Donna Fortin

About the Author:

Donna Fortin began writing radio plays in high school. In college she interned in the scriptwriting department in the University of Wisconsin State Radio Station (WHA) which broadcast to elementary schools. She has received prizes and production for her plays and radio scripts and published in small magazines.

Fortin currently lives in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on the banks of the Chippewa and Eau Claire Rivers, settling there to be a grandmother to her five grandchildren. "I've never regretted moving here. It's a lovely, smallish city with a University, and lots of neat people, plus a great University library for research."

As an elementary school teacher, Fortin also worked in Head Start. In the 1970s she began assisting Mexican workers to relocate out of the migrant stream in Madison, Wisconsin, and assisted in editing a PhD Thesis on Rural Development in Mexico. Traveling to Mexico over the next six years, she settled in the city of Puebla, in the state of Puebla, one and half hours east of Mexico City. Friends took her into remote areas of Mexico where she met families in rural villages, and where she met the family she has fictionalized in the book, "When the Sun Climbs Over Popo". It is the story of Marta on the eve of her Quinceanera, fifteenth birthday as she remembers a year of fiestas. Included is a pronunciation guide and a list of monthly fiestas.

"I wasn't sure I could write an adult fiction book, but for many years, "Time of the Crystal" has been forming; finally this year it came together. It is an adult book set in the Sierra Madre Occidentals in Mexico, and presented a challenge to bring out the characters as well as the culture of a tribe which is now threatened by mining. I decided not to identify them, but travelers in Mexico may be able to figure out who they are. I loved writing this book and the last chapter brought tears to my eyes."

Fortin has a Masters degree in Continuing and Vocational Education, and spent many years as Public Education Coordinator and Consumer Trainer for United Cerebral Palsy of West Central Wisconsin where she developed educational materials, and wrote feature articles. In conjunction with the Eau Claire Police Department and Protective Behaviors. a project of Prevent Child Abuse Wisconsin Fortin produced “Safety Without Fear” on a public access television station. Prior to that she won first place for her production of "Wisconsin Women" and won a Lifetime Achievement Award from Community Television in Eau Claire.

Basic to my philosophy of life is being a certified trainer for Protective Behaviors, a prevention of abuse and empowerment process, authoring a manual, “Living Safely, Teaching Protective Behaviors to People with Special Needs is the result of my work with United Cerebral Palsy. She is also co-author of the Protective Behaviors Training for Trainers Manual. "I was invited to train twice in England, where Protective Behaviors is the national abuse prevention process. It was exciting to be in the country of my ancestors and I was able to meet some of them."

Believing young people need to remember role models of women who worked for peace, Fortin has authored, "A Wild Flight of Imagination", the story of Jane Addams of Hull House, and a young English instructor at the University of Wisconsin, Julia Grace Wales. Wales authored a "Continuous Mediation Without Armistice" in 1915, which President Woodrow Wilson read in depth. Addams and Wales were among 42 American women who traveled mine-infested waters to the Hague in Holland for the first Woman's International Peace Congress.

"I also wanted to share some of my experiences with my family, so I wrote, 'Stories to Tell', a collection of stories written many years ago. Some are in Mexico, and some in rural Wisconsin.

"I have worked hard to get my computer under control! And I have succeeded, thanks to hours of reading instructions and not throwing the computer out the window! Thanks to Kindle Select, I am happy to share my writing with others."