Deborah Donaldson

Writing under the pen name Deborah Donaldson, Deb spent her childhood in a small midwestern farm community in Illinois. A licensed psychologist, she has taught at several universities and kept a successful private practice for the last 30 years. Early in her career, working with states attorneys, public defenders, and private attorneys, she performed forensic evaluations of mentally disordered sex offenders and men adjudicated as incompetent to stand trial.

To say that Deb has had a lifetime of physically active interests is an understatement. She has been a determined and fearless adventurer.

While active with tennis and golf these days, she has also hiked the High Sierras, Rocky Mountains and Smokey Mountains and traversed 100 miles on the Portuguese coastal route of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage. After mastering horseback riding, she rode a cattle drive in Wyoming and a horse safari in Botswana. What a way to see the world!

Deb9orah Donaldson

Deborah Huntley, 18th green at St. Andrews Links in Scotland.

More about Me…

I made an attempt to write a summary about me and it was incredibly unstimulating.  I realized that just as characters in a novel emerge through their actions, so do authors.  And I also realized that I have a lot of writing available to me that I have already created.  So my first experiment with ABOUT ME will be making available my diaries from some of my travel.  Some of the events occurred over a long period of time (e.g.the 100- mile Wonderland Trail hike), some are less lengthy.  I think I will release these in episodes, if the diary lends itself to that.

My first installment will be a modest (3 days) solo hike in a Colorado State Park outside of Golden, Colorado.  This was in 2016.  If you enjoy this, or want to hear the next episode, just keep pulling down the ABOUT ME tab.  I will release new episodes perhaps twice a month?  And the episodes will be numbered and you can read them all at once or at your leisure.

If you enjoy them, you can say kind words.  If you were incredibly bored or offended, proceed with your comments in whatever way suits you (of course, you can always exercise your power by simply hitting the off button on your device, muttering to yourself how much better you could do in your own life). In which case, I would say, “Go on then. Go for it.  Life isn’t always a competition.”

The blog posts appear below with the most recent articles at the top. To read from the beginning go to the end of the page.

Colorado, Episode 4

Colorado, Episode 4

August 10,11,12               I am now at the top of Windy Peak. The last mile and a half was rigorous: switchbacks, frequent stops with my hands on my knees, gulping for air. I am glad I saved this hike...

Colorado, Episode 3

Colorado, Episode 3

August 7, 8, 9               I got to my campsite around 1:00 and set up my tent and hauled an obscene amount of dry firewood (furnished by my friends, Liz and Ramona in Denver) to the established fire...

Colorado, Episode 2

Colorado, Episode 2

August 6, 2016 I catch a shuttle to the airport and a shuttle to PayLess and am preparing my story about last night in the hope I won’t be charged the rental for yesterday when I didn’t arrive on time....

Golden, Colorado, 2016, Episode 1

Golden, Colorado, 2016, Episode 1

August 5, 2016               When I am going on a vacation to visit an urban area, I pack the night before. When I am going on a vacation that involves camping, I start 4-7 days ahead of time.  I...

Schedule an Event

Contact Deb Donaldson