Mark Donahue

MARK DONAHUE'S Second Act... THE AUTHOR After 35 years at a senior executive level with two Fortune 500 companies in the commercial real estate industry, Mark Donahue got bored. "Guess you could say I got bored with board meetings." He said recently. So, he quit. He knew he wanted to write, but wasn't sure what. Fiction? Non-fiction? Scripts? Then what genre? Mystery? Science Fiction? Drama? Romance? Action? Adventure? The answer to all those questions and possibilities, was a resounding "yes." "I didn't want to be pigeon holed into a certain formulaic kind of storytelling. That may not fit the normal approach, especially for a new writer, but the reason I left commercial real estate was I was bored. I didn't want to get bored again writing the same kind of story or even the same genre, time after time." Despite his commitment to write, Donahue could not leave his business background totally behind. As a result, he developed a plan. A business plan. "I'd seen and heard of folks spending years writing a book or script, and then try to get a book published, or a script sold to a studio, and it never happens. Or even if it did, the reward was not commensurate with the time and effort. So, I decided to take a few years and write." He wrote a lot--and still does. To date, he has released 5 Amazon #1 best selling novels, and has 7 more underway. He also wrote 12 scripts, one of which--EZ Way--is in pre-production, and 2 more are in development. It's all part of his plan. "I write stories I'd like to read. Stories that are character driven, where the reader has a chance to get inside the character's head. Learn what makes them tick. That kind of storytelling, an examination of the human condition, always kept my attention. I try to bring that element to my stories." His business plan needed time to play out. He had to spend years writing. He did. He had to assemble a team of professionals who could take his work, then package and market it. He did. Then, he had to take the most difficult step, and put his work into the marketplace. He did. "I knew at some point I had to let my work see the light of day, and have someone besides friends and family read it. So far, the plan has worked on both the book and film side, but we still have a long way to go. But I can say this unequivocally...I'm sure not bored." Each of his five novels; Last at Bat, Golden Reich, STATS, Fat Girl, and Answer Man. Each novel has a companion script completed. "Once readers have a chance to read Last At Bat, I hope they'll want to read GOLDEN REICH, then all the rest. I just hope they're ready for very different stories. Hopefully they will detect a recognizable style in my writing. If not, guess I could always go back to selling office buildings. No, actually, I couldn't. I'd be bored."