Passion/Obsession: A Metaphor for Writing?

Passion/Obsession: A Metaphor for Writing?

T.M. Dunn

Photo by Christine Petrella

I often tell my students, “If you’re not passionate about your story, don’t write it.” This doesn’t mean at 2 AM, on umpteenth revision, you give up. In the case of the late night, early morning, writer’s blues, don’t give up, go to bed.

As any Law and Order: SVU fan knows, there is a fine line between passion and obsession. This is a theme I explore in HER FATHER’S DAUGHTER. Here we have a father, who will do anything to be a great actor and subsequently a great father. However, when his passions become obsessions there are horrific consequences. At the end of the day, in fiction, this gives us tension, suspense, twist and turns, all the makings of a successful thriller. 

What happens to a writer in the real world, who in the pursuit to avoid writing, stumbles on a new passion? 

During Covid my newsletter’s theme was, “How Not to Write.” I wrote about ways I would intentionally or unintentionally spend hours on tasks to avoid writing. 

On one occasion I stumbled on a new passion. 

HOUSE PLANTS. 

I don’t remember what first led me to that botanical site, maybe a google ad. I do know one plant led to more plants (including small trees) until there were fifty-two of these green treasures all over my house, the kitchen, the living room, dining room, bedrooms, bathroom…you get the point. Perhaps this was excessive but what can I say, I developed a passion for plants. Since I couldn’t even keep a cactus alive, I found an app that with the click of my phone camera told me everything about a particular plant, its origin, its needs, its state of health, it even shared poems about the plant. My plants were happy and so was I, as happy as a writer can be when she’s not writing.  

Then came the gnats! I tried everything to rid my plants and my home of these diabolical creatures. Vinegar traps, eco-friendly pesticides, and even breathe-at-your-own-risk bug sprays. Everything worked, but never long enough. 

When I was at my wits and gnats end, an author friend of mine, from Porcupine Plains, Saskatchewan, who like others from that cold region, could fix your car and your hair at the same time, shared what worked for her. She repotted all of her plants but because there are often gnat eggs in the soil, even store-bought soil in pretty packaging, she microwaved the dirt. I didn’t tell her how many plants I had. She probably would have talked me out of following her recommendation. 

I felt I had no choice. I wasn’t going to lose my “babies” to a gnat infestation. Okay, maybe, “infestation” is a little strong, but there were a lot of them.

I ordered sixty-two pounds of indoor plant soil to replant all fifty-two plants. Then I microwaved all of it, one bowl at a time. This kept me away from writing for almost two weeks. Yes, I love my plants. Besides, it was COVID and there was no going out into the world, so what else did I have to do, except write.

Where did my passion, turned obsession, lead? I got rid of the gnats, broke my microwave, and I started to write characters whose passions lead to dangerous obsessions. 

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T. M. Dunn is the author of  the thriller, HER FATHER’S DAUGHTER (Crooked Lane Books July 18, 2023.) She is also the author of REBELS BY ACCIDENT (Sourcebooks, 2014) and LAST STOP ON THE 6 (Bordighera Press, C.U.N.Y. 2021). Dunn has served as Senior Director of the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College, where she holds an MFA in creative writing. She coaches aspiring and established writers and
teaches creative writing workshops. She is the co-host of the Westport Library’s podcast, “Go Ahead, Write Something” and co-chair of programming for Sisters-in-Crime CT.

This Italian-American, Bronx-raised rebel has traveled the world. She lives in Stamford, Connecticut where she is currently working on her next novel, with her rescue puppy Blanqui snuggled at her side.

When asked why she chose the thriller genre for her new book she says, “It chose me.” Dunn has been intrigued, some say obsessed, with serial killers since she was twelve when the Son of Sam (David Berkowitz) killed her friend’s cousin and her boyfriend blocks away from her home.

HER FATHER’S DAUGHTER

Skillfully weaving together domestic suspense, a desperate police investigation, a love affair, and a serial killer on the loose, acclaimed author T. M. Dunn’s Her Father’s Daughter makes for a raw, edgy, and hard-hitting hero’s journey into a family’s twisted secrets, perfect for fans of Oyinkan Braithwaite and Karen Dionne.

Twenty-five-year-old Linda Donovan has spent her life working for her father, Anthony, at Donovan and Daughter Exterminators in New York City. On the anniversary of her mother’s death, her father makes his annual visit to his late wife’s grave while Linda heads to a Park Avenue apartment building to work solo.

When she arrives, she finds the body of an elderly resident, partially eaten by rats. The gruesome death not only speaks poorly of the Donovans’ exterminating services—it also points to foul play. When the cops show up, they demand to speak to Linda’s father. But despite her efforts to contact him, Anthony has gone off the radar.

As he evades a possible murder charge, Linda’s father records in five notebooks—and five damning acts—the story of how he met and fell in love with her mother, a previously untold history of familial abuse, tormented souls, and true love gone terribly wrong.