Davis Aujourd’hui is the author of The Sister Mary Olga Fortitude series of hilarious satires. The first book is entitled “The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude.” It was followed by “Babes in Bucksnort.”
Davis possesses a rich life experience that has enabled him to draw from it in order to create a colorful canvas upon which to paint very human lives. He is a retired social worker, having worked for Adult Protective Services in New York State for nearly twenty years. He developed the characters within his series of books in order to entertain a colleague by using the gift of humor.
As will be the case with Sister Mary Olga in his third book, he is a recovering alcoholic. He also happens to be gay as are several of the endearing and humorous characters within his novels. He can speak from his own experience. He has possessed all of the foibles of his cast of characters who are naughty, nasty, and nice.
Davis lives in Upstate New York where he is currently sharing his life with his partner of seven years. He is socially-minded and spirituality is the most important ingredient in order for him to maintain a happy and successful life.
Q: What compelled you to write your first book?
A: Years ago, I called up a friend’s voice mail on a whim and I spontaneously left her an outrageously funny message from a character named Sister Mary Olga Fortitude. My friend loved it and that inspired me to continue to develop characters and to leave her continuing voice mails. Years later, I thought to myself that I could write a book about these delightfully zany characters. This book is the end result, though it is only the first book of many in a series.
Q: Tell us briefly about your book.
Sister Mary Olga is a bourbon-swilling, chain-smoking nun who’s always getting into trouble with the Reverend Mother, a reformed prostitute. The convent’s chef is a gay cowboy. Just watch out for the nasty town busybody named Priscilla Bunhead who is always digging in the dirt. There’s plenty of that for her to find on Dinkledorf Drive in the fictional town of Bucksnort, Wisconsin. There’s a lot of hanky panky going on there!
All of the book’s other diverse and zany characters are delightfully flawed, The scenarios are outrageous. You’ll discover the secret of a transgendered nun under the most unlikely circumstances. You may have never discovered a body in the process of cremation as you tried to bake a cake or bore offspring who made inappropriate digestive noises while playing Baby Jesus in the annual Christmas pageant. Yet you will be able to relate to the human foibles discussed by Sister Mary Olga.
Sister Mary Olga takes the attitude of “to each one’s own.” She pokes fun at the conservative religious and social attitudes of the day. Irreverent and bawdy, this religious satire does have an underlying spiritual message; that is to lighten up and not take life so seriously.
Q: What are you working on at the moment?
A: I’m editing the other books in my series so that they will be well-polished gems just like this first book. I am also in the process of writing the twelfth book in the series and I am trying to get my third book published.
Q: Do you have a favorite character? Why is s/he your favorite?
A: That’s a difficult question to answer. I love all of my characters, especially the nasty ones who make for the delicious conflict within my books. If I had to pick one, it would have to be Sister Mary Olga. She is irreverent just like me. She also faces some challenges similar to my own and she channels spiritual truths that I have come to embrace.
Sister Mary Olga narrates the story and does so with hilarious humor. She is a fresh voice for our times or coming to terms with our spirits. I love the way she mixes humor with nuggets of wisdom. I am grateful that my fans have given me mostly five out of five star reviews. They obviously embrace her.
Q: The main characters of your stories – do you find that you put a little of yourself into each of them or do you create them to be completely different from you?
A: There is a little bit of me in all of my characters. I have already addressed that regarding Sister Mary Olga. Randy Cowboy, the gay chef and self-described sex maniac is much like me. I, too, am gay and have had to face my own sexual addiction from which I am recovering.
Since I have had to face my own dark sides, I can also relate to the prudish and judgmental Priscilla Bunhead. She wears her hair in a tight little bun. I maintain it is so tight that she can’t open her mind. That was a past challenge of my own.
I am also dignified like the eighty year-old Jules Jesslike Pappas. That dear man obtained his name from his simple-minded mother. On the night he was conceived, she had sex with men of two different races. Nine months later, she gave birth to twins of two different races. Jules came out black.
