Writer's World Archives - Donna Galanti - Where heart and hope meet adventure!

Summer fun + more Unicorn Island books to come!

Summer is nearly here! I hope you are enjoying outdoor adventures wherever you are. While this time has been hard for so many, I’ve tried to embrace this gift of time to spend with loved ones. Since we’ve been in isolation for nearly three months and my husband’s business was shut down, we’ve had more time together as a family and planned a nature excursion each week. The woods have always been where I go to find peace and solitude–it’s also where most of my story ideas are born!

Here are a few photos of our recent adventures–and I’m excited to say we’ve just added kayaks to our family adventures (my birthday gift to me since today is my birthday!). 🥰

This time has also given me more time to work on new book ideas–including a new story outline for the next book in my Unicorn Island series! Since its release digitally in May on the Epic platform in a 5-part book serial (hardcover coming May 2021), the book has done so well that Epic hired me to write more books in the series. Yay! Watch for them coming spring 2021. You can get Epic free with a 30-day trial here and access 40K titles as the leading digital library for kids 12 and under: https://www.getepic.com/

So, last year Epic hired me to write a book for middle grade readers. With our first conversation, all I knew was that they “wanted a book where a girl must take care of a unicorn.” From this grew the idea for Unicorn Island: The Secret of Lost Luck–and I had no idea of the reception it would get! I’m happy to see that Unicorn Island has made its way on to many elementary school summer reading lists. It’s also out in audio book! And if you’re looking for more adventure books then check out my Joshua and the Lightning Road series!

I’ve also had so many wonderful messages from teachers, parents, and kids telling me how much they enjoy Unicorn Island.

This one below made my day today! How cute is this? I’ve never had anyone sign it “your fan”. For some reason, they all want to know how old I am. Ha ha! (51 today!)

Another little girl truly touched my heart. Her mom reached out to me with immense gratitude this past month. Her daughter had been so depressed by the pandemic, and the most heartbreaking thing was that she hadn’t seen her dad since December as he is an essential worker working far away. The little girl discovered my Unicorn Island series and something clicked–she “got a twinkle in her eye” and couldn’t wait to read all the books.

The mom thanked me from the bottom of her heart for bringing her daughter’s spark back for the first time in months. I offered to do a Zoom video call and it was so fun! The little girl asked the smartest questions, too. She also just sent me ideas for the next books in the series. This is what makes my heart burst with joy as a children’s book author. This is so why our world needs storytellers–to inspire, give hope, and entertain when we most need it.

I’ve had several kids write and let me know that they’d like to become an author now, too.

And speaking of becoming an author–if you’re a novelist seeking to finish your first draft or revise it for publication, check out my brand new online course I just launched!

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Since today is my birthday, your gift can be to share this promotion with writers you may know! 🥰

I know these times are difficult right now still, but I hope you are finding ways to cope. Meditating is a wonderful way to achieve this. And discovering transcendental meditation last year has changed my life. I practice it daily. I’ve lost 20 lbs. I’m more focused. But most importantly, I’m no longer quick to anger and I let things go. I’m filled with peace, compassion and hope every day. I wish the whole world would meditate right now–it would be a much better place.

Wishing you peace and love!

XXOO–Donna

P.S. Here are recent messages I’ve found on walks in the park near me. I hope they inspire!

On Unicorns, Forests And Finding Gifts During A Pandemic

By Donna Galanti

We just celebrated National Unicorn Day yesterday! Why am I so excited? Because I have a book surprise coming out in May—and it involves unicorns! Can’t. Wait. To. Share! More to come … 😊

Fave Unicorn Fact: Unicorn families spend their lives alone, living in peace deep in the forest.

It’s my favorite fact because I love being alone and stepping through forests. My inner peace glows. My spirit is refreshed. And I’m so lucky to experience it every day during this pandemic through a lovely old-growth forest in my backyard.

What is an old-growth forest? They are off-the beaten path wondrous places where trees have soared undisturbed toward the sky for centuries. Here are five old-growth forests to discover in the United States and in Pennsylvania, where I live. I realized not so long ago that the woods are featured in every one of the books I write–whether published, on-submission, or being drafted right now.

