Cancer, classic cars fuel SC woman’s novels
December 2, 2009
By JEANIE MAYER For Sun-Times Media
There are many ways to honor a life. There are tributes, memorials and promises made to loved ones who have had a positive impact on our lives. For Donna Amburgey, honoring the life a friend who is suffering from cancer meant writing a novel based on his life.
“I would write a chapter to entertain him, and I also used his life (experiences in the book) to honor and immortalize him,” Amburgey said of a Hampshire resident on whom she based the character Thomas in her recently published book titled “Tears, Fears and Arrowheads: Weeping Eye Sings.”
Donna Amburgey of St. Charles said that “All writing is autobiographical in a sense, because it comes from your own experiences.”
Amburgey, of St. Charles, came to the craft of writing later than many contemporary authors but has accomplished much in a short time. A successful real estate and family law attorney, Amburgey began her first novel after losing several family members in a short period of time. She said the act of penning the book was “an emotional solution to grieving” the loss of her loved ones.
With the real estate market beginning to slump in early 2007, Amburgey found herself with the time to enter the Tony Hillerman Mystery Contest and began the work of penning the 60,000-word-limit novel. She completed the book in just 30 days — in time to send it off to the judges. Although the book didn’t win the contest, Amburgey says it has resonated with a following of middle-aged men because of its subplot that explores the classic car cult.
As a fan and owner of several classic autos, Amburgey uses these rare vehicles to help raise cancer awareness, which is the illness that has taken many friends from her life. She started her own label, Juke Box Books, to publish her novels and uses the classic cars during promotional events to help raise money for kids with cancer. Thus far, Amburgey has raised more than $2,000 for an Aurora child who is battling cancer.
“This is a way I can give back to the universe which has been so good to me …. It gives me a way of doing something other than being frustrated by the realities of cancer.”
Amburgey said the book she penned is somewhat autobiographical because one of the main characters, a Native American woman called Spirit, works with Navajo women and children in crisis. It’s a theme she knows well in her own work with the Hispanic activist groups in her own community.
“All writing is autobiographical in a sense, because it comes from your own experiences,” she said.
Amburgey said her second book, “Medicine Men,” which will be released soon, involved a lot of research because it compares the differences between modern medicine and the practices of Native Americans, and features a beloved Aston Martin. In prepublication at this time is the third title in the series, “Mustang. Missing,” which features a rare Shelby Mustang and another road trip gone wrong. Details of all three books can be found on the Web site www.roadtripme.com.
