Interview with Donna Galanti
Welcome Donna!! I’m so pleased to welcome you back to my blog. Thanks for providing this interview for our readers!
Q: Can you tell us something about your books that would make me run out and buy them?I write from the dark side with a glimpse of hope and am drawn to writing the tormented hero’s journey – and tormented villain’s. I enjoy creating empathy for both by blurring the lines between good and evil. And I especially enjoy using the paranormal elements of mind control to shake the foundation of my character’s world. If you enjoy paranormal murder and mystery with a dash of steam you’ll enjoy A Human Element and A Hidden Element.
Q: Are there any messages in this book that you want the reader to know about?
The Element Trilogy has several themes in it. Such as, seeking power through good leads to salvation OR on the flip side of that - seeking power through evildoing leads to self-destruction. A major message in the books is about how relinquishing the struggle to belong can lead to self-acceptance and internal peace.
Much of my life plays into my stories such as feeling like I didn’t belong because I was adopted. When you’re adopted you can feel like you don’t have blood roots and can roam around trying to find belonging. Some of my characters do the same. I connect with the nomad, the outsider, the alone one. Feeling abandoned is also an issue adopted children can have and it can be hard for them to commit to a relationship and fully trust. Several of my characters are abandoned and deal with it in extremely different ways. It colors their lives – good and bad.
Q: Why did you feel you had to write these books?I literally had a vision for book one, A Human Element. The entire plot and characters came to me driving to work one day. It came so fast that I had to write it down – as I was driving! Is it any wonder my books have a paranormal element to them? So why write the paranormal? I am fascinated by the power of the brain and how little we use. Writing in the paranormal allows me to tap into the “what if”. What if we possessed the power to do the unbelievable? And what if we could use those powers to heal – or to kill? And what if these powers are inside us all along and all we have to do is to tap into them?
Q: What deep dark secret would you like to share with us?
I’m adopted, which isn’t so dark and deep but the secrets that come with that are. Adoption, corruption, and secrecy have been a part of my real life tale, as well as the stories in my Element Trilogy books. Was I a black market baby? Was my natural father murdered? Did my natural mother murder her own mother? Read more about that here!
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
Back to England. I lived there as a child long ago and fell in love with its medieval feel. One town we lived in was Cobham Surrey. We lived in the old caretaker’s house of this old grand estate called White Tops. It even came with a gardener. It was a place of days gone by where I’d walk down the country lane to school and feed horses along the way. Each day the fish man would bring kippers for breakfast and the milk man would drop glass bottles at our door…and clotted cream some days. I made my parents take me to Tintagel in Cornwall, the supposed castle ruins of King Arthur, because I love all things King Arthur.
Q: As a child, were you a dreamer?
As a child…and a teen…and a grown up. Daydreams, night dreams. My dreams as a child were so vivid and colorful that I kept a dream diary. Unfortunately, along with the fluffy, cupcake dreams there were also the nightmares of lava and machete men chasing me. You can read about machete man here.
Q: Thank you so much for this interview! Do you have any final words?
I am now writing the third and final book in the Element Trilogy, A Healing Element, for NaNoWriMo (where you write a book in a month!) I also write children’s books and have the first two books out in my middle grade adventure fantasy series, Joshua and the Lightning Road. In book 1, Joshua Cooper learns the hard way that lightning never strikes by chance, when a bolt strikes his house and steals his best friend. In order to get him back, Joshua must travel the lightning road to a dark world that steals children for energy and along the way he meets beasts and bandits and quickly discovers the mission to find his friend becomes the battle of his life. You can learn more about it here: www.donnagalanti.com. Also, look for the audio book of A Human Element coming out early 2017!
About Book One in the Element Trilogy, A Human Element:
Evil comes in many forms…One by one, Laura Armstrong’s friends and adoptive family members are being murdered, and despite her unique healing powers, she can do nothing to stop it. The savage killer haunts her dreams, tormenting her with the promise that she is next. Determined to find the killer, she follows her visions to the site of a crashed meteorite in her hometown. There, she meets Ben Fieldstone, who seeks answers about his parents’ death the night the meteorite struck. In a race to stop a madman, they unravel a frightening secret that binds them together. But the killer’s desire to destroy Laura face-to-face leads to a showdown that puts Laura and Ben’s emotional relationship and Laura’s pure spirit to the test. With the killer closing in, Laura discovers her destiny is linked to his, and she has two choices—redeem him or kill him.
Praise for the Element Trilogy:"Unrelenting, devious but full of heart. Highly recommended." —Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Code Zero
"Chilling and dark…a twisty journey into another world." —J.T. Ellison, New York Times bestselling author of When Shadows Fall
"Fascinating…a haunting story…"—Rebecca Cantrell, New York Times bestselling author of The World Beneath
Purchase the Element Trilogy on sale through December 7th
Book 1 A HUMAN ELEMENT for $0.99
Book 2 A HIDDEN ELEMENT for $1.99
ABOUT DONNA:
Donna Galanti is the author of the paranormal suspense Element Trilogy (Imajin Books) and the fantasy adventure Joshua and The Lightning Road series (Month9Books). Donna is a contributing editor for International Thriller Writers the Big Thrill magazine and blogs with other middle grade authors at Project Middle Grade Mayhem. She’s lived from England as a child, to Hawaii as a U.S. Navy photographer. She lives in Pennsylvania with her family in an old farmhouse that has lots of nooks and crannies, but sadly no ghosts. Visit her at www.elementtrilogy.com and www.donnagalanti.com.
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