Donovan Walker bio

Donovan Walker was born on December 1, 1983, in LaPlace, Louisiana, to Edmund "Harley" Walker and Rosa Burke-McBride.

Harley, a truck driver originally hailing from Monterey, California, was a motorcycle enthusiast. He met Rosa at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota in 1978, and they fell head over heels in love. Rosa had been living carefree, helping cows calve on her father's ranch near Mud Butte, but after Stirgus '78, Rosa was living carefree on the back of Harley's Harley. The two were inseparable for the next five years, traveling the country by bike or truck.

In 1983, Rosa found that she was pregnant with Donovan. Harley and Rosa decided to attempt to settle down in Louisiana for no other reason than Harley's favorite marijuana dealer lived close by. A nine-month wait was torture for Harley, who barely managed four before he told Rosa that he had a trucking job he couldn't refuse since his soon-to-be family needed the big paycheck. He said he'd make it back for Donnie's birth, but both Harley and Rosa knew that wasn't true.

Rosa gave birth in December and struggled to raise Donnie on her own. Ashamed to go back to South Dakota, she was taken in by an elderly couple, Ollie and Nan Fortenot, in New Orleans. With "Grandma" Nan, little Donnie was steeped in esotericism from mystical folk traditions to New Age prophecies. It was a surprise to no one that Don dropped out of school in tenth grade to set up a folding table at Jackson Square to read the tarot cards of New Orleans' tourists.

By 2008, Don had rented a dilapidated shotgun house in Vicksburg, Mississippi, doing astrological readings for the locals and Civil War sightseers alike. It didn't make him much money, but he was living largely out of control of "the man," and he liked it that way.

In 2013, Don moved to Jackson, Mississippi, where he began to teach a loose version of the Astara religion in Smith Park to those who would listen, then offer to read their star charts for money. When police hassled him for lack of permits, Don moved on.

Five years later, Don found himself in Oxford, Mississippi, where he was still promoting his knowledge of New Age mysteries, charming Ole Miss teaching assistants into hours-long psychic readings. Finding that a college town provided a living wage for his services, Don rented a home near a controversial literary agent to the stars as an additional enticement for his new business, Arcane Guidance. 

In 2021, Birdie Tarver walked into Arcane Guidance on a lark. Her girlfriends convinced her that Don "knew things," so she thought she'd give him a chance as long as her friends also sat in on the reading. When Don drew a tarot combination of new love for Birdie, she was tickled pink. When asked who this new love would be, Don forecast himself in the cards. Birdie was skeptical but accepted a first date, which blossomed into the relationship that Don predicted.