Donna L. Martin

Today I’m delighted to feature my dear friend, Donna L. Martin. Donna and I have been online friends for years, and I’ve been following her progress as a writer with joy and admiration. Thank you, Donna, for agreeing to this interview. First of all, I want to congratulate you on your newest venture, HISTORY’S MYSTERIES. I’ve been intrigued ever since the first glimpse of the cover for the first book in the series, and I’m delighted with Amelia Earmouse! Beth:  Could you tell us a bit about the series, the concept behind it, and your plans for it? Donna:  HISTORY’S MYSTERIES is a historical fiction chapter book series for 8-12 year olds. I wanted to create a series somewhat similar to the MAGIC TREEHOUSE series, but with my own original twist. I blend “writing entries…i.e. journal, letters, etc”… with live action, along with fictional main characters interacting with historical figures, with a touch of mystery to keep my readers excited to turn the page. I released the first two books last Fall, have the next two books scheduled for this year and have the basic themes of books five through nine figured out. The number of titles for this series are endless because there will always be little known historical events to discover! Beth:  This is very different from your previous book, LUNADAR, a YA fantasy. What was the impetus to go in such a different direction? Where did the idea come from? Donna: I was plotting out the next book in my LUNADAR trilogy when my sister happened to send me an article about a little-known train wreck which caused twenty tons of chocolate to fall on a small village in upstate New York years ago. She knew I loved history and when I read the article, bells went off in my head that this story HAD to be told and I was the person to tell it! I will get back to LUNADAR eventually, but the HISTORY’S MYSTERIES series is so fascinating to me, I’m going to run with this series for a while. Beth:  I’m sure you know how I delight in characters like Amelia. Could you tell us more about Amelia Earmouse, and her role in the series? Donna: I can thank my tremendously talented illustrator, Estella Hickman (www.estellahickman.com) for the idea of a mouse as the series mascot. Her original sketch was an adult professor-like male mouse. While it was very cute, I suggested a much younger, girl mouse with pigtails to help young readers to identify more with her. One of my critique partners, Rinda Beach (www.rindabeach.com) , took one look at the new sketch and came up with the name, Amelia Earmouse. Some people think Amelia is either a character in each title, or even a narrator, but she’s actually neither. Amelia is a sassy, time-traveling adventuress who loves uncovering little known historical events and sharing those stories with the world. Mysteries seem to follow her, and she even shares some of her sketching skills with the illustrations found in each book. You can even find her on Story Catcher Publishing’s website (www.storycatcherpublishing.com) under the Amelia’s Kids Korner, where she shares free teacher/parent resources for the classroom or homeschool curriculum for each title in the series. Beth:  Now let’s burrow into the first book of HISTORY’S MYSTERIES – SHIP OF DREAMS. Without giving away too much, what mystery is Amelia investigating? Donna: I spent months researching everything I could get my hands on concerning the Titanic. NOT about the ill-fated maiden voyage itself, but rather what was going on in Southampton while the people there eagerly awaited the ship’s arrival. While going through tons of research, I uncovered an onboard event which caused many questions. No one could exactly figure out the “mystery” at first, but it certainly set the tone of how some people reacted to the Titanic and their idea of her future. Beth:  Could you share an excerpt, possibly an illustration, that will pique our interest even further? Donna: “Wednesday, April 3, 1912 Dear Journal, You will never guess what happened while I was sleeping. The Titanic’s here in Southampton! Papa says it docked sometime after midnight and she’s supposed to sail for America next week. He will be so busy loading everything on board these next few days. I can almost feel the excitement all the way over here! Papa said he’s never seen a grander ship in all his life, and he’s been a White Star tally man for quite a few years now. He brought home a leaflet about sailing on board the Titanic and I got to look at it after dinner last night. Oh, my goodness, the Titanic has a huge dome ceiling at the top of the ship and a statue of a baby angel at the bottom of a grand staircase. They even have a swimming pool and library in the middle of that thing. Who would have ever thought about being able to float IN water ON a ship while you float ON water IN a ship? First and second class will be able to use what they call an electric lift to carry them from floor to floor, and even third class will have real electric lights in their rooms. Oh, what a wonder that would be to have!” (Journal entry made by main character, Margaret) Beth:  The cover illustration, and Amelia herself, are wonderful. Who is your illustrator? Donna: I met my fabulous illustrator, Estella Hickman, through a Facebook call out for an illustrator to help me with my book cover for the series. I knew what I wanted the key elements to be but was afraid I wouldn’t find someone who would understand what I wanted to convey with this series. Estella answered my call out and we chatted over the phone for more than an hour. What I didn’t realize at first was the fact I was talking to someone whose work I had been following and …

Donna Martin and her HISTORY’S MYSTERIES — author interview Read More »