Ad Agency Chaos to Murder Mysteries | Robin Leemann Donovan on Writing, Humor & Bold Book Titles
Plot Twist RadioApril 18, 2026x
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00:26:4324.74 MB

Ad Agency Chaos to Murder Mysteries | Robin Leemann Donovan on Writing, Humor & Bold Book Titles

In this episode of Plot Twist Radio, host Erin Egnatz sits down with author Robin Leemann Donovan to talk about her unconventional journey from running a successful ad agency to writing bold, laugh-out-loud murder mysteries.

Robin shares how a difficult business partnership pushed her toward creativity, why she writes humorous crime fiction, and the story behind her unforgettable book titles—including Is It Still Murder Even If She Was a Bitch?

We dive into the realities of the writing process (spoiler: it’s messy), the challenges of editing, and how she built her relatable, imperfect lead character, Donna Lee. Robin also opens up about writing without an outline, finding humor in dark places, and why sometimes the best stories come from real-life frustration.

Plus—bulldogs, creative chaos, and why writing can feel a little like a Ouija board.

If you love author interviews, writing advice, mystery novels, or behind-the-scenes conversations about the creative process, this episode is for you.


Where to find Robin: Website

🎧 Listen now and discover how to turn life’s chaos into compelling fiction.


00:00:00
Welcome to Plot Twist Radio, the show where creativity,

00:00:03
storytelling, and the unpredictable path of the

00:00:05
creative life all collide. I'm your host, Aaron Egnatz.

00:00:13
What happens when a high-powered ad agency owner gets stuck with

00:00:16
the world's worst business partner?

00:00:18
If you're Robin Lehman Donovan, you start writing murder

00:00:21
mysteries. And not just any murder

00:00:23
mysteries. Bold, laugh out loud, slightly

00:00:25
unhinged stories with titles you definitely won't forget.

00:00:29
In this episode of Plot Twist Radio, I'm sitting down with

00:00:32
Robin to talk about her unconventional path to becoming

00:00:34
an author, how frustration turned into creativity, and why

00:00:38
sometimes the best stories come from the messiest parts of life.

00:00:41
We also dive into her writing process, the reality of editing

00:00:44
battles, building unforgettable characters like Donna Lee, and

00:00:47
yes, how a single title can sell an entire book.

00:00:50
Plus, we bond over Bulldogs, creative chaos, and the moments

00:00:54
where writing feels a little like a Ouija board.

00:00:57
This is a fun one, so let's get into it.

00:01:02
Robin. Hello and welcome to the show.

00:01:04
Well, thank you, Aaron. Thank you.

00:01:06
Thanks for having me. Before we get started, can you

00:01:08
tell the audience a little bit about yourself?

00:01:10
Yes, I was born in New Jersey, which is critical to the

00:01:15
attitude. Moved to Connecticut for many

00:01:17
years, moved to Omaha, and I just moved to Utah.

00:01:21
And in that time I was a high school English teacher.

00:01:24
I was in advertising. I bought an ad agency.

00:01:27
I ran it for 22 years. And somewhere maybe 10 years,

00:01:31
maybe halfway through, we brought in a partner who was

00:01:34
supposed to be a financial genius.

00:01:36
And I still have to see proof of that.

00:01:39
And he was horrible as a partner and he was horrible to the

00:01:42
staff. And I was stuck.

00:01:44
He was a full partner, so I couldn't just get rid of him.

00:01:46
So I started writing murder mysteries as a way of just on

00:01:51
the weekends, escaping from thinking about all the stuff

00:01:54
that we had to deal with during the week from him.

00:01:56
So I guess I have him to thank for.

00:01:59
I've been. We ended up, because I owned an

00:02:02
ad agency, so I had some great creative talent and we ended up

00:02:07
getting a client that was a hybrid publisher and I actually

00:02:11
had first wanted to publish a story about probably bought the

00:02:14
agency because there was a lot of drama and I thought it would

00:02:17
be actually a great movie. I started writing.

00:02:19
It was so painful. I hated writing it.

