About Us

Tricia L. McDonald is an internationally published author, a public speaker and entrepreneur who lives and writes in Grand Haven. Her humorous and touching accounts of life have been published in The Breastfeeding Diaries, Meadowbrook Press, 2007; A Cup of Comfort for Mothers & Sons, Adams Media, 2005; and in the forthcoming A Cup of Comfort for Mothers, Adams Media, scheduled for release in March 2010.

Her book, Life With Sally: Little White Dog Tails, a compilation of stories chronicling life with her miniature bull terrier, was published in December 2009.

In addition to her monthly column Life With Sally in Cats and Dogs Magazine, Tricia's articles have appeared in Mom Writer's Literary Magazine, I Love Cats Magazine and Oxygen Magazine.

She has taught, and continues to teach, creative writing classes to adults since 2004. As a volunteer, she has taught a writing class to senior citizens for the past three years, and just started a writing class at Gilda's Club in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

As a single mom of two amazing children and employed full-time, Tricia returned to college. After several years of classes here and there, she received her BA in English, Creative Writing Emphasis, at Grand Valley State University in 2001. Now an empty nester, Tricia lives with her husband, Mike, two dogs and two cats.

Tricia is an active member of the Michigan-based writers group, Peninsula Writers, where she has coordinated a yearly retreat and is editor of the monthly newsletter. (http://peninsulawriters.home.att.net). Through her affiliation and work with Peninsula Writers, she has garnered experience in organizing and presenting writing workshops and retreats.

Tricia continuously seeks to improve her own writing skills by attending professional conferences, including the Bear River Writing Conference presented by the University of Michigan, Iowa Summer Writing Conference and Peninsula Writers Summer and Fall Retreats.

With compassion and humor, Author Tricia L. McDonald offers an inviting stage presence that has opened the door to workshops, lectures and classes.

Testimonial

Tricia McDonald saved my life. Well, maybe that’s too dramatic of a statement, even coming from a fiction writer. But here is the truth: Tricia saved my novel. After years of toiling on a book-length manuscript and never finishing, the muse moved out and frustration moved in. The characters didn’t know what they wanted and the plot lacked focus. I was “telling” and not “showing.” Worse, I had no empathy for my protagonist. If I didn’t like her, how could I convince a literary agent to take me on as a client? I told Tricia I was done.

But Tricia, being a true mentor, had other ideas. She reviewed the work and then we talked. Rather, she listened as I complained and whined and talked of chucking the manuscript and moving on to another story idea.

And then the magic happened. Tricia said, “I think your book would work if you changed protagonists.”

What a forehead-slapping moment! Of course that would work!

We spoke about repositioning characters and how that would affect the plot and agreed that it was not only a logical solution, it was golden.

Using a printed copy, Tricia helped me reorganize more than 65 scenes into a logical sequence. With the new protagonist in mind, we identified missing plot points and made a scene list that became a new outline. In the course of a few hours my manuscript went from potential landfill material to a viable concept for a book. Everything began to look possible.

On February 1, I set out to rewrite the novel to switch an important support character to the lead role. During the process I fell in love with all of my characters and created a few new ones to help tell the story.

On April 15, I held a completed first draft of the novel in my hands. It was a moment that ranks up there with my wedding and the birth of my two kids.

In the course of a few months I went from struggling writer to novelist. Tricia showed me the way to make that dream a reality.

Elle Madison
Author of Mental