As an only child growing up in the Helderberg Mountains of Upstate New York, my playground was the forest. I spent my days roaming along old rock walls with my dogs, gazing up at the sky from secret meadows, and writing my poems and stories in the nooks of old oaks. I also used to sing songs to the woods. I still walk in the woods every day but listen to the trees sing now. The woods are part of me.

And I truly believe that these magical spaces offer much-needed time away from the dire situation of the world right now. They are a gift—and help me see the gifts we’re also being handed during this crisis.

I’ve worked at home since 2005, so this new routine is a familiar one for me that I love but I know its unfamiliar for many of you. I do believe that finding peace in nature is something we can all do to help navigate the coronavirus challenge—and help us find other hidden gifts.

So, I go to the woods and empower myself with these gifts:

The alarm clock is gone. Waking up naturally is bliss.
No obligations to go anywhere, see anyone. The rush has slowed to a sweet amble.
Exercising more. Walks, bike rides. Sometimes twice a day. Losing weight: bonus!
More family time every day. More together. More dinners, laughs, talks, walks.
More family excursions. Finding those out-of-the-way places to hike and bike.
Supporting small local grocers, farmers markets, and farms with curbside grocery pick up rather than mega-supermarkets.
Meditating twice a day (Transcendental Meditation has transformed my life and helped me stay peaceful during this time).
Focusing on what I can control: my writing projects, my freelance client work, my online course projects, what I choose to eat, how I choose to exercise, how I choose to react.
Letting go of things that cause overwhelm like social media, negative people, and the news.
Practicing gratitude every day for life’s abundance and reaching out to those who need support.
Knowing we will come out of this stronger in mind and spirit.

What gifts have you found in this time of crisis? I hope you can embrace them and keep them with you long after this crisis is over. And I hope you can find that place in nature that helps your spirits soar.

Have a peaceful Easter and Passover! And watch for my book release next month. Because … unicorns! 😊

Pumpkin Pie Forever

By Donna Galanti

This was the first autumn in years I didn’t cook my pumpkins. And without pumpkins there’s no fresh pumpkin pie.

This year there would be no orange pulp to cook, puree, and squeeze through cheese cloth. No dough rolled out from my mother’s worn, wooden rolling pin. No flour dotted pages to turn on the warped old cook book (the one I didn’t need anymore as I knew the recipe by heart). It was the first cook book I ever had. The one given to me from my mother to make my first kitchen complete. The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cook Book.

This year the book would sit on a shelf. There would be no home made whip cream laced with nutmeg and vanilla to grace that gooey pumpkin custard. No flaky crust to hang down from the over sized pie dish with flowers on the bottom. My mother gave me that too.

I didn’t plan it that way. It just happened. Too busy. Too many projects. For the first time it just didn’t feel important. I had proven to my mother once that I made a better pumpkin pie than her. She said so. And the truth was in her saying.

It was even good the year she pulled my pie from the oven and with one slip of her hands she flipped it over upside down on the oven door. We looked at each other and laughed. And as the guests waited in the candle-lit dining room with the cornucopia on the table, we quickly scooped up the mush and arranged it perfectly back in the crust. No one knew.

That was before the cancer came. Her body was strong and vibrant then, like her spirit.

I think I’ve gotten my mother’s gravy down. The jury is still out. And my mother will never be able to tell me so. But I’ll know. Then there’s her southern biscuits to be made with sorghum, lemon meringue pie, and mincemeat pie.

There’s no rush. I have time ahead of me. Lots of time. And her notes in the margin to help. That swirly, on-the-go, right-slanted script I know by heart. It was shaky at the end. Unsteady and weak. But not this handwriting. The one in my cook book is dynamic and purposeful.

Like my mother. Like me.

I don’t have to prove my pumpkin pie to anyone anymore, least of all my mother. She’s been gone these last few Thanksgivings, but I know she’ll be part of my pumpkin pie forever.

Even if I don’t make it.

Middle Grade Rewind: A Day in My Life at 9

By Donna Galanti

As middle grade writers, we find joy in putting ourselves into the young characters we write about. One way I love to do this is re-visit pictures of myself as a kid.

I stare at them, sifting through specific memories connected to that photo. What was I excited about? What did I most want? What made me sad? What made me happy? What was my biggest worry?

