I’m proud to announce that three of my books are now available in Large Print. So if you’re someone who prefers holding an actual book in your hands and need a larger print, order from Amazon by clicking on the images below.
Category Archives: Country Life
Looking for a new #cozymystery? Read an #excerpt of A Bull by the Horns
Word is starting to get out. D.E. Haggerty posted a feature of A Bull by the Horns on her website. I hope you will help me spread the word by letting your friends know the book is available.
Book title: A Bull by the Horns
Series: A Coffman Country Art Colony Cozy
Author: Deb Donahue
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Published: August, 2016
Synopsis:
Murder mysteries solved by mystery writers are boring. Mystery writers who are murder suspects—much more interesting. Especially if a poet, composer, artist and irascible old farmer have just as much motive and are equally annoying.
A Bull by the Horns is the first novel in the Coffman Country Art Colony series. Protagonist Carina Coffman has worked hard to fulfill her grandmother’s dream of turning the family farm into an artist’s retreat. She thought the only obstacles she had left to deal with were a disgruntled neighbor unhappy with her new venture, and training Larry the goat to stop head-butting his companions Curly and Moe. When a guest ends up impaled by the longhorn of Ferdinand the taxidermied bull, however, she has her work cut…
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A Goodreads Giveaway
The Goodreads Giveaway of A Bull by the Horns starts today and goes through August 19. Enter today for your chance to win one of three print copies.
Goodreads Book Giveaway
A Bull by the Horns
by Deb Donahue
Giveaway ends August 19, 2016.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
The Barn Door: Incidental Poetry
I posted something unusual over at The Barn Door this morning. Well, unusual for me. I am not a poet, but I have used poetry to express myself sometimes. In the spirit of spring and Easter, I shared two poems that I wrote many years ago. Here’s the shortest one below. Please visit the site if you want to read the other.
I should probably also mention that this month will be the last time I will be posting at The Barn Door. It’s a great site, and I hope you will check it out and follow them, but I’ve decided I’m just not an essay writer, at least not when there’s a deadline. I’d rather post something when an idea strikes me, rather than have to search for an idea to meet my deadline. Besides, at an author fair I went to today, I talked with a librarian who is eager to read my novel-in-progress, A Bull by the Horns. I need to use my writing time to finally get the book done!
GETHSEMANE
Tears of blood
roll
down his cheeks
raining from clouds
staining the sunset
dropping
on my cheeks
my breast
my heart.via The Barn Door: Incidental Poetry.
The Barn Door: Holiday Hiatus
On Dec. 28, I posted a bit about holiday traditions I grew up with. What are some traditions you try to carry on with your families?
Here are some of the things I hope they adopt from a typical Donahue holiday. And a few I hope maybe they tweak just a bit.
- When my dad was alive, he loved to buy presents. Heck, he loved to buy presents all year long. But at Christmas he always had certain “traditional” gifts we could be sure to find under the tree. Like a package of underpants with the days of the week on them. (Remember those? I wonder if they still make them?)
- One of my sisters doesn’t like ham while the rest of are sick of turkey because of the enormous amounts of leftovers just behind us from Thanksgiving. So Mom always makes both a turkey and a ham, to keep everyone happy.
- When we decorate the tree, I have a few really old ornaments from my maternal grandmother that I always hang on the tree. They are the fragile kind, with lots of glitter that falls off a little bit each year. Frankly, they are looking a little worse for wear. But I always feel like a child again when I hang them on the tree, and feel extremely said should one of them happen to fall and beak.
via The Barn Door: Holiday Hiatus.
The Barn Door: The Focus of Fall
Fall. I love those moments when I can turn off my head and just be in the moment, aware of the changing season around me, breathing in the chill, crisp air. I must practice doing that more often, and for longer periods of time.
I myself welcome a reminder that autumn isn’t about what we do during it. Fall just is. It is as natural and inevitable as the rise and setting of the sun. Let’s all just take the time to be still and look and listen as it spreads its beautiful season across the land and skies. Breathe in the whiff of burning leaves. Rustle through a pile of harvested corn stalks. Feast your eyes on the colors of the trees as they sway in the wind.
The Animals on New Life Old Farm
It’s hard to get any work done on my novel Bull by the Horns when my research leads me to such fun and interesting sites like this one. This page makes me want to add more animals to the ones I’ve already created for my working farm/art colony/crime scene.
Here’s just a few of their residents.
Dixie
Elsie Gump
Tigger and Pooh
The Barn Door: I Miss Cows
I hope I don’t offend any animal lovers with this recent post from The Barn Door about my early days as a farmer. Just keeping it real. Click to read the whole post to get my drift.
I wish all humans and all animals could live together without fighting and strife and, you know, eating each other. Until that happens, though, I admit that I’m glad the sirloin and ground chuck and ribs I pick up at the supermarket are strangers to me now. And while my mother might think it was heartless to butcher and baste Big Brown, he does have a fond place in my memories.
An Awesome Autumn Afternoon
Here’s an update on how the In Print Word of Art reception went last night. Great art, great writing, great fun!
Artwork by Kathy Baker
Yesterday’s In Print Word of Art reception was a great kick off for an awesome autumn. And I’m not just saying that because my piece, An Autumn Afternoon, was one of five finalists selected by writer/publisher John Gile from the thirty stories on display. The event went off without a hitch, the room filled to the brim with artists, writers, family and friends.
All of the artwork and accompanying stories or poems were displayed artistically on the walls of the Celebration Room of Emmanuel Lutheran Church and authors and artists were able to read and/or talk about their entries to a packed room. Refreshments were served and there was an opportunity to buy books and have them signed by the participants. The event was sponsored by In Print in cooperation with the Center for Arts and Spirituality and Art@Emmanuel.
An Autumn Afternoon
The orchard smells…
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The Barn Door: Small Towns, Big Opportunities
My story, An Autumn Afternoon, was selected by artist Kathy Baker, and they posted a teaser of the complete canvas on the Word or Art Facebook page that makes me intrigued to see the whole picture. On September 5, I will be able to see the completed artwork, read my story to attendees, and sign copies of the book they are compiling that includes stories and art side by side.
InPrint also has monthly meetings, with guest speakers, and will host a book fair in October where I will have a chance to sell my books and meet readers and fellow writers alike. Attending those will provide more coverage and more contacts in just a few months than being a member of the Pacific Writer’s Association in Seattle did in five years.Meaning I now have to eat my words about there being fewer opportunities in small town Midwest. Opportunities are anywhere you look for them. Have you found Midwest resources that surprise or delight you? I would love to hear about them
Living in small towns doesn’t mean imposing limits on your opportunities. In my case, it has actually opened more doors than I found in the big city. It’s more about keeping your eyes open than geography, after all.
Deb Donahue 