DonnaRae Menard

My writing career began in the seventh grade where I was a country kid in a city school. I took to writing disparaging descriptions of other students in self-defense. Unfortunately when I got caught writing during class, I had to stand up and read my notes aloud. That was also the start of my training for the one hundred yard dash in track and field. As time went on I had diaries, journals, two tiny columns in small town newspapers, and wrote competition pieces for Toastmaster's International. I also had boxes under my bed filled with novels finished and not.
 

On April 28, 2008, I was diagnosed with stage 4 squamous carcinoma. My prognosis was bleak. I fought back, and won. In 2010, I decided I was going to write and be published. Not just self-published but by a real publishing house. I kept writing, took classes, went to seminars, book signings, readings, and conventions. Anywhere I might meet someone with experience. At Crimebake 2019, I met Harriette Sackler and Bruce Coffin. One offered me professional advice, the other the promise to meet me at the top. I went back to work, this time treating writing like employment, not a hobby.

I live just outside of town in the type of place where people feel free to drop off cats, kittens, cages of gerbils or white rats, and even the occasional farm animal. I have a swinging door for those that need. We talk, eat, laugh, and all the while, I type.