Operation Awesome: #AtoZChallenge - E is for Donna Everhart

Operation Awesome 2023 #AtoZChallenge theme is interviews of established authors

Donna Everhart

Donna Everhart is the USA Today bestselling author of authentic, vivid Southern fiction, including the Southeastern Library Association Award-winning The Road to Bittersweet, Indie Next Pick and Amazon Book of the Month, The Education of Dixie Dupree, The Forgiving Kind, The Moonshiner’s Daughter, and her most recent, The Saints of Swallow Hill. Her sixth novel, currently untitled, will release February 2024. Born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina, she now lives with her husband in a small town in the Sandhills region, and is working on her next novel.

1- What made you decide you wanted to be an author?

Good old-fashioned reading. I’ve often said over the years what led me to writing was discovering two particular writers I loved and consuming everything they wrote. From the late 70s to the late 90s, I was reading a lot of Stephen King, and historical novels. I wish I could remember exactly how I came across the novel, ELLEN FOSTER, by Kaye Gibbons, but it was because of this book, and the way she wrote (she was renowned for creating compelling voices) that made me want to get serious about writing. I’d only dabbled with it for the most part. After reading that book, I was on the hunt for more like it. I read BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA by Dorothy Allison, another book that was so very well written with an outstanding voice. I can’t explain it, but because of those writers, and their books, I had this wish to create something that would affect readers the same way those novels affected me.

2- In what category/genre do you write? Why?

I write in the sub-genre known as southern fiction. My books are also considered historical fiction because I typically set the stories in the 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s. (That is except for the next book coming out in early 2024, which takes place during the Civil War.)

I write in those genres because those are the types of books I love to read. They’re also the ones that influenced me as mentioned above, and continue to do so. There’s the old writing advice which is “write what you know,” and that can be many things, but I know about Southern life, our culture, our way of speaking, and it feels like I’m writing about where I belong. I love immersing readers in that sense of place, and to do this, I think, with authenticity, is to be familiar with a setting. The South is that setting for me.

3- What part of one of your stories was the most fun to write? The most challenging? (And which book/s are those in?)

I don’t know that I have a particular scene in any of the books I’ve written that I would consider fun. I mean, they’re all fun to write in their own way, I guess. Actually, typing The End is definitely fun. But, I can also say that the scenes I find the easiest to write (fun?) are the ones where the characters are in peril. I write those scenes fast, faster than the ones I consider challenging – which are the scenes where I need to convey what the character is feeling in some creative and fresh way. In my latest book, The Saints of Swallow Hill, there are a couple of areas where the characters are in, as I mentioned above, peril, and I recall the words just coming quick, so much so my fingers had trouble keeping up. Those scenes deal with life and death situations. One’s in a grain bin, and one’s in a sweatbox.

4- Would you please, in 160 characters (not words) or less, give a #WriteTip ?

Stop writing for the day when you know what’s going to happen next in a scene. This way, when you sit down with your story again, you know exactly what to do.

5- Do you work on more than one book at a time? Why or why not?

I have, but it’s because the books are at different stages. For instance, (and recently) I submitted the completed Civil War book to my editor. Then I started writing the proposal for the next book. I got the Civil War book back with revisions and edits to do. So, I was sort of juggling my work load during that process, and I’ve done that with all of them. But to work on two books, as in writing them as new stories, no. That’s not something I typically do, and that’s because I like to focus solely on one at a time. While I’m pretty sure I could do it, I haven’t ever done this.

6- What do you love and hate most about being a published author?

This is a hard question. I love almost everything about it. I love doing events, and meeting readers. I love creating the stories, and sharing them. If I had to choose something I dislike, it might be reading negative reviews. I know - we’re not supposed to do that. Hahahahaha. I’d bet money just about every author does.

7- Do you publish traditional, self, hybrid, other? Why?

I’m traditionally published. I think that’s probably the goal of most writers because publishing in other forms can be difficult and complicated from the perspective of not only workload on the author, but the knowledge they need to make it a success. What I think is if my debut book, The Education of Dixie Dupree hadn’t sold, and neither had anything else I’d written, I would have tried one of the other options, but reality also tells me the chances for my work to have seen the success I’ve had so far wouldn’t have happened because I’m definitely not good at marketing, sales, etc.

8- What question are you dying to answer (about your writing, life, or even a fun fact)? What's the question and then answer.

Fun fact – I include some small thing in each of my books that has to do with a family member. It’s usually to do with dates, like birthdays, anniversaries, or something like that.

9- Would you please ask our audience an intriguing question to answer in the comments?

If you had one chance to do anything you wished, what would it be? (this could be career related, travel, learn a new skill, etc.)

10- If they have a specific story, they want to promote a question regarding that. Ex. Which book would you suggest readers start with?

All the books are stand-alone stories, so they could start with any one of them, but I always lean toward recommending my most recent, The Saints of Swallow Hill. This is the book that’s sold more than the others, and some of those sales are due to word of mouth from readers who’ve loved the story.