I have been a newspaper reporter or editor for more than 30 years.

I have been working for LaGrangePatch since July 2010, when it started. I enjoy writing police blotter items and our readers have indicated they like reading them. I got to ride a Segway and talk to entertainers from the La Grange area.

Since November 2006, I have been doing freelance writing for the Chicago Tribune through its northwest bureau. I cover Hoffman Estates and Elk Grove Village news and I also have written about Schaumburg; Park Ridge; Elgin; the Illinois Racing Board; Suburban O'Hare Commission; and Chicago Executive Airport.

After leaving Northern Illinois University with a journalism degree, I worked for newspapers in Oak Park and Forest Park, before finding my home for the next 25 years at Life Newspapers, based in Berwyn. For the first 12 years, three issues a week–1,872 issues–I wrote about the Berwyn, Stickney and Forest View municipal governments, along with police and fire news, school districts, park districts, library boards and townships.

My legacy from my time at The Life was a November 1980 article about the Big Bil-Bored, a pork-chop-shaped sculpture by artist Nancy Rubins made of old electrical appliances and cement in the Cermak Plaza shopping center in Berwyn. That article still comes up in Internet searches of my name

I have received six national, state and regional awards for my articles and editorials, including third place for best news story from the Suburban Newspapers of America.

I was promoted to associate editor and then five years later to regional editor. I supervised reporters, edited stories, laid out pages and then proofread them.

Among 12 editorial employees laid off in 2004, I began my freelance writing career. I wrote feature articles for the Arts/ Entertainment pages of Liberty Newspapers, formerly The Life; stories for the Discover magazine of Chicagoland Publishing, a  subsidiary of the Chicago Tribune; and entertainment, news and feature articles for Pioneer Press through its Oak park office. One of my most exciting moments was interviewing author Ray Bradbury about his ''Fahrenheit 451'' being selected as the "community read" book in Oak Park

I have entered a literary career, interviewing local science fiction author Phyllis Eisenstein for a semiprofessional magazine, and writing about ''Tarzan'' author Edgar Rice Burroughs for an Internet site and fanzines. I also have acted as a literary agent for three years to sell a cookbook, travel book, stories and plays.

I love movies and on a Saturday night, you might find me eating in downtown La Grange and walking over to the La Grange Theater to see a second-run movie, or at the La Grange Blockbuster looking for a movie on a used DVD to buy. And then I might be browsing the books, movies and CDs at Borders.