FEATURED ARTIST FRIDAY: Donna K. Childree

Joining us today is Donna K. Childree who has co-authored The Wayward Gifted: Broken Point with her son.Adopted at birth, Samantha Leigh and Steuart James DuBoise reside in a complex world of southern love and crazy dysfunction. They snack on cold buttered biscuits and drink sweet iced-tea as they create stories and share fantasies on the sleeping porch of their grandmother Ida Light’s bay-front home. Their world is abruptly altered when Olivia DuBoise, their rigid, emotionally disturbed mother decides to move the family more than a thousand miles from the only home they have ever known. The children, not only angry, but also certain that life has prematurely ended, fight against a world they believe to be both humdrum and routine. Both highly intelligent, and uniquely talented, Sam and Steuart struggle to mature while holding fast to childhood. Each carries unique interests and talents into the fight. Steuart has a deep love of words and a hobby of creating anagrams. Sam has an obsessional need to collect colors, and will go to great lengths to increase her collection. Encouraged by Ida, and severalnew friends, Sam and Steuart set out to make the best of their situation, soon discovering worlds unknown in this coming of age, young adult fiction, fantasy adventure.  Available in e-reader, soft cover, and large print.1. When and why did you start writing?I've always written short stories, and I've always wanted to write a novel. I decided to get serious when my co/author son and I made the decision to work on a joint project. We were on a road trip down south and came up with the idea for The Wayward Gifted.2. Why did you choose to write in this genre?I don't think that we made a decision to write in this genre. It really evolved and went naturally in the direction.3. Which authors do you admire? Why?I love southern writers. Truman Capote, Nell Harper Lee,  Bailey White, and Ricky Bragg are among my favorites. Southerners are unique in the way that they share stories.4. What inspires you to write?My son and I have endless conversations about our stories and about the characters. I enjoy having a writing partner because it keeps everything in front of me. We get together several times weekly and spend much of our time discussing what's happening with our characters.5. What is the most important thing you have learned about yourself through writing?I've learned that I can do this. It's great fun to look at the finished work and feel proud of what has been accomplished.6.  What is the most fun thing about writing?I love reading what we have written. I am certain that I read The Wayward Gifted no less than thirty times before it was published.7.  What is the most boring thing about writing?I don't know if I would call it boring, but the marketing process is the most difficult part for me. There are so many ideas about how to find your audience. It's overwhelming, and very time consuming. It's also very necessary unless you have no desire to be found.8.  What is something (book, short story, poem, paragraph, sentence) that you wish YOU had written, and why?The Thanksgiving Visitor by Truman Capote is my favorite short story. I read it several times a year. I love it because it's pure, it's beautiful, and it's entertaining. When I read The Thanksgiving Visitor I'm reminded of visiting family in rural Alabama when I was a child.9. What advice would you give to writers who are nervous?I'd tell them what I heard my father say to friends at age 68 when he was suddenly diagnosed with a glioblastoma multiform (brain tumor). "Do exactly what you want to do now because the only things you will regret are the things you never tried.10. What are you working on now?We're busy working on the second book in The Wayward Gifted series: Grey's Case. This book will be released Thanksgivng, 2013. Thank you, Donna, for taking the time to be part of Featured Artist Fridays!