Donna Galanti - Where heart and hope meet adventure!

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My Travel Year + Pre-Order Unicorn Island: Secret Beneath The Sand Now!

By Donna Galanti

I know it’s been a long time since I’ve sent out some news, but it’s been quite the year as you’ll soon read below!

But right now, I’m getting excited for Volume 2 of Unicorn Island, Secret Beneath the Sand, to release February 1st in hardcover! The illustrations are AMAZING in this book and I can’t wait for you to see them. AND you can pre-order Secret Beneath the Sand now. If you do, I can send you a bookmark and an autographed book plate label for you—or a special reader you know. 😊 Just email me your address and who you’d like the book personalized for at donna@donnagalanti.com. Check out the cover here!

In Volume 2 of the series, Sam and Tuck are on their way to becoming unicorn protectors when they discover new secrets about the island that threaten unicorns’ existence! 

Sam can’t believe how much her life and luck have changed since she came to Foggy Harbor: First, she discovered that unicorns are real, and now she’s on her way to becoming an actual unicorn protector! With her new friend, Tuck, by her side during Uncle Mitch’s lessons, Sam finally feels like she’s home.

But as the long-buried dangers of Unicorn Island begin to surface and a mysterious scourge spreads throughout the herd, Sam learns the truth behind Aunt Sylvie’s disappearance and her own connection to the island. With determination, courage, and fierce loyalty to one another—and to their code as unicorn protectors—the kids set out to protect the island’s secrecy and the unicorns’ very existence.

PRE-ORDER AT YOUR FAVORITE BOOKSELLER

I just sent the final draft for Unicorn Island Volume 3 to my editor. Watch for this coming out February 2023! For now, see a sneak peek into the beautiful artwork by Bethany Stancliffe she created for Secret Beneath the Sand.

Don’t have a copy of Unicorn Island 1 yet? You can order both here!

As I said, it’s been a crazy year. After packing up our house and moving to a new area and home … over the course of 13 weeks, I was then gone for 10 of those weeks because…

  • Spent a month in Hawaii moving my son to Oahu for a GAP year before college.
  • Traveled to North Carolina three times to visit my dad and get him registered for assisted living.
  • Traveled to Cape Cod twice for writing retreats.
  • Traveled to Northern NY for a writing retreat.
  • Visited Vermont for our 20th wedding anniversary.
  • Visited D.C. to see an old friend.
  • All while on book deadline for Unicorn Island 3 and dealing with a leg injury I needed physical therapy for! (I am on the mend although it’s been slow).

See some photos below!



I’m finally getting settled in my new home and having fun exploring the area. I’m living back in the country now and loving it. It’s so picturesque and peaceful and dark at night. I love the spread of farms and fields and woods. The Mennonite horse and buggies clip-clopping past our house. The covered bridges and little farm stands with local artisanal food.


And getting settled means getting back to writing! In particular, revisions of a fun adventure middle grade I hope to send my agent in the New Year. The story involves a legacy, a ticking clock, a ghost story, a quest to save an ancestral home, a hidden fortune, and family lost and found.

As for me, my head is already getting ready for Christmas as one month from today my son, Joshua, comes home for two whole weeks. I have peace of mind that he loves his job, his car, and his apartment. Plus, he’s working hard on his business he launched as a Junior in high school–Spiffy Laces. Watch for his new designs coming soon. He uniquely designs them himself! ORDER HERE.

I won’t have seen Joshua for 3 ½ months and that is waaaaayyyyy too long. ☹ Miss this kid–and how he makes me laugh.

I hope you all are having a wonderful fall! Happy reading and adventuring!
XXOO -Donna

Spring Events & Life Updates

By Donna Galanti

Spring is finally here in Pennsylvania. The world has gone green, and I can’t get enough of the woods every day. I breathe in the sun and color and sounds. I roam and wander then sit by the creek and ponder new life adventures coming my way.



And new adventures are coming! This is a summer of change.

Our son graduates high school, we are re-locating to a new home out in the country north of us, and then we move our son and his girlfriend to Hawaii for a Gap year and then college.

Yes, HAWAII. I was stationed in Pearl Harbor 30+ years ago as a U.S. Navy photographer with Fleet Intelligence Pacific and must say never thought I’d go back. So, a new life indeed from Pennsylvania to 5,000 miles away on an island in the Pacific. I like to think I’m up for the challenge, but it will be a tough one—especially when I hug my son one last time and board a plane for that long flight home. Here is his senior photo and some photos of me on Oahu at the same age as him! Chaka brah. 😊


I also went up to Cape Cod this month with my critique partner, Erica George, for a writing retreat. Check out her beautiful and heartfelt debut novel set on Cape Cod, Words Composed of Sea and Sky, out May 25th. Pre-order here!

Spring had definitely NOT sprung yet in Cape Cod, but it was still beautiful in its cold, gray landscape.



Recent Unicorn Island events and reviews:
Check out my virtual book tour on Teaching Books where I read an excerpt and talk about the writing of Unicorn Island and my childhood.

