Check Out Donna O’Donnell Figurski’s Story

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Donna O’Donnell Figurski.

Hi Donna, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in a small town called McKeesport. When I was a baby, my family moved to Erie, Pennsylvania, where I grew up until I returned to Pittsburgh for college and to be near my best friend, whom I later married.

David and I began our married life in Rochester, New York, where he was a graduate student at the University of Rochester. We had our first child there–a girl, Kiersten. When Kiersten was four, our small family stuffed our Dodge van to capacity. It was so packed we left our TV behind, and I carried our soon-to-be son in utero. Jared was born in San Diego, California. (We never replaced our TV.)

I spent four glorious years at the edge of the Pacific Ocean as a stay-at-home mom (or maybe I should say “stay-at-beach mom”) while David toiled to complete his postdoctoral research at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD). It was in Cardiff-by-the Sea, California, that I discovered my love for teaching when I became a volunteer in my daughter’s first-grade classroom and was then hired to be a teacher assistant in another first-grade classroom the following year. Both of my mentor-teachers said that I was a natural-born teacher and made me promise to return to school to obtain my teaching degree. I promised that I would, but there would be another move in store before that could happen.

This time, David and I filled up that same rickety Dodge van with our meager belongings, two kids, and two hamsters and limped across the country with a broken radiator to New York City, where David would take the job of assistant professor at Columbia University. We rented a teeny house in a suburb of New York––called New Jersey.

I found a nearby elementary school and split my days as a teacher assistant between a kindergarten and a first-grade class. Again, my new teacher-mentor encouraged me to go for my degree, which I did. After school, I dashed off to William Paterson University, nearly an hour away, to sit in classes for three hours three nights a week. It took several years to clutch my degree and throw my mortar board into the air with my fellow graduates!

Despite the dire warnings from family and friends of low teacher pay and a lack of job availability, I secured a job right out of college. Though my well-meaning friends were right about the marginal pay, that didn’t deter me. I knew I wanted to spend my life surrounded by young children–guiding their educational and emotional learning.

My first position was to teach the first half of the school year for a teacher who was on sabbatical. I never realized how hard it would be to hand over my very first class to their official teacher, but I did amongst going-away parties and tears––tears from me, my students, and many of the parents. We had bonded.

During the second half of that year, I substituted and sampled classrooms around Bergen County until I landed a permanent position (lasting 30 years) in Room 106 of Honiss Elementary School in Dumont, New Jersey–the same town in which David and I raised our children. I was in heaven!

That was the start of a great career––each day living and breathing in my own classroom with as many as twenty-seven children. I couldn’t have asked for a more exciting or engaging career. But I didn’t ask for the next phase of my life. It happened organically through my teaching.

As a first-grade teacher (and some years as a third-grade teacher), I was enchanted with picture books. I read them to my students every day. We discussed the setting–where the story takes place; the plot–the events that happen; and the characters–the people, animals, or things in the story.

We explored the illustrations and discussed the components of books: the book cover, the title page, the copyright, the dedication, and the about-the-author page. Then, they wrote their own books, but not until I attended many writing classes at Teacher’s College, Columbia University, in New York City, and listened to lectures by many famous picture book writers to learn more about the craft.

I was in awe of Mem Fox, author of more than fifty picture books. She wrote my favorites–Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge and Koala Lou. Kevin Henkes, who has more than fifty books to his credit, is another favorite author of mine. I love Chrysanthemum and Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse. If only I could write like them! Well, I was going to get my chance.

The professor announced our weekend assignment. My fellow classmates, all teachers, and I were expected to write a picture book by the following class. YIKES! I’d read hundreds of picture books, but that did not qualify me to write one! This was a challenge–a daunting task! I’ve never shied away from hard, so, with paper and pen in hand, I plopped myself on my deck and wrote. Well, it didn’t quite go like that! I scribbled and doodled and scrawled for hours––something about bubbles and bathtubs and elephant’s toes and going loop-de-loop. But after living with this story for hours–eventually days–magic appeared. A story gelled.

I was nervous when it was my turn to read it to my professor and classmates. What if they thought it was dumb or foolish? You can imagine my surprise–shock even–when they erupted in applause at “THE END.” I thought they were just being kind, but then not only did they encourage me to send Too Many Bubbles to a publisher, but my professor did too! They wanted my book in their classrooms!

