Donna Abear

A lifelong resident of Illinois until retirement, Donna Abear is married and the proud mother of four fabulous grown children, two equally amazing grandchildren, and two spoiled dogs.

Donna began her writing career in 1990. As a humor columnist, entertaining Lakeland Newspapers’ readers with her column, “Life’s A Bear”, she earned several Illinois Newspaper Association awards. In 2000 she published her first book, a compilation of the "best of" those humor columns, entitled “Mom, You’re Not Naked, Are You?” (Moonshadow Books).

Theatre was another one of Donna's passions, enjoying 35 years as a community theatre actress and later an award-winning director. Those experiences inspired her to write her first stageplay for families, “Sprucey, the Blue Christmas Tree”, published by I.E. Clark Publications in 1995 (now owned by Dramatic Publishing).

Simultaneously working on another passion project through many of those years, she completed the project, publishing a memoir, "Relatively Criminal" (Moonshadow Books), in 2013. A second memoir is still in process.

Retired now from her day job, Donna, her husband and their two dogs relocated to the wildly beautiful Olympic Peninsula in western Washington. The scenery and wildlife sparked fresh inspiration, resulting in a children's chapter book, "Pebbles on the Primrose Path" (June 1, 2024), and an adult paranormal romance, thriller, "The Heart in the Forest" (available now for pre-order, release scheduled for both e-book and print on December 1, 2024).