Ask the Author: Guy Donovan
Answered Questions (9)
Guy Donovan
Many years ago, while a recruit in Parris Island, South Carolina (yep...THAT one), I was nearing the end of my training with graduation only about two weeks away. One morning, while dragging a trash can outside the squad bay while a much newer platoon was forming up to march to the chow hall, one of the recruits in that platoon (their Drill Instructor had not yet come out of the barracks) shined a flashlight on me (it's always dark in the morning in the Marines) and exclaimed "Holy s**t...is that Guy Donovan?"
Well the guy, whoever he was, had his flashlight aimed right in my face, so I couldn't see who it was and the voice didn't seem familiar to me. Trying to block the light, I started to walk closer to them and just said something no doubt brilliant along the lines of "who the hell is that?" when this frying pan-sized hand clamped down onto my shoulder, spun me around, and roared straight into my face, "Who'n the hell are you and why are you (bleeping) with my platoon you (insert stream of foul invective of choice)?!"
Of course I babbled some incomprehensible gibberish to the Drill Instructor who clearly would have just as soon shot me in the face as actually listen to my answer, and I high tailed it right back to my own squad bay without ever finding out just who the mystery dude was.
To this day, I still have no idea. So, there it is...my ultimate mystery that might yet find its way into a book.
Well the guy, whoever he was, had his flashlight aimed right in my face, so I couldn't see who it was and the voice didn't seem familiar to me. Trying to block the light, I started to walk closer to them and just said something no doubt brilliant along the lines of "who the hell is that?" when this frying pan-sized hand clamped down onto my shoulder, spun me around, and roared straight into my face, "Who'n the hell are you and why are you (bleeping) with my platoon you (insert stream of foul invective of choice)?!"
Of course I babbled some incomprehensible gibberish to the Drill Instructor who clearly would have just as soon shot me in the face as actually listen to my answer, and I high tailed it right back to my own squad bay without ever finding out just who the mystery dude was.
To this day, I still have no idea. So, there it is...my ultimate mystery that might yet find its way into a book.
Guy Donovan
I had to think about this one a bit, as there are so many. Romeo and Juliet spring to mind almost immediately. Then there's Quasimodo and Esmeralda (though they don't quite qualify, do they?). Even Kermit and Miss Piggy leap to the forefront! In the end though, I have to go with Commander Dwight Lionel Towers and Moira Chambers from Nevil Shute's "On the Beach." Two damaged people making a connection at the end of the world...what's not to love about that?
Guy Donovan
I already had a fantastical idea (a dragon that cures a girl's autism through a telepathic contact) and wanted to couch that in a setting that felt to the reader as 'real.' I suppose I was afraid that if I went the more traditional route of creating an entirely made up world, then I risked overloading the (hopeful) readership in unfamiliarity. What I did not do it for was to save myself effort in terms of sheer creation. That post-Roman period is so ambiguous in terms of recorded history that one is sort of forced to make it all up anyway! The amount of research I had to put into it all was truly daunting and not something I'm eager to take on again for a while.
Guy Donovan
That one I really can't answer, other than to say it's something I need to do. I left a creative job years ago for one that is supremely uncreative and I was ready to go berserk not long after. I'm much happier now, though of course my need for a 'day' job has yet to go away.
Guy Donovan
I'm currently working on rewrites/edits on the second book in my Dragon's Treasure Trilogy, "A Cold, White Home." Book three (tentatively titled "Memories so Distant and Brief") is complete as a first draft and awaiting book two's completion before I wade into rewrites and editing on that one.
Guy Donovan
Write a lot and write now. You don't need anyone else's permission. When you're done though, leave it alone for a while (at least a week, preferably more like a month) and then edit. You'll be surprised at not only how many mistakes you catch but how many weaknesses you'll see in construction and plot. If you can afford it (unlike me), get an editor. If you can't (like me) get a book/books on grammar, punctuation, and style.
Guy Donovan
The sheer act of creation. There's nothing like it. Beyond that, hearing back from someone who 'got it.'
Guy Donovan
Honestly, I haven't had too much issue with that, though I'm by no means immune. I find that a certain room in my house seems to be the most conducive to free-floating thought. I'll leave it up to you to guess which room that might be. Many of my best ideas have come to me while either wet or else sitting down.
Guy Donovan
A mentally challenged girl named Alice from "Deus Irae," a collaboration between Philip K. Dick and Roger Zelazny caught my attention years ago. Alice's reduced mental faculties in the novel were due to the lingering radiation from a nuclear war of years before and I found her to be the single most touching character of the entire story. Many years later, when coming up with my protagonist for 'The Dragon's Treasure,' I decided to attempt a similar approach with Cerys, the marginalized princess of a marginalized 5th century Welsh kingdom. As well as being soundly within that 'Disney-fied' method of acquiring near instant sympathy for my protagonist, I hoped that a primary character being one with mental disabilities might help to set my story apart from the many many other fantasy stories with dragons in them. Also, I wanted to tie my story into an actual period from history, rather than must making it all up as I went. I hope that answer wasn't too long.
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