Author Spotlight - Donna Hill

DONNA'S FAVORITES THINGS

· Favorite Food: Oxtails with peas and rice and plantains

· Favorite Movie: The Godfather. Malcolm X

· Favorite TV Show: anything with crime, criminals, catching killers

· Favorite Author: Too hard to choose.

· Favorite Song: I Can’t Stop Loving You by Kem

· Favorite Book: THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS by Isabel Wilkerson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

· Describe a typical day for Donna. Not many of my days are typical—meaning it’s something different each day. Much of that depends on whether it’s school season and I’m teaching, or on break in winter and summer. This year will be a bit different as I’ve moved from my lifetime hometown of Brooklyn, NY to South Orange, New Jersey. So where there was not much of commute to get to wherever I wanted to go before, now my travels are designed around train schedules (I gave up driving years ago—too much trouble in New York). I’m usually up by five/five thirty in the morning. Reach for my water on the nightstand, a few minutes of meditation—giving thanks and asking for guidance for the day—some stretching and core exercises, then coffee and vitamins! Then my work day begins. Since I both teach and serve as Executive Director for the Center for Black Literature at my college, I tackle the emails that require my attention, handle budget and staffing and programming issues and questions. As I’ve been off campus for the past two semesters during the school year, I spent midday reviewing upcoming assignments, grading any papers and responding to students. This semester, I am back in the classroom two days per week. (First time since I’ve relocated) So I’ll be commuting two days per week, while juggling my responsibilities as Exec. Director and my committee work at the college. In between ALL of that I write! Literally. When I have a break in my schedule, I try to write. I do set aside Sundays to do the bulk of my writing.

· What do you enjoy most about being a writer? The thing I enjoy most, I would say, is that it has opened up the world to me. I have been able to travel and meet people I would have never met otherwise. Especially when I meet readers who tell me how much what I wrote impacted them or how much they enjoyed my work. That’s the icing on the cake.

· What, to you, is the most difficult part of the writing process? The process itself is not difficult for me. I’m only speaking for myself here. What I find most difficult, because of my other responsibilities, is time.

· On your website, the following words are displayed prominently. “I WRITE TO TREAD THE NEEDLE THAT CONNECT US.” What is the meaning and significance of those words? Great question. The idea behind this is that I try to write stories that are relevant to the reader—even if the event never happened to them, but they ‘get it’, that the one thing we do impacts the next. Stories connect us. We pass stories along all the time in our day to day life. I want my stories to be passed along because they have that “something” that kernel of something that matters enough to be shared—even in a small way. The words are the thread.

· What do you enjoy doing when you are not writing? I am a big TV watcher!

· What is the best book you have read so far in 2026? BLACK AF HISTORY THE UN-WHITEWASHED STORY OF AMERICA by Michael Harriot, THE GIRL WITH THE LOUDING VOICE by Abi Dare, FRIENDS AND FAMILY by Natalie Braszile, and The DOUBLE DUTCH FUSS by Phill Branch.

ALL ABOUT THE BOOKS

· Tell us a little about THEIR UNEXPECTED PLAN which comes out this month and about NOLA AND BALDWIN which comes out in November. How difficult/easy is it to write in two distinct genres? THEIR UNEXPECTED PLAN is my take on the workplace romance trope, with a peek behind the curtains of the publishing world. My male lead is Morgan Chambers, a British exec who has been sent from the headquarters in London to reinvigorate Ascension Publishing and find the next literary star to put the company on the map. Noa Dunnavant. MFA student and part-time waitress at night and community advocate by day, is an aspiring writer who meets the beyond charmingly sexy Morgan at his welcome party. He gives her his card, and she submits her manuscript. He quickly learns that he wants Noa just as badly as he wants to reshape the company—but at what cost? Toss in Morgan’s jealous ex (the owner’s daughter) and Noa’s determination to prove that she is a true writer and not Morgan’s token author, along with irresistible attraction and you’ve got a plan that did not go as expected!

My November release NOLA AND BALDWIN is a historical romance set shortly after the end of the Great Depression up to the start of the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s. These are two young people who individually leave their hard lives and loss and take on a journey to find themselves and a better life. They meet on the train, with Noa as a passenger—traveling away from home for the first time—and Baldwin a young, visionary Pullman Porter. Nola’s journey is inspired by her love of the novel THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD and her search for her voice and her own Tea Cake, much like the titular character Janie Crawford. Baldwin is propelled by his desire to build a life that he had only imagined was possible and escape the loveless life that he’d endured. Through their journey from the deep South, the Midwest, and the North, they battle racism, loss, and separation, but their love for each other is what will sustain them and make both of their dreams a reality.

Switching genres, for me, is mainly a mindset. When I do research for historicals like RHYTHMS, CONFESSIONS IN B FLAT or I AM AYAH, I’m in that place and time as I write. For my romances, that’s where my head is. The same is true when I write women’s fiction like An Ordinary Woman or If I Could. But no matter the genre, the heart of it is the relationship between my characters. In romance, of course, the love is the foundation. In my other works, the love or relationship is always there, but the story has broader themes and ideas.

· If you had to recommend a book that best embodies you as the author, which of your books would it be? I AM AYAH. I did quite a few things with that novel that I had not tried before.

· What qualities or characteristics do you believe make your books special? I believe that it is the fact that I have tried to always stay true to myself as a writer and continue to write about ideas that are important to me and hopefully to my readers.

· What is next for Donna? I am currently working on my next romance for Harlequin, A LOW COUNTRY SERENADE, and another historical, BEFORE THE APPLAUSE for Amistad.

ABOUT THE READERS

· If there was one thing you could tell your readers about Donna, what would it be? That as quiet as it’s kept, I am really very shy.

· What advice would you give to an aspiring author? Read. Read outside of your genre and don’t follow trends. Decide if you are going to be a sprinter or a long-distance runner.

· How can readers reach you?

o Email: donnahillwrites@gmail.com

o Website: donnahillwrites.com

o Facebook: donnahillwriter and donnahillfans

o Instagram: @brooklyngirl737 @donnahillwrites