I had so much fun talking about the behind scenes ideas and creation of Unicorn Island on Reading With Your Kids podcast! We also discuss how authors can create stories for kids to connect to and how our experiences as writers can affect our stories.

On the Bookshop at the End of the Internet podcast I discuss the fun of writing children’s books and Unicorn Island.

Here’s a fun and thoughtful review on Unicorn Island at the Children’s Books Heal blog with Patricia Tilton! “A compelling contemporary fantasy that is full of wonder, mystery and tension. It will captivate readers’ imaginations and lure them into a magical world of mythical beasts.” Check out the full review.

AND AS A REMINDER, book 2 in the Unicorn Island series, Secret Beneath the Sand, releases in a 5-part serial on the Epic platform starting May 10th! Watch for the hardcover to release in 2022.

Happy spring!


 

 

Meeting John Grisham

By Donna Galanti

I’ve loved John Grisham a long time. Over 25 years.

He came into my turbulent life with The Firm. I stayed up all night reading it, my heart racing and on the run with Mitch McDeere. I didn’t want the story to end and return to my uncertain life.

In John Grisham’s stories, the characters were pushed into uncertainty. But, unlike me, they always found their way. I, too, was seeking answers after failing out of college (panic attacks hinder getting to class!), a failed marriage, and a stint in the Navy – I landed in limbo. Like John Grisham’s characters, I had been on the run a long time. Running from my depression, from my dark childhood, from my anxiety, from my uncertainty – from not believing I had any worth.

Reading and writing were my only escapes then where I could have purpose, have strength, have confidence, and change my life.

John Grisham was there for me.

I fought for justice and the truth in The Last Juror. I faced my demons and overcame then in The Testament. I returned to my childhood and found solace from it in The Painted House. I sought a champion by my side in The Client.

                                                                        Just some of my John Grisham books!

So, when my husband passed along the ad that John Grisham was coming to our town’s bookstore, The Doylestown Bookshop, for his first book tour signing in 25 years to celebrate the release of his 30th book, Camino Island, I rushed to get a ticket.

Giddy with delight, I fan-girled in line waiting to get my book signed with another lady as giddy as me. And he was all I dreamed. Gracious, inviting. He shook my hand, looked me in the eye, asked me about my books. He was a true southern gentleman. I couldn’t breathe! He’d been my rock star author for decades.

This man had given me hope in desperate times. Times when I knew I wanted to be an author but didn’t even know myself yet. I could only dream of writing a book and getting it published. And at times, the hope of fulfilling this dream was all I could cling to.

But my time with him wasn’t over. I sat in the front row for over an hour and listened to him in discussion with author Lisa Scottoline. His conservative wit crackled alongside her unbridled humor.

You can listen to the podcast here from each stop along his book tour. I got to ask a question too!

He told us that he wrote his first book, A Time to Kill, without any outline. It came out to 1,000 pages! He said he would never do that again as the editor cut over 1/3 of it. He said, “That third was a year of my life!” He always uses an outline ever since then and knows the end first.

Just like me.

He shared how he rose at 5 a.m. each morning to write for hours on his first novel at his office before his lawyer job started.

Just like me.

He said how he was rejected for years but never gave up.

Just like me.

He persisted. He kept writing.

Just like me.

John Grisham knew what he wanted to write. He’s forged the top niche in legal thrillers. He’s written a book a year for 30 years. I didn’t always know what I wanted to write. I just knew I must.

                                   My uncertain years. Here as a Navy photographer in Hawaii.

I’m not that young woman I was decades ago when I first fell in love with him. I am no longer uncertain about my path. I am no longer paralyzed with fear and depression. I am worthy. But I didn’t take the straight road to get here. I took the road of his characters. I wandered. I stumbled. I ran into walls. I ran away. I wrote my first novel from grief when my mother passed away, a dark thriller. I wrote my demons out with that series. I wandered then to writing middle grade. My writing path has been a crooked twist.

It took me longer to get here but I. AM. HERE.

John Grisham made it all clear to me in a time now when my life is filled with so many project details  – business and teaching – that flood my day. I was born to be story teller. That’s what I do. That’s what I need to get back to. The simplicity (and complexity) of telling a story, sinking myself into it, and not tearing its claws from me until I am done. Share my awareness of the world around me. Share the human condition. Explore our purpose. Take readers on a journey to find themselves. Just like John Grisham did for me.

He made it clear to me that all this messiness of life can’t get in my way of doing what I was born to do. And if one way doesn’t work out, I will find another. And another.

And I have finally found my way in my writing. To write for kids and weave stories in that magical place with one foot in the dream world of endless possibilities and one foot grounded in the grown-up world. A place where I dwell as well. I took a roundabout path to get here. But I. AM. STILL. HERE.

The next 30 years look splendid.

Thank you, John Grisham.

 

Meeting John Grisham from Donna Beckley Galanti on Vimeo.

***

Are you a debut author or writer looking to get published? I just released a free author marketing mini-course. It’s a great snapshot to help you jump start your online presence and build an influencing community. Please consider leaving a brief review if you enroll as it helps boost the course (like book reviews! ). Happy watching!

 

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