00:02:22
And I brought it to this new client of mine and said, look,

00:02:25
before I go any further, I'm afraid that if I do publish

00:02:28
this, I'll get sued. So he said, these are stories

00:02:31
about people behaving badly during the sale of a company.

00:02:34
I said, he said, I think you're fine.

00:02:37
I said, I'm not so sure. So he said, well, you know, give

00:02:40
me what you've got. I'll bring it to my lawyer and

00:02:42
I'll let you know. So he came back about a week

00:02:45
later and said, my lawyer wants to know, are many of these

00:02:48
people dead yet? And that's, that's kind of when

00:02:51
I, he said maybe backburner this thing.

00:02:53
And he said, but what do you love?

00:02:54
And I said, well, I love comedy. So I said, write your comedy and

00:02:57
show me that. So then I was like, OK, but

00:02:59
comedy has to be about something.

00:03:01
So I figured I, my mother raised me to love all things murder

00:03:05
mystery. So I wrote humorous murder

00:03:08
mysteries. And my first one went very

00:03:11
quickly. It must have all all been right

00:03:12
up there in my head. And I didn't have a title

00:03:15
because I thought I want to make it a series.

00:03:17
So I want to make it, you know, like a is for whatever, but

00:03:19
that's taken. And I couldn't think of great

00:03:23
sequence kind of title. So I was talking to my other

00:03:26
business partner one day and she said, yeah, don't put pressure

00:03:28
on yourself. Just name it, just put a title

00:03:31
on it and you know, maybe you'll have another book, but don't

00:03:33
worry about it. So I just threw this title down

00:03:37
for a joke, thinking no one's there.

00:03:38
My publishers are never going to let me keep this title.

00:03:41
And then I started interviewing all these creative directors.

00:03:43
And of course, now when you get interviewed, you research your

00:03:47
interviewer. And so everybody would be like,

00:03:49
well, what do you, what do you do?

00:03:51
What are your hobbies? So it would the title would come

00:03:54
out and the reaction I got from all these really talented people

00:03:57
was so good. I said I'm going to fight for

00:03:59
it. So I did.

00:04:00
And the first title for my first book is Is it Still Murder?

00:04:03
Even if she was a bitch? And that that title, you know, I

00:04:07
have three other books, but that title is the one that gets

00:04:11
everybody's attention. So, you know, and a lot of

00:04:13
people, especially men, because I figured my audience is going

00:04:16
to be like menopausal women. And I was surprised at the

00:04:20
number of men that have read the book.

00:04:22
And a lot of times at a book fair or something, a man will

00:04:24
just walk up to me and walk up, break my personal distance, like

00:04:28
walk right up to me and go, no, you know, first things like know

00:04:33
what? Then I realized they were

00:04:34
answering my question. So.

00:04:36
That is awesome. I that is probably the best

00:04:39
title I've ever heard. Thank.

00:04:41
You. Catchy, for starters, but you

00:04:44
know, you have to just the title alone.

00:04:46
If I know nothing about it, just hearing that title, I need to

00:04:48
read the book because it's just so fascinating.

00:04:51
And for me, that's one of the hardest things to come up with

00:04:53
is a title. It's it's so hard.

00:04:55
Exactly. You're right, it is.

00:04:57
And you know my other title? Nothing.

00:05:00
You're right, nothing could top that.

00:05:02
But my 4th book, which I actually wrote with an Olympic

00:05:07
gold medal winner and that's another story.

00:05:09
Somebody gave me that title and I had it for like 3 or 4 years

00:05:13
and people would say to me, are you ever going to write a fourth

00:05:15
book? And I said, yeah, because I have

00:05:16
the title and, and the title of that book is, does it count as

00:05:20
saving a life if you just don't kill someone?

00:05:23
And so, you know, but the so now people are like, well, what

00:05:26
about a fifth book? And I'm like, first the title.

00:05:28
And I don't have it yet. So that work goes into it.

00:05:32
Yeah, a lot. You, you're, you would be

00:05:35
surprised at how much goes into a book.

00:05:37
You, you know, editing. There's outlines.

