Meet Kathleen Donnelly

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kathleen Donnelly a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kathleen, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

As I reflect on my life, I realize that my Mom deserves credit for imparting her wisdom and teaching me resilience. She was always my number one supporter and fan, but when things didn’t go my way, she never let me make excuses or quit. My Mom was a teacher and a great life coach. She would tell me to break down a large project into little goals so I could accomplish what I started. If something wasn’t going right, she’d help me troubleshoot and come up with a solution. I can still hear her tell me to think positively. Because of her, I felt like I could succeed and follow my dreams. I miss her terribly, as she recently passed, but I feel like a part of her will always live on as I continue to do what I love. She gave me the skills to move forward even when there are obstacles in the way.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I feel like the luckiest person in the world because I’m doing what I love—writing romantic suspense. My path to becoming a full-time writer wasn’t a normal one. Growing up in Colorado, I loved the mountains and nature. I also enjoyed riding horses and had a love for all animals. I didn’t know what I wanted to do after high school, but I earned my degree in Journalism from Colorado State University.

After graduation, I did some freelance writing and I trained horses. A friend of mine started a private K-9 narcotics dog business called Sherlock Hounds Detection Canines. When she said the company needed another handler, I jumped at the opportunity. By this time, I had also started to write fiction. Little did I know that all these careers and life experiences would eventually influence the story line of CHASING JUSTICE—my first published book and book one in the National Forest K-9 series.

CHASING JUSTICE, was released in spring of 2022. Since then, I’ve written and released two more books, HUNTING THE TRUTH and KILLER SECRETS. I love incorporating my K-9 background along with my love of Colorado to create stories. My series is about a U.S. Forest Service officer, Maya Thompson, and her K-9, a rowdy Malinois named Juniper. Together Maya and Juniper, along with the handsome undersheriff, Josh Colten, solve crimes in a fictional Colorado National Forest.

I am now writing full-time and I’m proud to be traditionally published by the Harlequin Romantic Suspense line and Harlequin’s imprint, Carina Press. I look forward to releasing two more books in the National Forest K-9 series in 2026. My next book, COLORADO K-9 RESCUE, will be out in 2025 and will be the start of a new series. I’m thrilled to continue to follow my passion and dream of writing fiction.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

The path to publication was not easy and there were obstacles along the way. Several qualities helped me navigate the publishing world. The first was my passion for stories and books. I love everything about writing, including creating a new world and characters. I would continue to write even if I wasn’t published because it brings me joy.

That passion fueled me when I received rejections which leads me to the second quality—perseverance. In publishing, you hear “no” quite a bit. You must continue and ignore the rejection because a “yes” could be right around the corner.

The final quality I felt helped me the most was being open to learning, critiques of my writing and other feedback. It can be hard to hear sometimes, but by keeping an open mind and continuing my education, I feel like I was able to take my writing to a higher level which led to publication. I have realized that with writing, you never quit learning, which is a wonderful thing.

As far as advice, I would tell someone early in their journey to learn as much as they can. Not just about their craft, but also about the business side, especially marketing. Take the time to network and get to know anyone who has been successful in whatever art you’re pursuing. Learn how they navigated the ups and downs. Everyone has had rejection of some kind. We can learn from each other and support each other as well.

Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?

This is such an interesting question. I think it’s important to capitalize on our strengths, but I am also a big believer in continuing to learn and broaden our knowledge. I think I feel this way from my experience training horses and dogs. With both animals, I worked with several different instructors. They all had similar fundamentals, but every trainer approached a problem a different way.
By learning from more than one person, I realized that as I ran into training issues, I had a bigger “toolbox” to pull from. As I started writing more, I took the same philosophy into learning my craft. I took classes from other authors and added their knowledge to my toolbox. Overtime, I realized where my strengths and weaknesses were. I used my strengths, but also thought about how I could improve in other areas.

One such weakness was public speaking. As an author, it’s helpful for marketing if you can be comfortable giving speeches, talking to readers, being interviewed on podcasts, etc. I would start to shake when I got up to speak, but I knew that this was something I could overcome. I’ve always felt that practice is the best way to improve, so I would say yes to every opportunity to speak or be interviewed. Eventually, I found myself becoming more comfortable in these situations. This past year, I realized that I have enjoyed the opportunity to speak on panels and was even a keynote speaker for a local literary festival. I’m glad I pushed myself outside my comfort zone.

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PiperAnne Worcester Photography

Bobservations Photography

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