That was the beginning of my writing career, and it’s been a steep climb for more than thirty years. No, Too Many Bubbles has not yet been published, nor has any of the other twenty manuscripts I’ve written been offered a contract, but I am honored to say that they have received many “good” rejections. You can read my blog post, “It’s all about REJECTION! or Love it–BUT …” at donnafigurski.com/bookity-blog/its-all-about-rejection-or-love-it-but. I’m also very flattered that Scholastic, the largest publisher of children’s books in the world, chose and published four of my stories in their Literacy Place 2000 collection.

I’m now a published author–for both children and adults. I’ve written two more books for adults that I think publishers will want. But my dream remains to publish children’s picture books. I’ve written over twenty picture book manuscripts, and I’m still writing and submitting them. I’ve come a long way from scribbling about bubbles while plopping on my deck!

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I guess we all face obstacles in our lives.

Had I traveled a smooth road, I would have nothing to write about––nothing on which to reflect. Challenges make us stronger, and I guess I’ve had my share. I mentioned some of my struggles on my road to becoming a teacher. What I didn’t tell you was that while I was taking night classes in college, I was also working full-time as a teacher assistant while raising two children. Don’t even ask!

We faced the normal struggles that many folks face. Grappling to make ends meet in our early years caused a few sleepless nights. Raising children in this ever-changing world kept us on our toes, but we made it through––quite successfully, I’d say––and David and I each had careers that we loved. We were happy.

Then it happened––all in an instant, our lives went topsy-turvy. I became a forever caregiver when my husband and best friend, David, had a subarachnoid hemorrhage–a brain bleed. For his first brain surgery, David’s neurosurgeon gave him a one in six hundred chance of survival. He made it! But, although I believe that one brain surgery in a lifetime should be enough for anyone, David went on to have two more open brain surgeries in less than two weeks, again with marginal chances of survival.

Fortunately, David clung to life through those extra intrusions into his brain, but not without severe consequences. Though his cognitive brain (his thinking and reasoning functions) remained intact, for which we are eternally grateful, David struggles every day with many physical disabilities, including an ataxic right arm, which he has little control over, and a swallowing disorder, which makes eating and drinking difficult and sometimes painful.

He also has problems with an unreliable bladder, impaired and double vision, a partly paralyzed tongue that makes it difficult to produce certain letter sounds, weakness in his right leg, and severely compromised balance, which limits his mobility and, ultimately, his freedom. David relies on me for assistance with walking whenever he must leave our home.

David’s brain injury happened in our mid-lives while we were each immersed in our careers. Though he became disabled, in 18 months, with many accommodations, he was able to return to work. He was persistent. Even from his hospital bed, David was determined to direct the research of his lab. Still, he struggled physically, and I instantly became his much-needed caregiver.

Thankfully, our children were grown, which relieved some of the stress that would have overwhelmed me if I had also been caring for youngsters. I managed to continue to teach full-time, but my writing for children stopped cold. I had no time. Eventually, my daily journal entries, detailed written and recorded notes, routine family and friends update emails, and David’s perceptive recognition that I had plenty of fodder for a book led me to write about his and my thoughts and experiences.

WriteLife Publishing Co. eventually released Prisoners Without Bars: A Caregiver’s Tale on November 1, 2018. I am proud of my memoir, which has won three awards. While my first love is writing for children, I have written two more books for adults. (The first is about the revolutionary way I taught young children. It’s out for submission. The second, which concerns brain injury, is a conversation between a survivor and a caregiver. This book was written by a coauthor who has a brain injury. It is nearly finished and will be submitted soon).

David’s traumatic brain injury (TBI) instantly turned our relatively normal lives upside down, and even after nineteen years, David continues in recovery mode. Both of us are extremely grateful for our second chance and fully embrace our new normal.

So, I guess the short answer is I am not traveling a smooth road. There are a whole lot of bumps on this road.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Throughout my life, I’ve juggled many hats. I am a wife, mother, and granny, and I am or was a teacher, playwright, actor, director, picture book reviewer, jewelry designer, and photographer. Some of those hats still apply (like any hat that concerns the theater), but now I am primarily a caregiver and a writer. I’m sure most folks wear a variety of hats, but I think the caregiver hat is one that many of us have in common.

