DRAGONS OF THE VALLEY - Donita K Paul - Free Book

Donita is one of the most popular  authors of Christian fantasy. Welcome, Donita. Tell us how much of yourself you write into your characters.

I think I did that more as a beginning writer. After time, I became more comfortable with incorporating what I see in others.

When did you first discover that you were a writer?

When I was in fifth grade, I wrote something my teacher thought was astonishing.

Tell us the range of the kinds of books you enjoy reading.

I love books. My house is filled with them. I have shelves full of kids’ books, all for research, but I read them too my grandsons, of course. I also love to read Christian fiction, especially romance, suspense, and fantasy.

How do you keep your sanity in our run, run, run world?

God has managed to make me into a crawl, crawl, crawl person. I don’t try to keep up with the run, run, run crowd.

How do you choose your characters’ names?

Some names I choose because I like the sound of them. Other characters’ names come from foreign language or uncommon words. For example, Wizard Fenworth is a bog wizard, and the word fen is a synonym for bog. My tumanhofer names are the most fun to create. I pull out a phone directory and pick syllables from the names inside then I combine them until I have a name that sounds good.

What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of?

Educating my children in life and academics.

If you were an animal, which one would you be, and why?

I love dogs, but I’d be a cat because they rule in most situations.

What is your favorite food?

Brownies. Make that gooey brownies.

There's not anything much better than gooey brownies. We should share some. What is the problem with writing that was your greatest roadblock, and how did you overcome it?

I strive to make the next book better than the last one, and I go to different seminars and workshops that teach craft.

Tell us about the featured book.

Dragons of the Valley is the sequel to The Vanishing Sculptor. Tipper and Bealomondore go on a quest to hide three powerful sculptures in order to prevent them from being misused by an evil ruler. Along the way they are chased by a vile bounty hunter, face the invasion of their country, and learn about who they are and who they can become.

Please give us the first page of the book.

Theft

Bealomondore stood in the door of the darkened hall. Shadows hid the statue he’d been ordered to steal.

His heart told him to retreat. His feet wouldn’t move. But the kimen, whose wildest flying lock of hair only reached to the tumanhofer’s knee, insisted that the statue be stolen.

The artist cast the kimen a menacing look. The rude little man had startled him out of a sound sleep and proposed this ridiculous escapade. Bealomondore only wanted to go back to his chamber. In the middle of the night, the proper place for an aristocratic tumanhofer was his bed.

Sounds really interesting. How can readers find you on the Internet?

My website is http://www.donitakpaul.com/.

I have another website for the children’s book I wrote with my daughter. It is http://www.dragonandturtle.com/.

Thank you, Donita, for spending this time with us.