Spotlight: Donna Wichelman

Hello, I'm Donna Wichelman, and I'm thrilled to give you an up-close and personal look into my writing life and what led me to become an author. Thank you for joining me.

My appreciation for history and geography developed in childhood since my parents traveled by car from Ohio across the United States and Canada almost every summer to visit family in Washington State. As an only child on those road trips, our travels sparked my imagination. I developed stories of great adventures crossing the prairie in a covered wagon, charting our course in the Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota, walking the beaches along the Oregon coast where I'd meet my true love, and scaling the mountains near Banff or Jasper National Park in the Rocky Mountains of Canada. Or perhaps we would be attacked by bears in Yellowstone National Park—a true story, by the way—and needed rescuing from the terrifying creatures hounding us.

In my last two years of high school, a unique opportunity allowed me to attend the United World College of the Atlantic—an international boarding school in Wales. While most of the students lived in dormitories on the “hill,” I lived in a two-room, ten-girl dorm inside the 13th- to 14th-century St. Donat’s Castle outside Llantwit Major, Wales, on the Bristol Channel. Though the castle has none of Hogwarts’ magic, it does have a legendary ghost, Lady Anne, who roams the halls. Living with international students and having the chance to travel throughout Europe further engaged my interest in history, literature, and culture.

St.Donat's Castle, Llantwit Major, Wales: Donna's Gallery 1975

As I headed into my adult years, I loved developing stories from learning about the history and culture of various settings. My first attempt at writing a historical romance was the first book in a series titled the Long White Cloud based on Captain James Cook's arrival in New Zealand in the late eighteenth century. Agent Steve Laube sent it to committee at Bethany House Publishers, but they rejected it, and the manuscript still sits on my computer. The experience taught me, however, that I needed to develop my craft and hone my writing skills.

My next project wasn't historical fiction, but it had a huge historical and spiritual component as a contemporary romantic suspense novel set in the Waldensian Valleys of the French and Italian Alps. I had become fascinated by this ancient Christian sect that endured centuries of persecution similar to the Huguenots. Some say these courageous men and women of faith banded together in 1170 A.D under Peter Waldo. Others say they hail from the first-century church fathers. In Light Out of Darkness, I wanted to create a story that explored the idea of an older origin. So in the book, A prestigious art exhibition turns into a horrific spectacle when a murder sends an art curator and professor on a hunt for a highly sought-after painting. At stake is a two-thousand-year-old drama unfolding in the contemporary world of the Italian Alps. 

The sequel, Undaunted Valor, continues the story as Professor Alessandro Marianni's grandmother is kidnapped, and he and Jamie Holbrooke must follow the trail of the Waldensians' Glorious Return from exile in Switzerland back to their home valleys. As they do, they will have to weather a rainstorm on a mountain trail, negotiate a dangerous waterfall, outmaneuver a car chase, and defy an assassin's gun with undaunted valor to find Lucianna Marianni.

By the time I wrote my Angel Book Award-winning novel, A Song of Deliverance, I knew I wanted to remain in the historical fiction genre. So when, on a family vacation, I stood on a crest overlooking the Atlantic Ocean on the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland, I imagined a poor woman in nineteenth-century Ireland destined to emigrate to America. At that point, it was only a small leap to develop a story set in the nineteenth-century community of Georgetown, Colorado, which still retains its Victorian ambiance dating back to its history steeped in the gold and silver mining industry. Thus, a story was born about a poor Irish woman whose hopes for a better life in Colorado crumble after a mining disaster, and she must find the faith and courage to create a new life for herself. As she does, Anna Sullivan helps the mine’s owner uncover the nefarious deeds of his nemesis and falls in love with the mining mogul.

In Rhythms of the Heart, Book 2 in the Singing Silver Mine Series, Life as Cassie Munro knew it ended the day her husband and children were ripped away in a deadly train disaster. Will she ever find happiness again living with her parents in the community of Georgetown, Colorado? It will take one doctor with his own ill-fated past to help her mend a broken heart.

My current work in progress, Power of the Thorn, is a World War Two slip-time novel, meaning dual timelines, set in 1940s occupied France and some parts of the contemporary timeline in Denver, Colorado. The war has fascinated me since I was a child, listening to my parents talk about living through some of the darkest days in the history of the United States and the world. Much has been written about the war over the last eighty-six years. My hope is to bring a fresh perspective on those times.

Thank you for stopping by and letting me share a little bit of me with you. I hope knowing my history gives you a little flavor of who I am as an author and the kinds of books I like to write. I'd love to hear about what you do and the kinds of books you love to read. I'll be giving away one of my books of your choice to a lucky person who comments on this blog.

Website: Donna Wichelman.com

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