00:05:39
There's 456 drafts. The one I'm writing right now, I

00:05:43
think I'm on like an eighth draft.

00:05:44
I don't even know where I'm going with it.

00:05:46
It's nothing like what it's started with.

00:05:48
That is a frustrating time. Eighth draft is like you're like

00:05:52
in Bizarro world. Yes.

00:05:53
I don't even know where I'm going with these characters at

00:05:56
this point. I'm just going around in

00:05:57
circles. Yeah.

00:05:59
You know, it's, it's just part of the process.

00:06:01
So let's kind of start there with your writing process.

00:06:04
How does that work for you? Do you, are you an outliner or

00:06:07
are you a pancer like me? I'm a pancer.

00:06:09
I do not outline. And that's probably why I'm on

00:06:11
my eighth draft, honestly. Yeah.

00:06:13
I'm the same. I do not outline.

00:06:15
It's a. It is a little, it varies a

00:06:17
little from book to book because in my third book, my first book

00:06:21
had been out for a while. My second book was in edit and

00:06:25
proof and all that. And I was just writing frantic.

00:06:28
I wanted to have at least three in the series.

00:06:30
So I was writing frantically and I said, you know, I was, I was

00:06:33
struggling a bit, which normally when I'm the writing is the

00:06:36
favorite part for me. I love the writing.

00:06:38
I, it's the rest of it that makes me nuts.

00:06:40
So I was struggling with the writing and I thought, well,

00:06:42
it's because I, you know, I've got a reading next week and I've

00:06:46
got to do the, you know, And so I said, I just have to make it

00:06:51
to halfway. And I made it to halfway and I

00:06:54
put it away. And I put it away for like a

00:06:55
year and a half. And when I was really ready to

00:06:58
address it because I thought, if I write half of it, I'm too lazy

00:07:01
to let that go, you know, so I'll, so I'll finish it.

00:07:04
Well, I pulled it out and I hated it.

00:07:06
That's the first time that had ever happened.

00:07:09
So I sat down with my husband and I was like, all right, I

00:07:11
don't want to scrap it, but it stinks, you know, it's really

00:07:14
bad. First time I killed a friend and

00:07:17
I, everyone was very sappy. Oh, we were so sad.

00:07:19
I'm about humor. I'm not about like really sappy

00:07:22
sad stuff. So we work together and I came

00:07:25
up with an ending that I loved more than any of my other

00:07:28
endings and I wrote the ending. Then I went back and revised the

00:07:32
front of it and it all came together.

00:07:35
So that was very different for me.

00:07:37
But normally I just sit down and my, it's sort of like, I was

00:07:41
thinking about it the other day. It's almost like a Ouija board,

00:07:43
which only not negative, even dark, but you, your hands go

00:07:47
there and you're not controlling them.

00:07:48
They're just running around the keyboard doing whatever.

00:07:50
Somebody is making that happen. That's normally what would what

00:07:54
would transpire. But you know, and then once I

00:07:58
started the first book, I realized that I needed a real

00:08:02
actual process. And I knew that I wanted humor,

00:08:05
but I didn't know what would be not enough, what would be too

00:08:08
much. So basically I took some Janet

00:08:10
Ivanovich books, Stephanie Plum and I, I pulled them apart and

00:08:15
I, I looked at, OK, she has about 6 humorous incidents in

00:08:18
each book. So I'm going to shoot for six in

00:08:21
each book and I'm going to shoot for, you know, trying to have

00:08:26
them sort of evenly placed. So because you know, a lot of

00:08:30
the murder mysteries, they just get so repetitive.

00:08:33
And I didn't know this. So now I know this, wait a

00:08:36
minute, I didn't know this. So now I and so for me, rather

00:08:40
than go to repetition, I go to humor and kind of break it up a

00:08:43
little bit. So then I also got to the point

00:08:46
where I said I have to write the book in four pieces because if I

00:08:51
don't do that, I will have the ending done in the first

00:08:53
quarter. That makes for a very short

00:08:56
book. So I gave myself a rule that I

00:08:59
could not start the ending until I was in the fourth quarter of

00:09:03
the book. And that's kind of basically

00:09:06
simply how I went about the whole thing.

