This and That: Our Newest Blogger

After many posts over the years, some of our mommy bloggers will be leaving us. This is a great thing because they are now so busy with their writing that they can't possibly do everything. Tristie Pinkston and Dorine White are leaving our little group to move on to other writing adventures. 

Meet our newest blogger:  Donna Gonzales

Donna Gonzales had the blessing of being a stay at home mom and raising 8 children, all of whom are happily married. She has 18 grandchildren with number 19 arriving in August. She graduated with a degree in Literature and Writing from California State University San Marcos where she was on the newspaper and magazine staffs. Her writing is mostly LDS romance, but she’s also writing a semi-autobiography about growing up in the 50’s. She dips into a couple of other books outside her chosen genre from time to time. She likes to crochet, work counted cross stitch, and her new discovery Swedish Weaving along with scrapbooking. She dabbles in quilting and knitting, but doesn’t like needlepoint. She likes traveling, but gave up on tenting years ago. After a 9 month cross country road trip in 20012, she and her husband sold their RV, so now they stay in motels when they travel. She lives in north San Diego County, California. She has lived in southern California all of her life except when she and her husband were first married and he was going to BYU then that other school, University of Utah, for his masters.

You can follow her blog: http://donnaswritingworld.blogspot.ca/

Donna's first blog post:

This and That

Since I’m new to posting on this blog, I thought I’d introduce myself and write a few paragraphs mentioning what I plan to write about (by no means a complete list, who knows where life will lead). I’m looking forward to this experience.

I mostly write LDS romance with a life lesson the heroine needs to learn. A couple of examples: With Hidden Heritage, it’s forgiveness. In Escape from Fire, she needs to learn what she really wants in life. So yes, there will be posts about writing and the writing life.

As a woman who has been married 49 years, I will also post about life lessons and gospel principles I’ve learned more about. Any advice I may give, will always be with the disclaimer to use it if it feels right, and ignore it if it doesn’t. It’s your life. One example: Traditions, especially Christmas traditions. This was a hurdle for my husband and I when we were first married. We both felt that our own family traditions were “right.” There’s no right or wrong with traditions. Take some of yours, some of your husband’s and create new ones all your own. Even if you’ve been married several years, it’s never too late to discuss them. In fact this is a good time of year when the emotions of the holiday season aren’t as strong.

 I’ll also write posts about life in general. Perhaps how wonderful it is to have a now adult daughter who was rebellious as a teen hug me, and tell me she loves me, or the delights of being a grandmother. I love to travel and hike.

There are often things I learn from those experiences I use as ideas for bits in my books. I still haven’t found a place in my novels for hiking up the Narrows, and Kanarraville Falls (I did that last year), but hope to someday. One example of something I used: I saw an accident on my way to college, when I went back in the 90’s, into Divine Love.