All About Me

On my tax returns, I'm a freelance writer/editor/part-time college instructor. But those titles don't really describe who I am. For the purpose of this site, just think of me as a story silo. I collect them, I dispense them.

Student photographer extraordinaire Amber Patrick caught me unawares. More about her later.

My husband and friends have now learned to preface anything they don't want to see in print with this sentence: "This is off the record." (For the record, I am an adjunct instructor in the Department of Journalism, and I produce COLS Special Reports, an online multimedia publication that hightlights the excellence that occurs in the College of Letters and Science at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.)

Here is my so-called professional bio: I've had more than 20 years of professional journalism experience. I've interviewed federal lawmakers and Hollywood stars, covered natural disasters (floods, earthquakes and hurricanes) and man-made ones (airplane crashes, multiple homicides and high-profile divorces). I've been a staff reporter for The Austin American-Statesman, The Miami Herald and People magazine's Miami bureau.

During one nutty year working as a staff reporter for The Star (yes, the supermarket tabloid), I traveled to 30 states, tagged Liz Taylor to Acapulco and secured the worldwide exclusive story from Charles Manson’s biological son. Despite that year, formerly known as the Grace Gone Wild (journalistically) period, I was accepted to Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, where, much to the chagrin of the really serious students, I graduated (with honors, even).

These days I'm paying penance for any journalistic transgressions I may have committed in my youth; I teach future journalists. I tell my students that they, as journalists, are the eyes, ears, voice and, yes, the heart of society. They, as journalists, must question status quo; they must fight for the proverbial “truth, justice and the American way.” They must value accuracy and fairness. They must not be afraid to ask questions. And they must not be afraid to prompt change.

Lest you think I'm the some crazy journalistic moralist, let me assure you that I'm not.

Really. (I know my friends and students are probably on the floor, laughing.)

Join me in my rants and raves of stories that I find.