Each week we’ll feature cool, creative women we admire in a new segment called “Siren Says.” We’ll ask them a quick question or two based on that month’s theme. October’s theme is “Believe-It-Or-Not Night Terrors.”

Donna Cavanagh

The Gloria Sirens: What is your greatest fear?

Donna Cavanagh: My greatest fear…I have so many. In no specific order: I fear that I will have to work in Walmart in my senior years to make ends meet; I fear alligators – don’t know why but I do; I fear that people have forgotten that everyone needs a hug once in a while and not every hug is subject to criminal prosecution; and lastly, I fear finding out that I am wrong and the Rapture does exist, and I am not making the cut.

TGS: When in your life have you been most afraid?

DC: Does the Top Gun roller coaster in the Carowinds Amusement Park count? Because I was literally shaking with fear, especially when I noticed my safety harness was different than everyone else’s and the ride attendant explained that mine had to be repaired and they just replaced it. She said all this just as they jettisoned us into space.

Or maybe the first time I had to speak in public and I thought I would pass out or just forget everything I rehearsed. But as all fears, once you face them, they are not so bad. Unless, of course, you are the focus of an Investigation Discovery channel show, such as Wives with Knives. Then I think the fear stays with you.

Donna Cavanagh is a freelance writer, journalist and humor writer in East Norriston, Pennsylvania. Her work has been published in local and national newspapers, both in print and online, including First and More magazines. She’s also published four humor books — A Canine’s Guide to the Good Life, which she wrote with her dogs (yes, really); Try and Avoid the Speed Bumps; Life on the Off Ramp; and Reality: Fantasy’s Evil Twin – as well as three poetry books. She also founded HumorOutcasts.com, a site dedicated to humor writing. More than 70 humor writers, standup comics, and TV/film writers and producers from all over the world post their work bringing laughter to thousands of readers each day. Recently, Donna created HumorOutcasts Press to give humor writers a publishing home and Shorehouse Books for non-humor works.