessions:
A strong cup of Earl Grey tea, my playlist for whatever book I’m writing, inspiration and a good thesaurus.
Things that hamper your writing:
Cleaning the entire kitchen after making tea. Email alerts. [I try to ignore them, but it’s tough.] Neighbors and friends who drop by because they have some time off and want to just hang out and chat.
Hardest thing about being a writer:
That the world at large does not realize the effort that goes into writing novels—the times we stay home instead of going to a party, the times we can’t spend with friends because we are writers who write. That writing is at its heart a solitary endeavor.
Easiest thing about being a writer:
Endless story ideas. I write historical novels about women who have been marginalized throughout history. So, I have a new subject at my fingertips any time I need to write a new book.
Favorite foods: Triple cream Brie, from France, on a piece of a fresh baked baguette. If wine counts as a food, a nicely aged Côtes du Rhône, to go with the brie.
Things that make you want to gag: Cheap wine and okra. Yuck to both.
Favorite music or song:
Two songs tie for my favorites – Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, and Jeff Buckley’s cover of Lenard Cohen’s Hallelujah. I’m a Sixties child so most any Rock n’ Roll will do me just fine most of the time.
Music that drives you crazy: Overly orchestrated vocals, and gangster rap.
Something you’re really good at:
Engaging with people of all persuasions. I call it my chameleon nature. And just like a chameleon, I don’t change, I am able to adapt to the situation and the person(s) I’m speaking with, then go back to my natural way of expressing myself.
Something you’re really bad at:
I’m really bad at remembering where I left my mobile phone. It’s usually somewhere in the house or car, but I’ve had folks call my husband’s phone to let him know they found my phone in a restaurant, park, movie theater, once even in my front yard. I studied Jungian psychology in college, so I should be able to figure this one out and stop it!
Things you always put in your books: Powerful women who struggle with stereotypes and stigmas. They don’t always win, but they always keep trying.
Things you never put in your books: Gratuitous sex and violence. There are sexual and violent scenes in most of my books, but they’re not gratuitous.
Favorite places you’ve been
France – most anywhere from Paris to the Languedoc, to Provence. If it’s in France, I’m so there!
Places you never want to go to again: Florida and Texas.
Favorite things to do: Write; cuddle with my cats; go for long rides along back roads in my Miata MX5; be with my husband doing something or nothing; teaching at writers’ conferences and being with my writer-tribe.
Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Pilling my cats and writing a synopsis – especially the synopsis.
Most daring thing you’ve ever done:
Do I have to pick only one? I’ve done some pretty daring things in my life, such as having my breast autographed by Jim Morrison in his hotel room.
Facing down a cougar that was looking pretty hungry, in order to save my cat from becoming lunch. [That might count more as stupid, than daring.]
Writing honestly about my teen years was the most daring, and most rewarding.
Something you chickened out from doing:
Bungie jumping and parachuting. Something about flinging myself off great heights makes me run for the (low) hills.
The coolest person you’ve ever met: Jimi Hendrix. He was one of the kindest, sweetest, most caring people I met during the Sixties. And very cool in all ways.
The celebrity who didn’t look like he/she did in pictures/video: Janis Joplin, I only recognized her because of how she was dressed, which was unique.
The nicest thing a reader said to you:That writing so honestly about the dark aspects of my teen years in House of the Moon: Surviving the Sixties, gave her the strength to face her own demons and change her life for the better.
The craziest thing a reader said to you:“You can still talk to Jim Morrison even if he’s dead. I know you can. Do it now, I have a question for him.”
Some real-life story that made it to one of your books:
In House of the Moon: Surviving the Sixties, I tell the story of my first acid trip. I was babysitting for a woman who was dating my sister’s drug-dealing boyfriend (unbeknownst to my sister). When they came home, they gave me some LSD and we tripped together. I was only fourteen years old.
In my upcoming historical novel, The Last Magdalene, I include my first encounter with ghosts and finding my way to my mother’s bed in the small hours of the night.
Something in your story that readers think is about you, but it’s not:
In The Last Magdalene, Miriam is awakened to her sexual nature during a sensual initiation scene. At the close of the chapter, she says: “I wish it were so for every woman. That each maiden was brought to know the joys of her body by equally skillful hands.”
I feel most readers, especially if they have met me, will think this is based on my first love-making experience. Sadly it is not. To know the real “first time” read “Tryst Without Consent,” from House of the Moon: Surviving the Sixties.
Things you need for your writing sessions:
A strong cup of Earl Grey tea, my playlist for whatever book I’m writing, inspiration and a good thesaurus.
Things that hamper your writing:
Cleaning the entire kitchen after making tea. Email alerts. [I try to ignore them, but it’s tough.] Neighbors and friends who drop by because they have some time off and want to just hang out and chat.
Hardest thing about being a writer:
That the world at large does not realize the effort that goes into writing novels—the times we stay home instead of going to a party, the times we can’t spend with friends because we are writers who write. That writing is at its heart a solitary endeavor.