00:09:08
Then when I took a lot of notes, I, I took notes of where, what

00:09:11
chapter people were introduced in, what their names were, you

00:09:14
know that so I could go back quickly.

00:09:16
And because you, it's amazing. You wrote it and you then you

00:09:18
forget it. You're like, why did I bring him

00:09:20
in? I think it was chapter 5.

00:09:22
No, it was chapter 2. You know, so you have to know

00:09:25
that or you're messing yourself up constantly.

00:09:28
That makes it really hard. But the very first speaking

00:09:31
engagement I had when my first book was out was at a library

00:09:35
and the topic was process of writing a book.

00:09:38
So I thought, OK, well, I can share my process and I shared my

00:09:42
process. And there's one guy there, you

00:09:44
know, there's always one guy in a group where he, he was asking

00:09:47
great questions. You know, he was attentive.

00:09:49
He was, he was wonderful. And at the end he said, I'm an

00:09:53
engineer. And that's the same process we

00:09:56
use when we develop a new product.

00:09:58
And I thought, wow, that's time. That one time it kind of

00:10:02
legitimized what I did. So, you know, so I felt really

00:10:05
good about that. Then I did have one woman in

00:10:08
that thing who caught me off guard and she almost took me

00:10:12
out. I should have kind of known she

00:10:14
was very much an Earth mother. She had long Gray hair down her

00:10:19
back. We had the long flowing flat

00:10:22
flower skirt. And one of the things that I do,

00:10:25
especially in my first book, is I try to validate women in all

00:10:30
shapes and sizes. So, you know, I make the comment

00:10:33
that, you know, this woman, maybe she was 30 lbs overweight,

00:10:36
but she was still the hottest woman in the room kind of thing.

00:10:38
And I felt good about myself that because I believe that that

00:10:42
can that can be the case. And I got on that subject and

00:10:46
she stood up and said, why do you think anybody needs makeup?

00:10:50
Why do you think anybody? You know, I was like, crap, you

00:10:54
know, now I'm in trouble because, you know, she's right.

00:10:57
This is my value judgement I'm putting on people.

00:11:00
And I'm trying to say these people, I'm trying to say

00:11:03
something positive about them. But she turned my positive into

00:11:07
a negative. And for a minute I kind of

00:11:09
froze. But then I just, I looked at her

00:11:11
and I said, you know what? I envy you said I wasn't brought

00:11:14
up to feel as comfortable in my own skin as you clearly are.

00:11:18
And I said that's a great thing. I said, but a lot of the rest of

00:11:22
us don't have your ability to, you know, feel really good about

00:11:25
yourself in a totally natural form.

00:11:28
So, you know, but you bring up an excellent point.

00:11:30
I appreciate the insight. And so I I felt as though

00:11:34
because I was thinking, oh, they're going to boom me at the

00:11:36
end of this. But it that did not happen.

00:11:38
She was not happy with me. She sat down and was grumbly and

00:11:43
unhappy, but I could live with that.

00:11:45
But yeah, that was, you have to be careful because you don't

00:11:48
know what's going to get asked and you, you know, you have to

00:11:51
have some answer for it, not just brush the Moss.

00:11:54
Otherwise, you do become the villain.

00:11:56
Right, yes, I think you handled that really well.

00:11:59
I don't know how I would have. I probably would have reverted

00:12:02
the Stark. That's me, because I'm Miss

00:12:05
Chicago. You know, I got that attitude,

00:12:08
but I could tell. I could see the New Jersey in

00:12:10
you and I love it. I New Jersey is one of my

00:12:12
favorite places. I love it.

00:12:13
I belong there. When I'm driving, I feel like

00:12:16
I'm with my people there, so I can see that in you.

00:12:19
Critical chart of the whole brand.

00:12:21
Absolutely. Absolutely.

00:12:23
So your series features the character Donna Lee.

