AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – Writer, playwright Donna Hodges I love writing and telling stories.
Hodges Sit Together Wikipedia She talks about her books and how she uses her love of creating to spread positive and spiritual messages to her readers.
What inspired you to start writing?
It’s a funny story, I was living in Baltimore at the time, and I was walking down the Patapsco River Parkway, and I heard this conversation that I couldn’t understand. I was like, “What is that?” So I rushed to get to work, and I just kept repeating it over and over until I got to work. I started writing it down, and I couldn’t stop. I got about 40 pages in, and I was like, “What is this?” I did everything in PowerPoint at the time.
Now, you are also known in the community as Portuguese. Can you tell us where that nickname comes from?
When I was born, my uncle David Wright, who passed away in October, said he wanted a Portuguese baby. He said I was bald, had a single hair on top of my head and slanted eyes. I had a bunch of gibberish coming out of my mouth, so he called me Portuguese. I’ve been known as Portuguese ever since.
Now, as I mentioned earlier, you’re also a playwright. Your previous plays include “I’m Sorry, Mama,” “Steppin’ Out,” and “Excuse Me, Miss, But I’m In Love With Your Husband.” What made you want to become a playwright?
When I was in grade school, I wrote a screenplay. I had to write something about detergent. So I wrote a script called “Washy, Washy, Washy and the Blue Chair.” And I made all my own little props and everything. After that, I never thought about writing a screenplay. One day, when I was writing a book, this idea just popped into my head that this could be a screenplay, and I thought, “Wow.” So, it just went from there.
Which would you prefer: being a playwright and writing scripts for the stage, or being an author and writing books?
Ah, that’s a good question. I love writing. So I think I express everything more in my books, but a lot of times when I’m expressing it, I hear in my mind that this is going to be a screenplay or a movie. So I write to serve the needs of the reader. When a reader is looking at the pages of my book, it’s as if they’re experiencing it on a screen.
Now, let me tell you about the books that you have here: The Spirit That Dwells In Me, Spirits, Dreams, And Prophecies, and Our Youth Are Ruining Me. Let me start by talking about each one.
So I wrote this book about 10 years ago, and the cover and everything was different. There were some local kids on the cover, and some of my sons were on it. They were young, maybe 10 teenagers, 16 years old. I just knew this book needed to be talked about, and I felt like kids needed to read this book because of the way the kids were dressed, the beginning of the baggy pants, and drugs everywhere. But when I came back here from Maryland last year, I heard a voice in my mind saying, “Read this book again,” because kids right now really need it. So it’s basically the good kids telling the not-so-good kids, “What you’re doing today is ruining your chances for tomorrow, so pull yourself together.” Basically, that’s how the book came back. It’s full of different scenarios. You know what the good kids do. Some go to school and go to college, some do drugs, some skip school, some go to the lake that ends in tragedy. That’s how it goes.
So now we have The Spirit Within Me and you said spirits, dreams and prophecies go together, so can you expand on what the book is about and how they all fit together?
Now, during the pandemic, I was writing another book that I’m writing now, and I heard the Holy Spirit say, “Put up another screen.” So I put up another screen, and I started writing. I didn’t know what it was. All of a sudden, the Holy Spirit started pouring out in me. And one day, you’ll notice on the cover of the book, there’s a woman standing in a field, with her arms wide open. The pandemic was raging. It was around March 20th, and all the churches were closed. Only 10 people were allowed to go, and that morning, I heard in the Spirit, “Get dressed.” I got dressed, and I was driving, and one of the female deacons…I met her on the way, and she said, “We’ve got 10 more.” So I sat down and I said, “Okay, I’ll pay my tithes and offerings.” She said, “Okay.” I’m already in tears. Every time I tell this story, it’s just so amazing what God did for me that day. When I got to the parking lot, two deacons came up to me, and I said, “Hey, we’ve got 10 more.” “One of the deacons explained to me that there were already 10 people, but I just wanted to pay my tithes and offerings.” One of the deacons said, “Sister Donna, please take my place. I need you. God needs you.” I went in and came out again. All of a sudden, the Holy Spirit told me to go out into the field. I was just thinking, [the scripture about] There were two people in a field, one was being caught and the other was being left behind. I said, “Lord, please don’t take me. I don’t want to go yet. I’m not ready. I have too much to do.” Then, when I got to the field, the Lord turned me around and the brightest sun I’d ever seen appeared. You see, that sun was my eye. The burn scars prove it. As I was staring at the sun, which was so bright, the Lord showed me a cross in the shape of a sword. On the right side were two dark shadows, and on the left was a brass altar with three pillars. It wasn’t the brass or crystal that we’ve seen before. It was something that many people would not believe, but it was really amazing what the Lord showed me that day. And so, the book was born. It was the first part of a trilogy that the Holy Spirit had me write.
Spirits, Dreams, and Prophecies So what happened after that, basically the story is that the Holy Spirit woke me up to a dream. So the Holy Spirit had me capture these dreams and write them down. Then the Holy Spirit showed me spirits. Here is one of the spirits captured. I was in Maryland and I had to go back to work. I was getting ready, I was frying chicken. I was getting ready to run into the kitchen and there was a spirit standing in front of the shade at the back door. I got scared. The Holy Spirit said, “Don’t be afraid, it’s a peaceful spirit.” He said, “Go and check the chicken.” I got scared because I’d never seen a spirit so close. So he said, “Go and move the shade.” I moved the shade. It was kind of dark outside at the time so I’m looking outside. It was raining, but there was a big light under the shade. I was scared so I kept calling everybody. I was scared so I moved out of that place quickly. The prophecy happened after that. He was talking to me like three powers. I won’t go into detail on what it is, but he was talking about the Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He also talked about the sun, the moon, and the stars. You know I always take pictures of the sky? I always look up at the sky because he always shows me what’s in the sky. So there are other prophecies in this book that are part of that three powers, but it’s devastating because it talks about what’s happening right now. Before that, I started writing this in 2022. I was talking about Texas, California, Florida, how all the storms were going to happen and there was going to be so much destruction and chaos. He said there was going to be so much destruction and chaos between 2023 and 2033 that people wouldn’t be able to die even if they wanted to. [This is discussed in the book.]
If people want to find out more information about you or get your book, how can they get that information?
So if you go to higginspublishing.com or donnahodgesauthor.com you can get any of these books from me, and in fact I’ll be happy to sign a copy for you.
