Author Spotlight: Donna Marie West

• a Canadian educator, translator, author, and freelance editor

Readers, thanks for checking out another Author Spotlight Interview. Let’s give a good, hearty welcome to this week’s guest!

Donna Marie West is a Canadian educator, translator, author, and freelance editor. She has published some 500 drabbles, short stories, and non-fiction articles in a wide variety of Canadian and American magazines, websites, and anthologies. She loves the unusual, unexplained, and mysterious, and often finds ways to weave these themes into her stories.

The Mud Man, published in 2022 by Manta Press, is her third book. In 2019, she co-authored a collection of horror-themed short stories and poems entitled Haunted Horror, which is currently out of print as the publisher closed its doors. Her first novel, Next in Line, was published in September 2020 by an independent American publisher. Unfortunately, this publisher has also closed down.

Donna spends her precious free time reading, writing, and doing research for her current projects. She lives in Québec, Canada, with her long-time partner and two beloved kitties.

Donna, thanks for agreeing to be here today. Most author spotlight interviews start off with the boring stuff, but I know what readers REALLY want to know.

If you could have any pet (real/fantasy/no-allergies/no worries about feeding it) what would it be?

I had horses for forty years, but I consider them partners rather than pets. I do have two kitties or rather, they have me (I am their slave). I think a pet dragon would be cool. A cute miniature one, or a huge one I could ride, not sure which.

What a great choice! I’m a huge fan of kitties and dragons.

What do you write? And how did you get started?

I’ve written a lot of nonfiction about horses and other subjects as well, but my preferred genres for both fiction and nonfiction are history, historical and religious mysteries, earth mysteries, the paranormal, and horror.

“They” say widely read authors are, in fact, the best!

What do you like to read?

Same as above.

Legitimate!

What do you drink when you write/edit?

Coffee.

A classic!

Do you snack when you write/edit?

Not so much. I stop for breaks at mealtime.

Good for you.

Would you like to meet the main character(s) of your novel?

I would absolutely love to meet Dom!

I think I would like to meet my main characters, too! Always good to have relatable main characters, and lovely when they’re likable.

Name one commonly accepted piece of writing advice that doesn’t work for you

Write what you know.

I would amend that to “write what interests you and research the heck out of it.” I did a ton of research for my current novel, The Mud Man.

Hmmm, they don’t say WHEN you have to know it by. I think research totally counts.

Name one commonly accepted piece of writing advice they can pry out of your cold, dead hands

Edit, edit, edit. And then edit again.

Then, when you think your writing is perfect, proofread.

Very true. I’ve rarely met an author who thinks they over-edited their manuscript. There’s always something they’d like to fix.

---

Shameless Self-Promotion time!

The Mud Man

When anthropologist Veronica Booth is called to consult on a dig in northern British Columbia, she expects to discover the usual remnants of early indigenous life. She never imagined finding a man preserved a metre deep in a thawing bog. More shocking still—he’s alive, albeit barely.

The mud man, as Veronica initially thinks of him, matches no missing person reports, and his DNA is like nothing on record. Radio-carbon dating of his clothes and items found with him suggest an impossible age of 9,500 years! As he slowly recovers, the mysterious man reveals a host of surprises, stunning Veronica and those growing close to him.

But can a man who lived a millennia ago adapt to life in the modern world?

---

Check out Donna Marie West across the web!

Manta Press | Facebook | Goodreads | Amazon