00:12:26
Can you tell us a little bit about who she is and what makes

00:12:29
her such a compelling character? OK, well, thank you for saying

00:12:34
she's compelling because Donnelly is essentially me.

00:12:36
She owns an ad agency in Omaha. I did too.

00:12:40
She's she's menopausal. I was when I wrote that book.

00:12:44
You know, I'm post menopausal. So people who think I'm

00:12:46
menopausal are complimenting me at this point.

00:12:48
You know, you, you know, in my mid 40s, if somebody said

00:12:51
menopause, I I've killed them with a stick.

00:12:54
But now it's like, yeah, yeah, I'm still menopausal.

00:12:57
Sure, I have hot flashes, but so she's, you know, and the reason

00:13:02
that I wrote her at the time when I wrote her, well,

00:13:05
obviously people say write about what you know, and I know me so

00:13:08
I could write that. But she's not perfect.

00:13:10
She's smart, but she's not always the smartest and she's

00:13:14
not always right. Her body has issues that she has

00:13:18
to deal with. She wears all black because, you

00:13:21
know, first of all, advertising, second of all, you know,

00:13:24
thinning. And what I saw at the time was a

00:13:29
lot of, you know, we always had Miss Marple and she's in her 80s

00:13:32
and she's darling. And, you know, but we also had

00:13:35
these 20 something totally brilliant, completely perfect,

00:13:39
never made a misstep. And I thought, what about the in

00:13:42
between there? There wasn't very much in

00:13:44
between. Since then, I think a lot of

00:13:47
people have picked up on it. And I'm not saying that I was

00:13:50
the leader, but but we could say that if we wanted to.

00:13:53
But there wasn't really a lot for an average woman in middle

00:13:58
age to aspire to because nobody aspires to be 80 year old Miss

00:14:02
Marple. And we're already past the 20.

00:14:05
We aren't perfect and brilliant. We already know that.

00:14:08
But anybody could be Donnelly, you know, anybody with a little

00:14:12
bit of smarts and a little bit of gumption.

00:14:14
And, you know, and as you work with her through the crimes, you

00:14:18
see she pretty much does nothing.

00:14:20
But she gets a lot of credit for it, you know, And she's humble

00:14:22
enough to say I really didn't do anything but that people want to

00:14:25
give her the credit. And I have founded business that

00:14:27
was often the case where I could work really, really, really hard

00:14:31
on a project and it would go beautifully.

00:14:34
And I would be thrilled. You know, there wasn't really

00:14:36
much of A ripple about it. But I would make one quick phone

00:14:40
call. I'd luck out on something.

00:14:41
People would be like, Oh my God, no one can do what you do.

00:14:44
And I'd be like, I actually didn't do anything, you know?

00:14:47
And I'd be like, no, no, what you did was brilliant.

00:14:49
I'd be like, after a while, you're like, OK, so.

00:14:52
So that's kind of who Donna is, you know, in in the scheme of

00:14:55
things. Very cool, I like her.

00:14:58
Thank you. One of the other things that is

00:15:00
about Donna that you see right up front in the first book is

00:15:03
that maybe she may be a good person, but she's not like a St.

00:15:08
And so right from the beginning, the reason she wants to help the

00:15:11
police solve that first murder is because she, she worked with

00:15:14
that woman and she can't stand her and she's worried they'll

00:15:18
know that these two women really had problems and, and they'll

00:15:21
come after her. And so that's really true in the

00:15:24
first book. It's true in the second book,

00:15:26
the third book, I, I took a little bit of A twist and, and

00:15:29
killed a friend and a client. And in the 4th book, the guy who

00:15:33
died was guy I never met, you know, So I tried to change it

00:15:36
around because years ago, when the, before the first book was

00:15:39
out, I was talking to, there used to be a mystery bookstore

00:15:42
in Omaha. And this woman that owned it,

00:15:44
Kate or Kel, she's such a character.

00:15:47
And I talked to her and the first time I talked to her, I

00:15:49
said, I have a book coming down. She's like, I had 1/4 for every

00:15:53
independent publisher that didn't, you know, you'll be

00:15:57
lucky if that book comes out. And like the book is coming out.

