Hill, Donna

views updated

Hill, Donna

PERSONAL: Born in Brooklyn, NY; children: three

ADDRESSES: Home—Brooklyn, NY. Agent—St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10010. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer. Queens Borough Public Library System, Queens, NY, public relations associate. Founder of Annod Productions.

MEMBER: Divas Inc. Society (cofounder).

AWARDS, HONORS: Career Achievement Award, Romantic Times, 1998; Award of Excellence, Romance in Color, 1999, for Pieces of Dreams; All-Time Favorite Romance Author, Shades of Romance magazine, 2000; Trailblazer Award, 2002; Favorite Romance Author Award, Sister Circle.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

Rooms of the Heart, Odyssey Books, 1990.

Indiscretions, 1991.

Temptation, 1994.

Scandalous, Kensington Books (New York, NY), 1995.

Deception, Pinnacle Books (New York, NY), 1996.

Intimate Betrayal, Pinnacle Books (New York, NY), 1997.

Quiet Storm, Genesis Press (Columbus, MS), 1998.

A Private Affair, Pinnacle Books (New York, NY), 1998.

Chances Are, Pinnacle Books (New York, NY), 1998.

Charade, Pinnacle Books (New York, NY), 1998.

Interlude, Indigo (Columbus, MS), 1999.

Pieces of Dreams, BET Publications (Washington, DC), 1999.

If I Could, Kensington Books (New York, NY), 2000.

A Scandalous Affair (sequel to Scandalous), BET/Arabesque (Washington, DC), 2000.

Soul to Soul, Indigo (Columbus, MS), 2000.

Through the Fire, BET/Arabesque (Washington, DC), 2001.

Rhythms, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2001.

An Ordinary Woman, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Francis Ray) Rockin' around That Christmas Tree, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2003.

Divas Inc., St. Martin's Griffin (New York, NY), 2004.

Say Yes, Kensington/Dafina Books (New York, NY), 2004.

In My Bedroom, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2004.

Dare to Dream, BET/Arabesque (Washington, DC), 2004.

Getting Hers, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Courageous Hearts, BET/Arabesque (Washington, DC), 2005.

OTHER

(Editor) Midnight Clear: A Holiday Anthology (short stories), Genesis Press (Columbus, MS), 2000.

(With Carmen Green and Janice Sims) Sister, Sister (three novellas; includes "Thicker than Water"), St. Martin's Paperbacks (New York, NY), 2001.

Also editor of anthology After Vows. Contributor to Where There's a Will (mystery stories), Kensington Books (New York, NY), 2004. Work represented in anthologies, including Winter Nights, Kensington Books, 1998; Della's House of Style, St. Martin's Press, 2000; Welcome to Leo's, St. Martin's Press, 2000; Living Large, New American Library, 2003; A Whole Lotta Love, Signet Books, 2004; Let's Get It On, St. Martin's/Griffin, 2004; and Big Girls Don't Cry, Signet Books, 2005.

ADAPTATIONS: A Private Affair, Intimate Betrayal, and Masquerade were adapted as television films.

SIDELIGHTS: Donna Hill is a prolific author of popular romances and other novels centering on African-American characters. She had her first short story published in 1987 by Black Romance magazine, and her first novel followed in 1990. Being a romance writer gives her the opportunity of "bringing to the page the warmth, beauty, and passions of black men and women and being able to showcase black love in a positive light," she told LaShaunda Hoffman for the RomanceinColor.com. African-American romance novels, she added, provide a view of black life "that is not shown in movies, on the news, on television." In addition to romantic love, her books often explore social issues, generational relationships, and female friendships.

Racial profiling and other abuses against black men by police are featured in A Scandalous Affair, which finds handsome young Washington, DC, attorney Chad Rushmore working on a lawsuit addressing this topic. Assisting him are his political-activist stepsisters Samantha and Simone Montgomery. Chad had a one-night tryst with Simone years ago, but now he is falling in love with Samantha. Meanwhile, someone is threatening to kill Samantha. According to a Publishers Weekly reviewer, Hill "skillfully" interweaves legal drama with romance in a "sizzler" of a novel that the reviewer predicted will both please the author's existing fans and win her new ones.

In My Bedroom explores the issue of incest. Filmmaker Rayne Holland has made an acclaimed documentary on this subject, and her career success goes along with a seemingly perfect personal life that includes a hand-some husband and adored daughter. After her family is killed in an automobile accident, Rayne attempts suicide. While being treated in a mental hospital, Rayne must finally deal with the fact that she was an incest victim during childhood. Therapist Pauline Dennis and Rayne's best friend, Gayle, assist in her recovery. "Hill has written a powerful story about rape and incest," remarked Lillian Lewis in Booklist. A Publishers Weekly reviewer thought "the resolution of terrible traumas comes too easily,"but Booklist contributor Lewis found the characters' struggles "poignant."

