Colin Donahue

I got hooked on reading at age 3 when I saw my sister getting all the attention from mom and dad and never looked back. In second grade, I got so bored that I asked for a sheaf of papers and started writing a book on Astronomy. It went something like "Get a telescope and look at the sky." This experience continues to resurface today in my own writing motto of, "Write like you lived it."

When I was in Elementary school, I devoured books way over my head. In Middle school, I was reading Terry Brooks and Piers Anthony. In high school, it was Steven Brust and Robert Jordan. I read all the typical books - Dungeons and Dragons, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings - and without knowing it I kept looking for ways to improve their stories.

I wrote the first chapter of my solo book between classes my freshman year of college. It started with a poem and expanded from there. I remember finishing the last word one week before graduation. I started on the sequel without so much as a thought to editing because, hey, I was that good, right? Turns out not so much.

After some fits and starts, I began rewriting my solo book even as I found a partner to write with on an entirely different series. Shortly after that, I fell in with an amazing group of people at Black Chicken studios and started my first paid writing gig for Academagia: The Making of Mages. The lessons I learned there sharpened my skills for Blood & Honor: Enemies Within.

Now more than ever I have less time and more desire. There are too many good stories to write, too many tales to be told! Between cleaning up my solo novel, working on the Academagia sequel, hammering out the Blood & Honor sequel(s), and raising a family, time is tight. I now have greater sympathy for Jordan, Rothfus, Gerrold, Martin, and others.

Writing is tough, but I wouldn't give it up for the world.