Then I journal in that moment, bringing in all the details on the edge of that photo and just out of reach. Often the details outside the picture are the ones that tell the story of that photo. I did this recently with this photo.

Bethel Woods Campground, Holderness, New Hampshire, 1978

Bethel Woods Campground, 1978

Every day I dream about getting my first dog. I imagine she is so real that when I come home from school I run to meet her (her name will be Beauty after Black Beauty). But not yet…so while I wait, I keep busy roaming the campground we own.

It’s fun to wear my strap-on roller skates and hunt the woods for dead butterflies and shotgun shells. They make cool noise makers when you put them in old coffee cans.

I’m lucky because there are always kids here to play with and swim with at the pool (awesome for an only child like me!).

I especially love to hang out in the recreation hall and play pinball machines and records on the juke box. My favorite song is Escape by Rupert Holmes. I asked Dad what a Pina Colada is and he said it’s like a party in a glass for grownups.

Each morning as I pick rotten apples in the orchard to feed our fat hogs, I get to pretend I’m my favorite hero, Laura Ingalls from Little House in the Big Woods. Mom says we’ll even be butchering the hogs soon – just like Laura did!

Mom wants to make head cheese Like Mrs. Ingalls did (ewww!) but I want to blow up the pig’s bladder like a balloon and roast its tail over the fire, just like Laura did. Little House on the Prairie is my favorite show and sometimes I even pretend that Mr. Ingalls is my dad.

After hog feeding time, I get to gather the eggs in the chicken coop. Today I found a double yolk egg without a shell. It was see-through and wobbly just like a Weeble. Although, I think it would fall down if I wobbled it.

Tomorrow is dump day. I get to collect the trash with Dad from all the campsites (we even saw a bear last week!). It’s a totally smelly chore but the best part is that I get to stand up in the back of our 1965 Ford truck and hang onto the wood sides as we cruise to the dump. Wheeee! It’s almost as fun as snowmobiling on the camp trails in winter.

If I help Dad out good, he even promised to take me fishing on Squam Lake this weekend to use my new tackle box. I caught my first pike there last month. Dad almost crashed the boat up on the rocks just so I could reel it in!

Heading out fishing with Dad and friends, in his Boston Whaler

Oh, and there’s a big thunderstorm coming tonight so I plan to sleep on the screened-in porch and watch the lightning all night long (just don’t tell Mom, okay?). Well, time to go practice my after-dinner show for Mom and Dad. I’m singing and dancing to The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers and On The Good Ship Lollipop on my record player. I even made my own sailor and Tigger costumes (I’m a blue fuzzy Tigger in my one-piece footed pj’s, Dad’s striped tie for a tail, and Mom’s wig).

Being nine is the best. Getting a dog would make it even better.

Me and Beauty’s son, Windsor. I got to pick him out from her litter.

Now Live: Free video training series for writers & first-time authors!

By Donna Galanti

For all of you awesome writers here (and friends and family of writers), today is the day that I have to share that the project I’ve been working on for so long is LIVE! My FREE 3-part video training series on building author platform.

If you’re a first-time author or are seeking publication with your first novel, sign up to check it out HERE: https://www.yourawesomeauthorlife.com/free-author-training/

Some of you may be on my sign up list already and I hope you’ve been enjoying the weekly guides I’ve sent out.

This system I’m sharing with you helped me build a following of thousands to include loyal readers, book bloggers, librarians, and authors plus get invites to teach at conferences, present at schools, attend fan conventions — and sell more books!

Doing this project was a H-U-G-E challenge for me in facing my fears over doing video and putting myself out there. So many of my writer friends over the years have encouraged me to create a course on this and so I met their challenge .

Here’s what one new subscriber had to say about my free author platform series:
“I appreciate all of the information that you share so freely. I have really sunk my teeth into your articles and the links attached to them. I would have been lost (and potentially robbed) had I not found out about the right way to approach publishing. What you share is all tangible. It credits me as a serious writer but doesn’t go beyond what I can understand as a beginner. I have caught the entrepreneurial bug. I’m hungry for more info. Thanks Donna!”
–Patrick Kaufmann

I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for all your support and please share with any first-time authors you might know.