Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Author Interview -- Donna Fasano


I'm a book lover -- both print AND Kindle.  My Kindle recently met its demise (startled awake girl + startled awake cat + full glass of water = ordering a new Kindle).  One of the things I find lovely are authors who share their books on the Kindle for .99.  How can you not love that????  If I read one and am hooked, I'll pay whatever for the next however many.

Today, Donna Fasano, author of over thirty novels, visits us for an interview.

 


1. Who would you would like your readers to know you are? 


I’d like to offer a sweet, slick response and say I consider myself a polished and professional writer, but that would be a bold face lie (I’m chuckling as I type this and hope my readers are, too). First and foremost, I’m a wife, mother, sister, aunt, loyal friend and avid volunteer who lends a hand, a strong back, a shoulder to lean on, a listening ear and anything else those I love might need. It just so happens that I was blessed with the ability to create characters and stories that readers have found entertaining, and I am appreciative of this gift of Muse (or amusing gift, as it most often turns out to be) that I’ve been given.


2. When did you first know that you wanted to write? What inspired you to start? 


My husband deserves all the blame for this one. Most authors know from very early in their lives that they are destined to write. I came to writing through my love of reading. I’ve had my nose in a book since I was a kid. When my youngest child started school and I was considering taking a part-time job, my husband looked at the piles of books sitting around our house and said, “You’ve read enough of these; why don’t you try writing one?” I thought he was nuts! But he planted a seed that sprouted and grew. 



3. How would you describe the style of your writing? 


Wow. I don’t really know. I wait for characters to show up in my head and start talking—to each other, to me, to themselves. I see the story unfold in my mind like a movie, and I sit down and type as fast as I can, describing everything I see and hear and feel. While that process is taking place, I laugh, I cry, I cringe, I gasp, but I do all I can to describe to my reader what I’m experiencing in my head. It’s as if my mind is the stage, my fingers on the keyboard are the narrator, the recorder, the camera. As I re-read that description, I can’t help but think it falls far short of what I feel is an awesome and mysterious event. Writing, for me, is…mystical. I don’t really know how or why it happens, it just does, and I am grateful.


4. Tell about some of your books. How did you come up with the premise for The Merry-Go-Round? 



At first, all I knew was that I wanted to write on the subject of divorce. But I wanted to create a divorce story that was different from what I had ever read in the past. I knew I wanted to begin with the actual divorce proceedings, and then I wanted to set my protagonist’s world spinning until she didn’t know which end was up. I can only hope I succeeded. 



5. What was your creative process for determining the cover image of Taking Love in Stride?
 



I love that cover! There was no 'process' really. I knew the picture fit the characters perfectly the moment I saw it. The story is about two type-A personalities who clash with a very romantic result; one is a businessman, the other a gym teacher with a penchant for stilettos.


6. What inspired you to write Mountain Laurel




I used to vacation in the forests of mountainous Western Maryland, USA. It was there that I came up with the idea for Mountain Laurel. The Allegheny Mountains are breath-taking. I think it was the scenery that first inspired me for this book. I knew I wanted to set a story there. Slowly, the characters and plot took form.



7. Are you working on anything new that you'd like to share? 


I wrote romance novels for Harlequin/Silhouette for over 20 years. Donna Clayton was the pen name I used to write contemporary romance novels, and I wrote women's fiction under my real name, Donna Fasano. I’ve recently acquired the publication rights to my first eleven novels. These books are emotion-packed, contemporary romances that won awards for me and got my name on several series best-seller lists. Mountain Laurel and Taking Love in Stride are two of these books, and I hope to publish the third, Return of the Runaway Bride, before the end of this month.


8. Where can we find your books? 

Readers can find my books in Amazon's Kindle Store, in B&N's NookBook Store, and at Smashwords.com. My e-books are also available for Sony, Kobo, Diesel, iPad/iPhone and other e-readers. If readers prefer paperback novels, my books can be purchased through Amazon.com. Just go to Amazon and plug my name into the search box.



I'd like to thank Lori for this opportunity! It's only through blogs like Lori's that authors like me can get the word out about our books.


Additional information:

Follow me on my blog: www.DonnaFasano.blogspot.com
Follow me on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/DonnaFaz
Follow me on Facebook: www.FaceBook.com/donna.fasano



Links to my books at Amazon's Kindle Store:





2 comments:

  1. Interesting interview..it's always nice to get "inside the author's head" and how the process works. Thanks for sharing with us!

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  2. nice interview. I love hearing the motivation behind books and how the author came to writing.

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