If you’ve ever been a parent or a sibling, a babysitter, a teacher, or a pet owner, you’ve earned the title of “caregiver.” If you are in the medical field, in education, or in public services, like a firefighter or a police officer, you are considered a caregiver. Anyone who puts his or her life on hold and steps up when a loved one falls ill needs assistance in old age, experiences a tragic event, becomes incapacitated through a severe chronic health event, or has a brain injury is a caregiver in the highest sense of the word.

When my husband, David, had his traumatic brain injury, I instantly became his caregiver. I was thrown into the deep end, and I had the choice to sink or swim. I swam! David’s life-and-death experience closed many doors for him, but it also opened new doors–for both of us. His life-changing experience surprisingly set me on a new journey. It sent me scurrying to learn everything I could about brain injury and its ramifications. So, my writing hat switched.

I put my many children’s picture book manuscripts on the back burner and turned my focus to writing for the general adult population. I wanted to share David’s and my story about how he survived against all odds and how I coped with his horrific trauma and his struggle to recover. I wanted to give hope to other brain injury survivors and their families and friends. If David could survive those mind-boggling odds, so could others.

I wanted to bring awareness to the world of what brain injury is, how prevalent it is, and how to live with it. Studies show that more than two million people sustain a brain injury each year and that more than five million are living with disabilities related to brain injury––and those statistics are just for the United States of America. Imagine the number of folks affected by brain injury in the world.

So I wrote my book. Oh, that might sound easy, but it wasn’t. It took me several years of writing, revising, and editing (after teaching all day and usually after David had gone to bed). I repeated that process over and over until I crossed every ‘i’ and dotted every ‘t.’ Then, I searched for the perfect publisher. That took more years. I signed a contract in 2017 with WriteLife Publishing. Prisoners Without Bars: A Caregiver’s Tale was born on November 1, 2018. When my publicist set me up for book signings, speaking engagements, and panel discussions, as well as numerous podcast interviews, I was ecstatic. I couldn’t wait to share my book with everyone.

My journey as a writer and speaker about brain injury had begun. If my work helps only one person, I will be happy. But, of course, if it reaches hundreds, thousands, or more folks, I will be over the moon. Millions, maybe––I’m a BIG dreamer!

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Generally, I am a play-by-the-rules kind of girl, but apparently, sometimes I’m not. I remember that I was about eleven years old when my first risk-gone-wrong caper happened. Wearing a cute, yellow, Swiss polka-dotted dress, I went off to the woods near our home with my friend, Kathy. The woods were off-limits to me, but apparently, I was a rule-breaker as well as a risk-taker.

The path through the woods, lined with blackberries, led straight to a dangerously deep gully. My dress was not proper attire for woods-walking, nor was the nylon scarf I wore around my neck, but that didn’t stop me.

There were trees with long, slippery vines lining each side of the gully, and that’s where the neighborhood kids met to swing on the “Tarzan Vines”––that’s what we called them. Kathy and I had the gully to ourselves that day, and we took turns riding the vines back and forth across the open gulch––giggling all the way. I don’t remember whose dim-witted idea it was, but we decided to drop my scarf into the gully. I went first. I clutched the scarf and the vine and then launched myself off the edge. About halfway across the pit, my hands slipped (blame the slippery scarf), and I plunged into the gully. Fortunately, I didn’t break anything, but I had a blood- and mud-smudged dress for my efforts. I never took a scarf on the vines again. Lesson learned.

As a grownup, I still take risks–just not the dangerous ones. Going back to college to get my teaching certification with a husband and two children and working full-time was a huge risk. I didn’t know whether I would be successful. Juggling all my responsibilities and striving to do a stellar job at each was daunting, but my type-A personality would not allow failure. So, I set my mind to the tasks and tackled them––“one foot in front of the other” for three years until I reached my goal of graduation day. I was exhausted, stressed, and overwhelmed, but mostly elated. That risk allowed me to capture my dream of becoming a teacher.

