Donna Galanti: Regaining A Sense of Wonder
KidLit Craft is back with another Snack-Sized Author Interview. In this series, we ask authors five quick questions that give us insight into their craft and process. Today we’re talking with author Donna Galanti.
Donna Galanti’s adventure-driven stories evoke the sense of wonder she talks about with KidLit Craft in this interview. Young readers delight in the way her stories pull them with a sense of discovery at the world around them, whether in the fantasy Unicorn Island series, the Joshua and the Lightning Road books, or her latest book, Loon Cove Summer. KidLit writers have a lot to learn from Donna, from pacing action scenes to writing characters who pull you in.
Welcome, Donna!
Question 1: What's your writing superpower?
I really had to think about this one, and a writing peer confirmed that for me, my superpower is building the story world. It comes to me so easily, as if another power is indeed moving through me. When I fast-draft, I create a fully fleshed-out world with visuals, landscapes, animals, plants, and people within a realm of sensory details. I visualize this setting from the start, and then it unfolds like a movie in my mind. It becomes as real to me as the real world—a world I yearn to escape into.
I love worldbuilding so much that I’ve given a presentation on it many times at writing conferences, and it’s part of my online course “Get Your Fiction Manuscript Past the Gatekeeper.”
Question 2: What’s an element of craft you explored in your latest project and what tips can you share with other authors for growing in their use of that particular element?
In my newest book out, Loon Cove Summer, I explore using journals, lists, and handwritten notes in my story. The main character, 13-year-old Sarah, has discovered an old trail journal from her late mother who once thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail. Also, Sarah’s father leaves her handwritten notes with chores to do, and she also lists what she learns about the birds she is trying to protect. These entries add another layer for us to see inside Sarah’s thoughts, relationships, and world in different ways—and help us understand how these letters change her beliefs and affect her choices.
Using tools like lists, journals, newspapers, quizzes, or notes can be a creative way to incorporate information into your story without doing a stagnant “information-dump” on the reader. As a writer, if you think you have an info-dump whether in dialogue or narrative try using one of these tools to express information in an active way that breaks up long chunks of passive text.
In reading books, take note of authors who use these techniques and how they deliver information in creative ways while also moving the story forward. A great example of using letters in writing is in the Newbery Medal winner Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos. He uses entertaining news articles to show us the quirky town in the setting and how the main character sees his world.
Question 3: If you could travel back in time, what advice would you give yourself as a new author?
1. Be willing and ready to accept constructive criticism from industry peers and apply it in revisions to make your work better, especially if you want to publish the best book you can create. For example, I worked with multiple editors over the years interested in publishing Loon Cove Summer. In collaboration, I added new characters, new scenes, and new plot threads—and deleted others. And it all made the story so much richer!
2. Whether you seek traditional, hybrid, or indie publishing, always have more than one project idea you’re working on. Why? Because when you get a call from an agent, editor, or publisher, they will want to know other projects you have in the works. Have those ideas shaped into short pitches. If self-publishing, it’s great to have other projects on the side if one isn’t working. Basically, don’t put all your eggs in one basket!
3. Be ready for rejection and combat it with more submissions and more project ideas. I submitted to 189 literary agents before getting my first agent. Your query letter is your sales tool to get an agent to ask for the full manuscript. Keep getting rejected? It’s time to revise that letter. New agents are prime for querying as they want to build their client list.
Are you ready to take rejection and keep persevering? Because once you have a book deal … Your changes to the story may be rejected. Your title may be rejected. Your next book idea for the second book in the deal may be rejected. Get used to rejection and think of it as positive traction to keep moving forward.
4. Finally, join writer organizations in your genre and volunteer within the organization! This is how I networked and met so many wonderful authors and mentors who elevated me, offered feedback and advice, supported me, and endorsed my books.
Question 4: What inspires you as a writer?
Seeking and finding magic and wonder in the ordinary. I’ve always been a child of nature, and I go to the forest to fill up my spirit, be inspired, and unleash story concepts. I not only discover many plot ideas on my walks in the woods but also unravel parts of a story I am stuck on that enables me to keep writing.
Harnessing my childlike wonder now to write for kids also inspires me. Do you remember what filled you with wonder as a kid? I walked along rock walls under the stars at night when the whole world was asleep. Climbed trees as high as I could to sing songs to the woods. And hid away in rose bush caves with a notepad to write my stories—all the while believing that magic existed.
But what evokes childlike wonder? And as adults writing for children, how can we recapture that? Regaining a childlike sense of wonder isn’t about returning to a childlike state, it’s about letting yourself be awed by the little things in your grownup life. The mundane everyday routines can dull our wonder. And just because those little things happen every day doesn’t mean they aren’t miraculous. They are. And they inspire me to write. I even did a podcast here on how to recover and reset your sense of wonder as an adult.
Question 5: What’s one book you think every kidlit author should read?
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. This book is so beautiful and emotionally satisfying, and yet it’s written very sparsely in a poetic style. Early on writing my first children’s book, my developmental editor mentioned I had the habit of plopping important emotional moments in the middle of a paragraph where it remained hidden. I became super aware of this in my writing and now often rearrange sentences and/or words striving for a powerful effect.
One way to create this effect is to place the word conveying your most important concept at the end of a sentence or paragraph. The space after the period lets this word resonate for a deeper impact on the reader. And Applegate does this seamlessly and powerfully with Ivan’s story. She allows her words to resonate with a natural pause as you move from one sentence to the next. It’s what makes this book special to not only read silently but read aloud for its deep impact.
Bonus Question: What can fans look forward to next?
My next contemporary middle grade book, The Secret Winner’s Club, releases 3/3/26! It’s told in three alternating points of view.
In the story, Sunny, a thirteen-year-old girl with a visible autoimmune condition, bands with other immune deficient friends to create a secret winner’s club. Tired of always being in second place in school competitions, they help each other become #1 before middle school is over—but they quickly discover crossing the line and hurting others can make them even more visible and even more of an outsider.
I have several auto-immune conditions, some visible, like the characters in this story. I can relate to how it feels to look different with one of these conditions—and strive to stand out for something other than your appearance.
Donna Galanti is the author of two middle-grade book series, Unicorn Island and Joshua and the Lightning Road; the middle grade standalone Loon Cove Summer; and the paranormal suspense Element Trilogy for adults. She has lived in fun locations, including England, her family-owned campground in New Hampshire, and in Hawaii where she served as a U.S. Navy photographer. Donna is an avid outdoor adventurer and nature lover. She volunteers for the Old-Growth Forest Network and the National Audubon Society. When Donna’s not wandering the woods seeking magic and wonder, you can usually find her biking or kayaking.
You can find her at her websitewww.donnagalanti.com and on Instagram @donnagalanti.
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