Dave Donelson is represented by the interviewer's Pump Up Your Book Promotion, a public relations agency specializing in online book promotion.

Dave Donelson’s career as a broadcaster, entrepreneur, and writer has taken him from the jungles of Australia’s Cape York Peninsula to the minarets of Riyadh.  He’s climbed the spire of the Empire State Building, floated the Usumacinta River to the Mayan ruins at Piedras Negras in Guatemala, and photographed the tree-climbing lions and mountain gorillas of Uganda. 

Dave’s inquisitive, active lifestyle finds its way into freelance writing and photographic assignments for magazines like Disney’s FamilyFun, Woodworker’s Journal, and Las Vegas Magazine.  Closer to home, he writes features for Westchester Magazine as well as a regular column on golf.  He is a member of the prestigious Metropolitan Golf Writers Association.   

His first novel, Hunting Elf, began as an audio book and was published as a trade paperback in 2006.  K9 Perspective called it “…a delicious romp through the suburbs of New York.”  

Dave’s first book was Creative Selling (Entrepreneur Press, 2000), a non-fiction prescriptive.  As a business journalist, he writes for The Christian Science Monitor, Family Business Magazine, and dozens of trade publications serving industries from the automotive aftermarket to sporting goods retailing.

Dave has a BA in Rhetoric and Public Address from Missouri Western State University.  He serves as a Trustee for the Westchester Library System, a consortium of 38 public libraries serving Westchester County, NY.  He lives in West Harrison, NY, with his wife, Nora, and an ever-changing roster of dogs and cats.  You can visit his website.

Thank you for this interview, Dave.  Can you tell us a little about yourself and how long you’ve been writing?

I’ve been writing all my life, but made it my full-time profession about eight years ago.  Before that, I had a long career in the broadcasting business, starting as a radio newsman and ending as an entrepreneur and TV station owner.  I like to think I have a journalist’s commitment to truth and an entrepreneur’s willingness to work hard.

Do you write full-time?

Writing is my job as well as my calling.  In addition to my novels, I write freelance magazine features on a wide variety of issues.  I’ve sort of come full circle since my days as a broadcast journalist.  In just the last couple of years, I’ve reported on illegal immigration, environmentalists battling with real estate developers, even the sexual habits of New York suburbanites.

If you could trade places with one author who you have admired over the years, who would it be and why?

I am a fan of so many writers, some great and some perhaps not, but I really admire John Steinbeck for his versatility.  He wrote everything from huge sweeping epics like Grapes of Wrath to young adult classics like The Red Pony plus novellas, travel, memoir, even comedy. In a thirty-year career, he left a huge legacy.