Donna Galanti - Where heart and hope meet adventure!

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Enter to Win a Copy of Unicorn Island plus Reviews, Podcasts & a New Course for Writers!

By Donna Galanti

Thank you everyone for helping me celebrate the release of Unicorn Island this past month! Watch for book 2, Secret Beneath the Sand, launching digitally in a 5-part serial first on the Epic! platform starting May 10.

I also ran away to this farmhouse in the woods at the end of February to get a new middle grade novel completed and sent to my literary agent. It includes adventure with lakes, loons, campgrounds, and the Appalachian Trail. I can’t wait to tell you more about it someday!



It was a rough week after retreat as I had surgery to remove my pesky little gallbladder, but I’ve been comforted by so many wonderful friends who’ve called, texted, emailed, sent flowers, and delivered food! I’m hoping to turn the corner any day soon. 😊

🦄 And now for fun unicorn stuff! Check out an interview on Literary Rambles this week PLUS go there to enter to win an illustrated hardcover copy of Unicorn Island!

Check out this wrap up of Unicorn Island news from this past month:

  • Here’s a new recording I did with Teaching Books. Listen to me talk about the backstory of Unicorn Island, an excerpt from the book, and how my childhood helped me write magical stories! And here’s a recording of my name, its history, and what I think of it. 😊
  • 5 Things to Like About Unicorn Island with Always in the Middle book blog plus a review. “Will for sure capture your imagination.”
  • Read an excerpt of Unicorn Island on The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow plus a review. “Anyone who enjoys magic will fall right into this story.”
  • A fun interview plus 3 fun facts about unicorns on Word Spelunking book blog!
  • Video podcast with Middle Grade Ninja where we talk writing, Unicorn Island, plus a ghost story!
  • Interview plus review on Geo Librarian blog. Find out my favorite part of writing! “A fun fantasy book.”
  • Review of Unicorn Island on Fundimental book blog. “A beautifully written coming of age fantasy.”
  • Interview on Literary Rambles and advice for writers.

Look what my publisher made! You can download these fun Unicorn Island activities for a book hideaway and make your own banner, bookmark, and door hanger. 

 

 

 

 

I am also doing virtual school visits! I’m hopping across country from Pennsylvania to California and doing 5 in the San Jose school district alone this month. If you’d like me to visit with your school just check out my informational page here or download my virtual flyer here. **NEW** For 2021 I am donating all my virtual author visits for free!


CALLING ALL FICTION WRITERS!
Are you a fiction writer wondering how to create a world in your story? Then sign up for my virtual class: Foundations of Worldbuilding for Any Genre
Pearl S. Buck Writing Center
April 17th from 1:30pm – 3pm

All stories happen somewhere. Whether you write fantasy, dystopian, science fiction, or even about the “real world,” world building is key to creating a meaningful story.

I’ll share methods of world building that any writer can apply. From the smallest details to the rules of its universe, discover the way a considered approach to world building can govern the hearts of your characters and help drive your story.

Topics include: elements of world building, using world building to support conflict and tension, world building questions and resources, seven main areas that serve as the foundation for your world, and what to avoid in building your world. I’ll also share real-book examples to supplement my topics.
Fee is $25. REGISTER: https://psbwritingcenter.org/2021/02/27/foundations-of-world-building-for-all-genres/

Hope to see you there! Please share with your writing friends.

Haven’t gotten a copy yet of Unicorn Island for yourself or a unicorn lover you know? You can order it here at your favorite bookseller.

Spring is nearly here! Hope it’s a good one for you. –Donna

#ThrowbackThursday: A Childhood Story + Fave Books

By Donna Galanti

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Bethel Woods Campground, NH, 1978

I took a spontaneous book research trip last fall to travel back in time to the New Hampshire campground my parents owned and operated nearly 40 years ago.

You can read about that here.

I resurrected an old manuscript rich with one of my childhood settings. It prompted me to go back in time to the campground my parents owned and operated in New Hampshire. When I drove up, I was zapped back to the 1970s.

Suddenly, I was nine-years-old again. I swam in the pool, fished with my dad, romped through the woods, collected dead butterflies and shotgun shells, whizzed about on strap-on roller skates, played pinball machines, and spun 45 records on the jukebox.

