Donna's Muse Papers

I joined an on-line discussion on book signings recently. It reminded me that some of my most successful book events were held in venues other than book stores. I’ve read and signed in coffee shops, a restaurant, a university, tack shops (horse supplies and riding attire), feed stores, elementary schools, and art galleries. My writing journey began in 1999 when my first children’s historical fiction novel was published by Coastal Carolina Press. CCP was great in that they set up several book events for me, some in book stores and others in less traditional places including a university, where I was part of a panel of authors speaking to a large group. It was so scary! Schools are one of my favorite venues for signing my children’s historical fiction books. I visit schools and do programs about the history of North Carolina’s wild horses and colonial history as both are the inspiration for Pale as the Moon, Bear Song, and An Independent Spirit . When my series of horse book...

I’ve just released my first novel for grownups! Yes, I do have four books written for the 18+ readership, but those are non-fiction horse books. In the fiction genre I have previously written for kids. You can visit my website www.donnacampbellsmith.com and see all about the horse books and the kid’s fiction. I’ve been a fan of mystery stories since I was a little girl and found my mother’s box of Campfire Girls books. My Aunt Myrtle introduced me to the Beverly Gray mysteries by Clair Blank when she gave me some for a Christmas gift. I grew up and read Agatha Christie, Mary Roberts Rhineheart, Mary Higgins Clark, and I absolutely love the “Cat Who. . . “ books by Lilian Jackson Braun. So, I don’t know why it has taken so long for me to write my own cozy mystery novel, In the Garden with the Pruning Shears . Click to order book I did not start out with the intention to write a mystery novel. In fact, it all started with a writing prompt on a writers’ forum: The Writer...

My friend Jackie Dove-Miller is a poet and a spoken word artist. She writes about things that matter to women. She gets into the heart and soul of what women feel. Her voice is the voice of a best friend, a mother, a pastor, a teacher, a counselor. She tells us to re-examine who we think we are, to stop listening to those voices telling us we are not good enough, because we are women who CAN. I met Jackie when we were volunteers for the Obama campaign in 2008. We quickly learned we both were writers and I invited her to a writers’ group meeting. She shared her poems and they made me cry. How did she, a black woman, know this white woman’s truth? Jackie’s words show that we women share a common truth that transcends race, culture, or background. Sometimes the words are laced with humor, to help us bear our internal truths, and then the eternal truth shines through, that we are ALL God’s children. That knowledge lifts us up out of despair and hold us up as we walk forward, na...