When the nurse held up the baby with the large endowment, his mother took one look at him and thought of his father. That’s when she blurted out, “Jewels just like papa’s.” That’s how he obtained his unusual name.
Q: Is there an established writer you admire and emulate in your own writing?
A: My writing is much like the zany writing of Armistead Maupin. I, like him, have developed a series of books that are based upon the continuing antics of my characters. I greatly admire the man and have faith that my series will be as successful as his.
Q: What about now: who is your favorite author and what is your favorite genre to read?
A: I have several favorite writers who write in the spiritual genre. This is the primary genre in which I read. Some of these authors would be Anthony DeMello, Eckhardt Tolle, Deepak Chopra, and Wayne Dyer.
Q: When they write your obituary, what do you hope they will say about your book/s and writing? What do you hope they will say about you?
A: I hope they will say that I am a person who has come to embrace spiritual truths. I hope they will say I have fostered the spiritual development of the humans while making them wake up to their own spirits. I hope they will say I have done so by making people laugh at themselves and my hilariously funny books.
Q: Is there anything you’d go back and do differently now that you have been published, in regards to your writing career?
A: There is not a thing I would do differently. I believe that everything happens for a reason; that I have written books that speak to the truth of the times. My only regret, if I could pick one, is that I was not patient enough to wait for a traditional publisher to pick up my books. That has created an enormous challenge for me in terms of marketing my books and getting the word out that a delightful series is out there for people to enjoy.
Q: In my experience, some things come quite easily (like creating the setting) and other things aren’t so easy (like deciding on a title). What comes easily to you and what do you find more difficult?
A: Everything about my writing has come easily. It just flows as I allow inspiration to lead me in developing my books. What has been most difficult has been to market my books.
Q: Have you ever had a character take over a story and move it in a different direction than you had originally intended? How did you handle it?
A: Sister Mary Olga takes over the story from beginning to end. That is only natural since she is the main character. As my series moves along, many other characters try to take the lead. I have to rein some of them in so that Sister Mary Olga Fortitude can get out my primary message; that is to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The challenge is to rise above our human imperfectness as we seek to discover the perfection of our spirits.
Use this space to tell us more about who you. Anything you want your readers to know. Include information on where to find your books, any blogs you may have, or how a reader can learn more about you and writing.
Davis Aujourd’hui is my pen name for the Sister Mary Olga Fortitude series. The first book, entitled “The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude,” was published in October 2008 by Outskirts Press. That was followed by “Babes in Bucksnort” in 2010. I have already completed eleven other books in the series and I plan to keep them coming!
I am a new author, yet I possess a rich life experience that has enabled me to draw from it in order to create a colorful canvas upon which to paint very human lives. I am a former social worker, having worked for Adult Protective Services in New York State for many years. I developed the characters within my series of books in order to entertain a colleague of mine using the gift of humor.
As will be the case with Sister Mary Olga in my third book, I am a recovering alcoholic. I also happen to be gay as are several of the endearing and humorous characters within my novels. I can speak from my own experience. I have possessed all of the foibles of my cast of characters who are naughty, nasty, and nice.
I live in Upstate New York where I am currently sharing my life with mypartner of seven years. We are both socially-minded and our spirituality is the most important ingredient in order for us to be able maintain a happy and successful life. We belong to a transdenominational church which embraces the sacred truths of all religions, especially the teachings of Jesus. This has been a natural outcome from my lifetime search for the meaning of God. It embraces my belief that all people are equally loved in God’s eyes.
My readers can find out more about what my series are about by visiting my blog:
http://bestsatireseriesofthedecade.blogspot.com/
They can also find out more about me and my life challenges by visiting my author blog:
http://authordavisaujourdhui.blogspot.com/
The best place to find my books are at Amazon.com. Here are the links for the first two books in the series:
"The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude"
"Babes in Bucksnort"
Both of Author davis'Aujourd'hui's Works are available in both Paperback and Kindle Versions.
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