Returning was an emotional gut punch. I could be a child again in that place of innocence but just as it resurrected joyous moments from childhood, it also brought back painful ones and prompted this short piece from a harsh memory.

Holderness, NH, 1978, Winter 

Thwonk!

A flash of pain wacked my chest. Ice balls hurt!
“Go somewhere else, fat and ugly,” Tommy said, snickering with his older brother, Brian.
“No, it’s my bus stop too,” I said as another ice ball slammed into my arm.
And another. They double teamed me.
Hurry up bus! But no yellow flashed around the corner, only the endless white spread everywhere.
They’d tied me up yesterday. It’d been for fun (I thought). It must be cool to have brothers to play with, so I let them.  The rope had scratched and then bit into me as Tommy pulled tighter.
“Double knot it,” Brian said.
Tommy nodded with a laugh and jerked it harder against my wrists to the chair.
“Ow!” I yelled, kicking the edge of my chair. It wobbled but didn’t break.
“Just sit still.” Brian gave me a dirty look so I did.
Musty bits of dust fluttered up from around old chains and tires and shovels, making me sneeze out a big cloud of frosty air.
“Okay,” Tommy said. He and Brian smiled at each other. “We’ll be right back.”
I nodded. And waited. My fingers grew numb. The cold seeped through my red mittens. The light slanted across the one smeared window in the shed.
A snowplow swooshed by at the bottom of the hill.
“Hey,” I called, not wanting to sound scared. But I was.
I wiggled my wrists. The rope sawed against them. The light grew dim. I wiggled more. When were they coming back? It was a game. That’s all. But there was no stopping the tears that burst forth. No way would I let them catch me crying.
I yanked my wrists as hard as I could. Cramped my fingers to untie the knot. The last light slipped away. Shadows reached for me. I ripped the rope away and ran home. Aha! Wait until they come back. They meant to come back, right?
I told my mother what happened as she turned my bleeding, raw wrists around. No big deal. But the fire in her eyes told me otherwise as she ran next door.
Now here I was today, facing my enemy.
Thwonk!
“Fat and ugly!”
Their laughter shot loud through the crisp air. I scooped up ice and snow, packed it down, and winged it right in Tommy’s face.
“Hey!” He yelled with surprise.
Red streaks cut across his cheek.
Thwonk! Thwonk! They pelted me. I turned and ran.
“Come back!”
But I didn’t. I ran to my special place as fast my chubby legs let me in my snow pants.
Swish swish.
I was the only sound in the forest. I spread out in the snow under a pine tree and let the silence fill me up. How long could I stay here? All day? If I did would I disappear?
From down the hill the school bus braked and shuddered then pulled away.
Snow fell soft like butterflies, melting on my nose.
I made a snow angel and looked up at the sky from my wings.
My body soon betrayed me.
Shivering, I tromped home.
I hoped the fire in my mother’s eyes would be the good kind.

NH6

Squam Lake, Holderness, NH where I caught my first fish

What did this trip back in time deliver?
*The vivid feelings of childhood – the good and the bad – to enrich my writing.
*A chance to revisit my creative foundations that gifted me with the yearning to write again.
*The inspiration of a majestic setting to fill my soul.
*The connection from childhood to adulthood – and how the paths we travel drive who we are.
*As a parent now, an appreciation for my parents and their challenges of running a business and raising a child.
*That I write to understand and feel so not alone.
*Through writing I can find meaning in my past and face the future with peace.
*Remembered what I am in my heart: a storyteller.

This visit filled me with a jumble of emotions all tied up with a childhood bow, reflecting splintered sunshine through broken panes.

In writing this piece I realized that I am also drawn to books that revolve around kids experiencing challenging times. Here are some of my favorites books that involve kid heroes:
Anne Frank: the Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Holes by Louis Sachar
Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer
Surviving Bear Island by Paul Greci (my review – love this book soooo much!)
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
The Sky is Everywhere by Jandi Nelson
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
Sparrow Road by Sheila O’Connor
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Read my reviews of these and more books on Goodreads

Have you ever taken a trip into the past to follow creative inspiration? What did you find?

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Lover of doughnuts, Doritos, and adventures (not so much authority figures). Does that make me a kid? Read More…

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