00:15:59
It's almost out. And she's like, if I got 1/4 for

00:16:03
Ada and then she I said something like, well, all right,

00:16:06
let me just explain that. It's a murder mystery, but it's

00:16:09
kind of, you know, like a Janet Ivanovich humor.

00:16:12
She's like Ivanovich. It only took her four books to

00:16:16
get formulaic. So that stuck with me that don't

00:16:19
get formulaic. It made life harder, but I think

00:16:23
it gave me more diversity in in the different things that I was

00:16:26
writing about. So, you know, so it's an it's

00:16:29
interesting the different places that you learn from.

00:16:33
Oh yeah. So has Donna or any of your

00:16:36
characters ever surprised you or taken the story in an unexpected

00:16:40
direction that you didn't see coming?

00:16:43
That's a that's a good question. Yes, I would say, I would say

00:16:47
Donna has well, I would say the plot has and Donna has had a

00:16:52
role with it. I would say the character that

00:16:55
is the most predictably unpredictable is Clovis.

00:16:59
And Clovis, I put her in the first book that's a sort of

00:17:03
filler, and she turned out to be one of my favorite characters.

00:17:08
And it's interesting because she is patterned after, I mean,

00:17:14
everything in the book is fiction, but she's except for

00:17:16
one thing, she's patterned after a real person who has moved away

00:17:25
from where I am. But I still, I still see

00:17:28
glimpses of her on social media. And she was wow.

00:17:33
And it's, it was interesting because with both the murder

00:17:36
victim is patterned after somebody that I worked with,

00:17:40
even though it's not a direct, that direct person, because as

00:17:43
the literary lawyer explained to me, you can't just make up

00:17:46
people. You have to take it from things

00:17:48
you've seen. So, but it was interesting

00:17:50
because I had to edit the first book because people were reading

00:17:53
it before it came out and getting mad at me because they

00:17:56
they said we know this murder victim, she's a friend.

00:17:59
And they were mad. People were that worked for me,

00:18:01
were mad at me. And I said, I'm going to edit

00:18:04
it, not because I care about that, but because the book isn't

00:18:09
about her. The book is about my book.

00:18:12
And so I did go in and make that.

00:18:14
It's so so they weren't as identifiable.

00:18:17
And then one of my first editors wrote and said, neither of these

00:18:20
characters is believable humans. But it was interesting because

00:18:23
my first book was edited all by academicians and I lived in the

00:18:28
world of creative and advertising and the two do not

00:18:32
mix. So I, that was we had five

00:18:35
editors of that first book and the man, they beat me down.

00:18:38
I mean, but I, but I and I would call my publisher.

00:18:41
I'd be like, why are they doing that?

00:18:44
She would like, calm down. It's just a suggestion.

00:18:46
You don't have to take it. One actually said to me said she

00:18:49
went into the car to the restaurant and ordered a Coke.

00:18:53
You can't say Coke. You have to say Coca-Cola, you

00:18:56
know, that kind of stuff. So, so, but they all had, you

00:19:00
know, a very, and they, I would say they all added something to

00:19:03
it. And I certainly learned from,

00:19:05
you know, while it was happening that I used to say the the

00:19:08
funniest thing is not the book itself.

00:19:10
It's me getting the edited manuscript, reading through it,

00:19:14
and having a monologue of yelling at the editors when

00:19:17
they're not there. Oh yeah.

00:19:20
Can do that, no. That's the worst part for me is

00:19:23
the editing because I, I know not to take it personally, but I

00:19:27
still take it personally. It's.

00:19:28
Absolutely. Absolutely.

00:19:30
But I mean, I was, I prided myself on the fact that my big

00:19:34
fear about the editing was that they'd be like, these 4 chapters

00:19:38
have to go and that never happened.

00:19:40
But, you know, the things that did help me were, you know, like

00:19:44
I you're in a restaurant, I don't know what it looks like.

00:19:47
You know, OK, I can write something about that.

