Dog Days in the Smoky Mountains with Donna

Maybe it was the mountain air. Or maybe it was the company of another writer as devious-minded as me. Or a combination of the two. Whatever the reason, my brain is percolating with ideas after two days at the Smoky Mountain retreat of my friend and critique partner, Donna Ball.

I arrived on a Tuesday and was greed by Donna and her three dogs, Ocean the collie, Diamond the English Cream Golden Retriever, and Maverick the border collie. The dogs were so excited by the arrival of company I felt like a visiting celebrity even though they probably didn’t remember me from my previous visit. At one point I was literally covered in dog. I had a dog stretched across my lap, a dog draped over my shoulders as he lay on the backrest of the sofa, and a dog nosing in to get his share of the cuddles. None of them are lap dogs but they didn’t seem to know it. I was in my happy place and the t-shirt I was wearing looked like a mohair sweater from all the dog fur stuck to it after I peeled myself loose.

Donna Ball, for those of you who aren’t familiar with her work, is the bestselling author of numerous titles including two mystery series, the Raine Stockton mysteries and the Dogleg Island mysteries, as well as her Ladybug Farm and Hummingbird House series. She’s currently working on Book One of a new mystery series. It features Buck Lawson, whom readers of Donna’s Raine Stockton mysteries may know as the former sheriff of Raine’s Smoky Mountain community. In her as-yet-unpublished Blood River series, Buck is the new police chief of her fictional town of Mercy in Southern Georgia. Having read the first draft, all I can say is fans of Donna’s, and mystery fans in general, are in for a treat. It’s a corking good tale.

I was first introduced to Donna through her works. I sent her an email expressing my admiration and she wrote back. We kept up a correspondence, and years later when she was looking for a critique partner, I volunteered. The rest is history. We have what I would describe as a dream partnership. We read each other’s works, sometimes multiple drafts, and provide comments. During our brainstorming sessions, we’ve also come up with ideas for novels and plot twists. It’s like having my very own Siri. If I’m stuck while working on a scene in my work-in-progress, I need only ask Donna “What would you do?” Or vice versa. Invariably we come up with solutions during our collaborative process. I know I can always count on Donna to direct her eagle eye on whatever I’ve written and give great suggestions for making it better. Things I never would’ve thought of on my own.

Over the two days of my visit we sketched out the plots of 4 novels in total, a mix of mine and hers. This, between playing with and walking the dogs, eating the delicious meals Donna prepared, and plenty of girl talk. I returned home feeling invigorated and full of ideas.

I’m excited to see what the future holds. My work-in-progress will have a fictional dog, that much I can tell you. I’ll have to hold off on getting the fur-shedding kind until I have a house with a backyard. In the meantime, I have Ocean, Diamond, and Maverick to give me my dog fix.