Welcome

My name is - you guessed it - Kathleen McDonnell, and I write plays, fiction and non-fiction books. I'm also a musician. I play and sing with several groups, and in kith&kin, a family trio with my daughters. I'm not much of a blogger but I manage to update this page every month or so.

Much of what I write is aimed at young people. I think that kids today are hungry for big stories – not just the kind that teach them lessons or reflect their own lives back to them, but stories that allow them to experience danger, exhilaration and terror – the full range of human possibility. I have a particular interest in what I call girl-hero stories, because I think there still aren’t enough opportunities for girls to see themselves as the central character.

What's new

I've just finished a new draft of my latest play, Beautiful Savage. It's a full-length drama inspired by the amazing, true-life story of Memmie LeBlanc, a mysterious 'savage girl' found wandering in the woods in eighteenth-century France. Beautiful Savage was given a staged reading in November, 2009, produced by Toronto's Foundry Theatre. (Click here to go to Foundry's Facebook page.)

The script of my play The New Mother is now available on my website. This one-act play based on a haunting gothic fairy tale has echoes of Hansel and Gretel. In the January 18, 2010 issues of The New Yorker, Neil Gaiman talks about how he drew inspiration for his novel Coraline from the original story by the Victorian writer Lucy Lane Clifford. Click here to download a copy of my script of The New Mother. You can contact me via email for more background and information about performance rights..

My fantasy trilogy The Notherland Journeys (and most of my other books) will soon be available for download as e-books. The Songweavers, the latest novel in the series, tells a magical story about music, weaving and the origins of the universe (yes, really).

"The Songweavers, which is the third book in the Notherland journey series by Kathleen McDonnell, is a fantasy based in many interesting and imaginative worlds which the author describes as parocosms. McDonnell manages to develop these several strands of her story through skillful writing. Each character is well developed, and the reader develops sympathy for each of their stories... This is a challenging novel for those children who appreciate different forms of literature and the interplay of symbols and imagery."

Click here to read the rest of the review. For more reviews of The Songweavers and other books in the trilogy, check out Goodreads.com.

Click here for ordering information and to learn more about the trilogy.

Become a fan of The Songweavers on Facebook.

Kathleen McDonnell

 

 

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