Author shares harrowing tale of girl’s escape

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February 22, 2017 - 12:00 AM

Local author Donna Hawk Regehr, Iola, depicts the ravishing tale of a young woman’s escape from an experimental world in the dystopian adventure, “Mercy, Me” published December 2016.
“There is nothing more exciting than holding your own book,” Hawk said. “I just like the feel of a book and knowing that it’s my book, I can’t even explain how exciting that is.”
This is Hawk’s seventh book published by Elizabeth Hawk Publishing, a company owned by Hawk and Tara Elizabeth, Lake Charles, La. Hawk designed the cover for this book herself and publishes all her books under her maiden name.
The main character, Mercy, is unaware that she lives inside a dome and struggles with her own diversity. She is bullied and kicked out of school because parents don’t want their children associating with her. While searching for a job, she meets Canton, a boy who also stands out amongst his peers.
“They sort of hit it off right away because they understand what it’s like to be bullied,” Hawk said.
The characters partake in a journey of discovering a forbidden place thought to be devastated by nuclear war. Hawk, who said she feels compelled to write, started composing the tale January 2015 and ended the process only six months later. She is proud the book contains no foul language and considers it appropriate for adolescents to adults.
“It’s a romance in that Mercy and Canton are a couple,” Hawk said, but it is not sexually graphic.
The inspiration to write young adult fiction stems in part from Hawk’s 33 years as a teacher in the Iola school district. After graduating from Pittsburg State University in 1977 with a degree in elementary education, Hawk taught at the middle school, and in the latter part of her career,  part-time at the high school. She retired in 2011. Regehr said her sister, Diana Wilhite, Emporia, is a great source of support.
 “Mercy, Me” is at the Iola Public Library and is available for purchase at Barnes & Noble, Amazon Books, iTunes, and other book stores, according to Hawk.
“You can get it in print and you can get it in ebook,” she said. Interested readers can also purchase an autographed copy by contacting her at [email protected] or on Facebook at DonnaHawk/author. The book is $15 and orders placed directly from her include a handmade magnet and her signature. Hawk said the book has sold in New Zealand, Ireland, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and other parts of Europe as well as South America.      

RUTH VINCENT,  a lifelong friend of Hawk’s, said she has read all of her books and believes “Mercy,  Me” is Hawk’s best book yet.
“You are anxious to see what’s going to happen next,” Vincent said. “It has kept my interest.”
It is an interest in movies like the “Hunger Games,” and novels like “The Forest of Hands and Teeth” that have inspired Hawk to write books with a dystopian theme. She is also inspired by TV shows on aliens.
“When you get to Dystopian there is really no rules that apply so you can kind of do anything you want to,” she said. “I like that.”
Hawk said her mother, Pauline Hawk of Iola, jokes that she is sometimes scared of the things that lurk inside her daughter’s head.
“Sometimes it’s hard to get the ideas but when I get them I got them,” Hawk said. 
She said she knows she cannot sit still for long. While she enjoys such hobbies as eating chocolate, crafting, bike riding, walking, exercising and photography, she is also currently writing “For Mercy’s Sake,” the sequel to “Mercy, Me,” along with a new novel, “Seeded,”  which she describes as more strange than the rest of her books.
“It’s less realistic in the way the characters act creepier, almost horror fantasy,” Hawk said. “I like that because I can stretch my imagination.”

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