Easiest thing about being a writer:
Endless story ideas. I write historical novels about women who have been marginalized throughout history. So, I have a new subject at my fingertips any time I need to write a new book.
Favorite foods: Triple cream Brie, from France, on a piece of a fresh baked baguette. If wine counts as a food, a nicely aged Côtes du Rhône, to go with the brie.
Things that make you want to gag: Cheap wine and okra. Yuck to both.
Favorite music or song:
Two songs tie for my favorites – Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, and Jeff Buckley’s cover of Lenard Cohen’s Hallelujah. I’m a Sixties child so most any Rock n’ Roll will do me just fine most of the time.
Music that drives you crazy: Overly orchestrated vocals, and gangster rap.
Something you’re really good at:
Engaging with people of all persuasions. I call it my chameleon nature. And just like a chameleon, I don’t change, I am able to adapt to the situation and the person(s) I’m speaking with, then go back to my natural way of expressing myself.
Something you’re really bad at:
I’m really bad at remembering where I left my mobile phone. It’s usually somewhere in the house or car, but I’ve had folks call my husband’s phone to let him know they found my phone in a restaurant, park, movie theater, once even in my front yard. I studied Jungian psychology in college, so I should be able to figure this one out and stop it!
Things you always put in your books: Powerful women who struggle with stereotypes and stigmas. They don’t always win, but they always keep trying.
Things you never put in your books: Gratuitous sex and violence. There are sexual and violent scenes in most of my books, but they’re not gratuitous.
Favorite places you’ve been: France – most anywhere from Paris to the Languedoc, to Provence. If it’s in France, I’m so there!
Places you never want to go to again: Florida and Texas.
Favorite things to do: Write; cuddle with my cats; go for long rides along back roads in my Miata MX5; be with my husband doing something or nothing; teaching at writers’ conferences and being with my writer-tribe.
Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Pilling my cats and writing a synopsis – especially the synopsis.
Most daring thing you’ve ever done:
Do I have to pick only one? I’ve done some pretty daring things in my life, such as having my breast autographed by Jim Morrison in his hotel room.
Facing down a cougar that was looking pretty hungry, in order to save my cat from becoming lunch. [That might count more as stupid, than daring.]
Writing honestly about my teen years was the most daring, and most rewarding.
Something you chickened out from doing:
Bungie jumping and parachuting. Something about flinging myself off great heights makes me run for the (low) hills.
The coolest person you’ve ever met:Jimi Hendrix. He was one of the kindest, sweetest, most caring people I met during the Sixties. And very cool in all ways.
The celebrity who didn’t look like he/she did in pictures/video: Janis Joplin, I only recognized her because of how she was dressed, which was unique.
The nicest thing a reader said to you:That writing so honestly about the dark aspects of my teen years in House of the Moon: Surviving the Sixties, gave her the strength to face her own demons and change her life for the better.
The craziest thing a reader said to you:“You can still talk to Jim Morrison even if he’s dead. I know you can. Do it now, I have a question for him.”
Some real-life story that made it to one of your books:
In House of the Moon: Surviving the Sixties, I tell the story of my first acid trip. I was babysitting for a woman who was dating my sister’s drug-dealing boyfriend (unbeknownst to my sister). When they came home, they gave me some LSD and we tripped together. I was only fourteen years old.
In my upcoming historical novel, The Last Magdalene, I include my first encounter with ghosts and finding my way to my mother’s bed in the small hours of the night.
Something in your story that readers think is about you, but it’s not:
In The Last Magdalene, Miriam is awakened to her sexual nature during a sensual initiation scene. At the close of the chapter, she says: “I wish it were so for every woman. That each maiden was brought to know the joys of her body by equally skillful hands.”
I feel most readers, especially if they have met me, will think this is based on my first love-making experience. Sadly it is not. To know the real “first time” read “Tryst Without Consent,” from House of the Moon: Surviving the Sixties.
About Donna:
Donna Conrad is an award-winning author, journalist, activist, and teacher. Her core values revolve around the concept of individual empowerment, a sustaining ideal running through the books she writes. Her writing interests are varied and include articles for fine-art periodicals, memoir/narrative non-fiction, as well as historical, flash, and paranormal fiction. She is a regular presenter at writers' conferences.
Her first published book, "House of the Moon: Surviving the Sixties," has received rave reviews.
Donna's life is as varied as her writing. She embraces change as an exciting adventure. She has studied writing with the likes of Alan Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Jack Whyte. Her upcoming four-book historical fiction series, The Magdalene Chronicles" has been acquired by Cold Creek Press. Book One, "The Last Magdalene," will be released April 2024. She is represented by Abundantly Social.
She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and their three cats. When she's not writing, you can find Donna cruising the back roads in her black-on-black Miata MX-5, Maya - named for one of her favorite poets, Maya Angelou.
