Q&A

Clare O'Donohue has worked on shows for The History Channel, truTV, Food Network, A&E, Discovery, and TLC. She has also written a numerous novels and we welcome her today on A Novel Review. She has been gracious enough to tell us what are:

THE FIVE W’S  OF Clare O'Donohue  

WHO is Clare O'Donohue

Underneath the sarcasm, I’m pretty shy. I spend a lot of time with family and friends, and pride myself on having close friendships that pre-date grade school. I prefer tea to coffee, staying up late to getting up early, and flats to high heels. I’m not outdoorsy, but I have things like, “go camping” on my bucket list. I have a bucket list. This is mainly because I’m kind of anal retentive and I’d hate to be on my death bed and realize I I’d forgotten to do something really cool because I didn’t make a list.

WHAT do you enjoy doing other than writing in your spare time?

I love creating things –so I quilt, I draw, I bake. I like being around artists. I go to the weekend art fairs and I take classes in things like pottery and glassmaking. I also love to travel. I think it’s so easy to be on automatic pilot, doing the same things in the same way every day, and travel is one way to wake up the brain. So is learning a new skill. And since writers don’t just write what we know, we write about what we want to know, learning something new or traveling to a new place is research for a possible book. 

WHEN did you know you wanted to be a writer?

When I was about five I used to tell my older sister stories about the good people who lived under the bed, who protected us from the evil people who lived in the closet. I made up my own endings to Cinderella and Snow White, and read every book I could from the time I learned how to read. When I was fifteen, I wrote a novella, a mystery, just to see if I could follow through on the story to the end. I majored in International Politics in college to become a political speechwriter, but ended up working as a newspaper reporter and then TV writer/ producer. So I guess I’ve always been a writer, and since I was about 24, I’ve made a living as one. It helped that my mom was an English teacher, so words and stories are important in my family. My sister has written a parenting book and both my brothers have published articles.

WHERE do you write?

At the moment, I’ve got my laptop propped on my bed. I usually write on a chair in the living room or at the kitchen table. Sometimes I write at Starbucks, or a local coffee shop that doesn’t mind me sitting there for hours. I travel a lot for my day job as a TV producer, so I write in airports, hotels, and often at a shoot while I’m waiting for the crew to set up the lights. A lot of Missing Persons was written that way. I don’t as yet have a home office dedicated to my writing. That’s the dream.

WHY do you write?

There is no non-pretentious way to say this. I have to write. I really find the writing process to be so fun and joyful, even when it’s frustrating and hard. I can’t imagine not writing and I feel grateful that I’ve been able to do this for a living, especially since I have so few other marketable skills. 

Thank-you so much for stopping here at A Novel Review and sharing with us, Clare!

I hope everyone enjoyed getting to know The Five W’s of Clare O’Donohue. Make sure to stop back on Thursday this week to read my review for Clare’s book plus your chance to win a copy of her new book!