00:19:50
It won't be too boring if you know, that kind of thing that I

00:19:52
found very helpful because I really didn't know how much

00:19:55
detail to put in without making it boring.

00:19:58
So, but yeah, but and so, yeah, that was the first one was kind

00:20:03
of trial by error and academician, but I survived it

00:20:07
and that was important. And after that it did get easier

00:20:10
because my publisher got some regular staff that knew

00:20:15
literature. So that really that made a big,

00:20:18
it made it much easier, the editing.

00:20:20
Yeah, absolutely. A good editor can make or break.

00:20:24
You absolutely. Yeah, you're not kidding.

00:20:26
That one editor. It was funny because I said to

00:20:29
my publisher, she is really nitpicky about some weird stuff,

00:20:33
but it's like she quit halfway through and didn't write

00:20:36
anything. And I think that's what

00:20:38
happened. I think she gave up on me.

00:20:40
But one of her comments was I had, I have a character who's

00:20:43
from the South and I've worked with him and he, if you would

00:20:47
say, you know, what are you doing for lunch?

00:20:49
I'm going over to, you know, that he had a little bit of a

00:20:52
southern accent. So I want to write when I when

00:20:55
he would answer and say I'm, I would put like, ahm, I'm going.

00:21:01
She went nuts. I'm from the South.

00:21:04
You have insulted all of us. How don't you ever put an accent

00:21:08
in? You know, it's like, don't put

00:21:10
an accent in what you're writing.

00:21:12
Come on. Yeah.

00:21:13
That's that's a little crazy. I'm, I'm originally from

00:21:16
Georgia. I used to have the biggest wing

00:21:18
in the world before I moved to Chicago.

00:21:21
Yeah. And I think that that's funny.

00:21:22
I think that that helps me get into the character if I'm

00:21:25
reading about their accents. Thank you.

00:21:27
I agree with you. And that's not offensive.

00:21:30
Thank you. Because I was like, my God, I've

00:21:32
offended the South, you know, But another editor said about

00:21:36
another character because he was supposed to be like a Hick.

00:21:39
And so I started out, you know, giving him not the best grammar.

00:21:43
And the comment he wrote was, yes, I see where you're going

00:21:47
with this. He's a Hick for the first three

00:21:49
sentences, and then he becomes a Harvard educated professor.

00:21:52
And I lost the accent, obviously got to go back in and rewrite

00:21:57
that. That's.

00:21:58
Hard to do though. It's hard to maintain all the

00:22:00
characters personalities. That can be really, really

00:22:03
tricky. That was I think trying to do.

00:22:05
I didn't do a lot of accents, but trying to do any accents was

00:22:09
for me was the hardest thing definitely.

00:22:11
Absolutely, Yeah. Yeah, sure.

00:22:13
So I have to ask, you have French Bulldogs.

00:22:16
I have. I have an English Bulldog.

00:22:18
So I love Bulldogs. It's you.

00:22:20
They're they're wonderful animals and they are so quirky.

00:22:26
Absolutely they are. Did they ever end up in any of

00:22:29
your books? All of my books have mention of

00:22:32
my different dogs and I think the first book I had Roxy, my

00:22:36
English bulldog, I had, I had couple of old English, 1 English

00:22:42
and then I ended up with French Bulldogs because I said to my

00:22:45
husband, we're getting older and we've got to be able to pick

00:22:47
these dogs up if they have to go to the vet.

00:22:49
That's really the reason we did it.

00:22:52
So yeah, so now we have French Bulldogs.

00:22:54
But yes, so the latest book, the one with the Swiss Olympic

00:22:59
downhill skier that starts out in Omaha and we do a whole

00:23:02
thing. I do a whole thing where we're

00:23:04
in a restaurant and Ellie, our youngest bulldog, is performing

00:23:09
for the audience in the in the park.

00:23:12
She gathers a crowd and the police end up getting called,

00:23:15
but they're all somewhere in the book.

00:23:17
I come home and I'm playing with them at one point, or not a big

00:23:21
part, but all of my Bulldogs have been in the books and

00:23:24
they've all been mentioned. And it's very obvious from the

00:23:27
books if as you read them, that I'm a big dog person.