An ongoing risk for me is when I put myself and my work in front of other writers for critique. Through the years, I’ve belonged to many picture-book critique groups, and I still do. But each time I create a new story and read it to my group, I bare my soul and risk their judgment. Impostor syndrome rears its ugly head, and I struggle with self-doubt. Will my critiquers find fault with my work? Will they see it as frivolous or lacking in originality––this work that I’ve spent hours, days, weeks, even years trying to perfect? It’s unnerving and downright scary.

But I do it because I love the journey of creating a product I can be proud of. Of course, that same fear of failure lives with me every time I send a manuscript out on submission. I am hoping that my story will be good enough for a publisher to want to make it into a book that will sit on bookstore shelves, that will live on bookcases in schools and libraries, and that will be ready to be loved and worn out by little children. Now, that’s a risk worth taking.

Another risk I accepted was writing for the general adult world. I never expected to write a book geared toward adults. My love was writing for the wee ones. But when my husband had his brain injury, I became immersed in the community of brain injury survivors and their caregivers. I learned a lot, and I felt compelled to share my knowledge with others. So, I wrote Prisoners Without Bars: A Caregiver’s Tale, a story of how David and I muddled our way through the maze of brain injury¬¬ and adopted our new normal.

The great risk of writing this book was that I would be reliving every scene: David’s head pain, his falling into a coma, the ambulance ride, the neurosurgeon pronouncing that David had a one in six hundred chance of survival, being told that David needed two more brain surgeries with little chance of survival, and still signing on the dotted lines. The list goes on and on. Too many risks! Too many decisions! Yet, I dragged out those painful memories with the hope that I could help at least one person. From the comments I hear and the reviews of my book, I know that I have reached many. I am forever grateful.

Most writers of fiction or nonfiction do not write the complete book before submitting it to a publisher. They submit a query letter with an outline of the content of their book proposal and a few sample chapters. They wait to complete the project after a contract has been awarded. That is the smart way to sell a manuscript, and wasted time is avoided. But not for me! I write the whole book, pour blood, sweat, and tears onto the pages, cross my fingers, and send it with hope and a prayer in search of a publisher who will realize my vision. Valuable time and energy may be lost through this process, but I know that it is worth every minute, so I take the risk.

I successfully published my first book, Prisoners Without Bars: A Caregiver’s Tale, in this way. My second book, You Can Do IT! Make Your Classroom a Learning Play Yard is on submission now. It, too, followed my write-it-all pattern. It’s gathered a few good rejections, which makes me sad and makes me smile. It’s sad that the publisher didn’t just snatch my manuscript up and smile because the publisher said that it was very good, but they have another book in their lineup that is very similar. Remember my “Love It, But…” comments in question 1? The good rejections are the carrots that carry me on. You Can Do IT! Make Your Classroom a Learning Play Yard hasn’t found its home yet, but I know it will someday. I just hope it happens in this lifetime. Crossing fingers––again!

I’m working on my third book, this time with a co-author. The working title is Surviving Brain Injury Together: Conversations Between a Survivor and a Caregiver. This manuscript is in its final stages before submission, and, yes, we both feel vulnerable and yes, we both have our fingers crossed. We’d love for you to cross yours, in support of us.

We all have challenges and encounter risks throughout our lives. Some are big. Some are small. Some may be overwhelming, daunting, or downright scary, but we must stare them down, conquer them, and move on to new episodes. Life is full of adventures. Embrace them, the good and the not-so-good. They develop character.

The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Well, Friedrich, I’m still here!

Pricing:

• $16.95 Prisoner Without Bars: A Caregiver’s Tale Print Book
• $5.99 Prisoner Without Bars: A Caregiver’s Tale eBook
• $24.95 Prisoner Without Bars: A Caregiver’s Tale Audiobook

Contact Info:

• Website: donnafigurski.com
• Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/dmodfigs/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Donna-ODonnell-Figurski-Author-658771187875721/
• Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/donna-o-donnell-figurski-72963453
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/DonnaFigurski
• Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkoclskoaz64XnutottX1DQ?view_as=subscriber
• Other: survivingtraumaticbraininjury.com, https://donnaodonnellfigurski.wordpress.com/, and https://www.donnafigurski.com/bookity-blog