Sexual assault also figures in the multigenerational tale Rhythms. Cora, a minister's daughter and choir singer in 1920s Mississippi, leaves home to pursue a singing career in Chicago, where she is raped by a white man. Returning to Mississippi, she marries her small town's only black doctor, but the marriage falls apart when she gives birth to a mixed-race child, the result of her assault. The daughter, Emma, moves to New York when she reaches adulthood and passes for white there; her daughter, Parris, ends up being raised by Cora and becoming curious about her family background. While a Publishers Weekly critic found the novel marred by "thinly drawn characters" and "shopworn plot devices," Black Issues Book Review contributor Alicia M. Singleton described the characters as "bold, refreshing, human" and the story as "emotion-packed" and "irresistible." In Booklist, Lewis called Rhythms a "gripping family saga" that "makes dramatic reading." enjoy."

An Ordinary Woman deals with friendship and betrayal. Lisa Holden and Asha Woods have been friends since girlhood in Brooklyn; Lisa grows up to be a college professor and marries architect Ross Davis while Asha becomes a photographer and enjoys the single life. Asha and Ross become attracted to each other, and their affair devastates Lisa and threatens to end the women's friendship. Black Issues Book Review contributor Althea Lenore Honegan noted that although the story takes some time to come together, it reaches "a satisfying conclusion." Honegan also praised Hill's characters as "intriguing," while a Publishers Weekly reviewer dubbed An Ordinary Woman "gracefully written," citing the author's "good background detail" and a "thoughtful approach [that] invests the love story with greater meaning."

Female friendship and its vagaries drive the plot of Divas Inc. Book editor Maggie has felt overshadowed by her two glamorous friends, Tiffany and Chantel, ever since childhood; they do not even invite her to accompany them on a European vacation, but instead ask her to check on their apartments while they are gone. While house-sitting, Maggie begins living the life her friends are used to and attracting much attention from men, thanks in part to tips from a Web site for an organization called Divas Inc., in which Tiffany and Chantel are members. Eventually, Maggie gains confidence and "learns that being a diva is within every woman," related Lewis in Booklist. The novel inspired the name for a nonprofit organization, the Divas Inc. Society, launched by Hill and Puttershawn Palmer to provide college scholarships and small-business grants to young women.

Hill has been involved in several projects with other authors. She has contributed short fiction to numerous anthologies and edited some anthologies herself, while she and another popular African-American romance writer, Francis Ray, collaborated on the novella Rockin' around That Christmas Tree. This book centers on frustrated homemaker Denise Morrison, who wants to open a business and goes so far as to threaten her loving but complacent husband, Edward, with divorce during a Thanksgiving dinner. Edward and the couple's adult offspring see that they must learn to treat Denise differently—and better. With Christmas approaching, Denise and Edward "dance back together—partners once again, but taking all the steps on their own," reported a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Library Journal contributor Tamara Butler described the work as "a delightfully charming, contemporary Christmas novella."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Black Issues Book Review, September, 2000, Andrea King Collier, review of Della's House of Style, p. 23; January, 2001, Lillian Jackson, review of If I Could, p. 18; July, 2001, Alicia M. Singleton, review of Rhythms, p. 36; January-February, 2002, Mondella S. Jones, "Romance Writers Take It to the Next Level," p. 8; September-October, 2002, Althea Lenore Honegan, review of An Ordinary Woman, p. 26; March-April, 2004, Monica Harris, "The Love Scene: Women's Fiction vs. Classic Romance," p. 52.

Booklist, September 15, 1998, Catherine Sias, review of Winter Nights, p. 213; June 1, 2001, Lillian Lewis, review of Rhythms, p. 1842; October 15, 2003, Lillian Lewis, review of In My Bedroom, p. 389; November 1, 2003, Lillian Lewis, review of Rockin' around That Christmas Tree, p. 479; July, 2004, Lillian Lewis, review of Divas Inc., p. 1817; September 15, 2004, Lillian Lewis, review of Dare to Dream, p. 220.

Ebony, December, 2002, review of Rockin' around That Christmas Tree, p. 28; March, 2004, review of In My Bedroom, p. 28.

Essence, August, 2001, review of Rhythms, p. 64.

Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2002, review of An Ordinary Woman, p. 163; October 1, 2003, review of In My Bedroom, p. 192; May 15, 2004, review of Divas Inc., p. 72.

Library Journal, November 1, 2002, Ann Burns, review of An Ordinary Woman, p. 111; Tamara Butler, review of Rockin' around That Christmas Tree, p. 64; January 1, 2005, Kristin Ramsdell, review of Big Girls Don't Cry, p. 91.

Publishers Weekly, October 26, 1998, review of Winter Nights, p. 45; October 9, 2000, review of If I Could, p. 73; November 13, 2000, review of A Scandalous Affair, p. 90; April 30, 2001, review of Through the Fire, p. 63; July 23, 2001, review of Rhythms, p. 49; September 23, 2002, review of An Ordinary Woman, p. 49; November 17, 2003, "'Tis the Season," p. 44; December 8, 2003, review of In My Bedroom, p. 47; November 8, 2004, review of Let's Get It On, p. 36.