00:23:31
Yeah, to. I love it.

00:23:32
I love it. I love my dogs, love my

00:23:34
menagerie. I have dogs, cats, I I even have

00:23:36
a bearded dragon. I have everyone.

00:23:38
So I'm trying to get them all into my story.

00:23:40
Yes. Absolutely.

00:23:42
Well, we haven't been. Well, there are Frank, who's our

00:23:45
older English bulldog. He doesn't get along with any

00:23:49
other creatures, so we almost didn't think we would be able to

00:23:53
bring Ellie in. And we brought him in when he

00:23:55
was a baby and we had Roxy the English bulldog and Sadie the

00:23:59
old English bulldog. They were his Big Sisters.

00:24:01
But once they were gone, he was a long guy.

00:24:05
And one of the reasons why I wanted to bring another one in

00:24:08
was obviously for companionship. But because I realized he

00:24:11
started pushing us around and he still does.

00:24:13
But, you know, all the Bulldogs did that.

00:24:16
I mean, I would be sitting on the couch at night watching a

00:24:18
movie and they come over and they look at you and that look

00:24:21
means move. I want to sit there.

00:24:23
And I would be like, no, I'm not moving.

00:24:26
And then they start there or, you know, they, I mean, if they

00:24:30
want to sit there, they're going to make you move.

00:24:32
And Frank was doing that about everything.

00:24:35
You know, this is what I want. This is what you're going to do.

00:24:38
And I was like, we got to get somebody into, you know, break

00:24:41
it up. And oh, Ellie was the perfect

00:24:43
choice because she is a wild thing.

00:24:45
That's great. Yeah, mine does that, too.

00:24:47
His name's Gino. And especially with my kids,

00:24:50
he'll move them out of wherever they're sitting.

00:24:52
Move. It's my spot.

00:24:52
And then he flips over and goes to sleep.

00:24:55
Oh. Yeah, well, well, The funny

00:24:57
thing is, Frank, he was, he is the king.

00:25:01
He was the king. But Ellie beats the crack out of

00:25:03
him, you know? I mean, she doesn't draw blood,

00:25:06
but she we have to, we have a thing we call sanctuary where if

00:25:11
Frank, if we're sitting down and Frank jumps up on us, that means

00:25:15
she's gone too far and we have to, we have to stop her because

00:25:19
he can't take any more. And she knows that word

00:25:21
Sanctuary. She's like, you could see her.

00:25:23
She's coming over and you're like sanctuary.

00:25:25
She's like damn. I love that they have

00:25:27
personalities. Absolutely, Absolutely.

00:25:30
Where can the listeners find you?

00:25:32
I'm on Amazon and I have a website.

00:25:34
It's RL Donovan, DONOVA, n.com, so any but yeah, but it's all on

00:25:41
Amazon. You can look under Donnelly

00:25:43
Mysteries or each of the titles separately.

00:25:46
And I will make sure those are in the show notes.

00:25:51
If there's one take away from this episode, it's this.

00:25:54
You don't need a perfect plan to create something great.

00:25:57
You just need to start. Whether she's writing by

00:25:59
instinct, navigating 8 drafts, OK that's me, or turning real

00:26:03
life chaos into comedy, Robin proves that storytelling doesn't

00:26:06
have to be polished to be powerful.

00:26:09
It just has to be honest. And let's be real, if your book

00:26:11
title can stop someone in their tracks, you're already winning.

00:26:15
If you want to check out Robin's books, including The

00:26:17
Unforgettable, Is It Still Murder Even if She Was a Bitch,

00:26:20
I've linked everything in the show notes so you can dive in.

00:26:23
And if you love this episode, don't forget to follow Plot

00:26:25
Twist Radio. Leave a review and share it with

00:26:27
someone who appreciates a little humor with their mystery.

00:26:30
Until next time, keep writing, keep questioning, and remember,

00:26:33
sometimes the biggest plot twist is the one you never saw coming.