Meet Lauren
It was five years ago, when I was searching for people who could help me complete Sierra Phantom's story, that I found Lauren Carrigan. Rennie had given me her number, saying only that a woman from Oregon who knew Phantom in his "hey day" had contacted her and I should call her. I called, got no answer, left a voicemail. The next day, she called me back. I had a firm rule to not take calls or respond to emails about the book while at work, but I couldn't resist when I saw Lau
Truth ain't easy
In this time of questioning what quality, honest journalism really looks like, I feel compelled to share a recent email I sent to our Loudoun Now team. I’m so thankful to be surrounded by reporters, editors and photojournalists who know that truth isn’t simple, it isn’t easy to find, it’s even harder to communicate, and it often means upsetting people on both sides of an issue, but they exhaustively search it out anyway. I’ve been fortunate to work at seven newspapers in four
Without a Trace Won an Award
Like any project worth doing, Without a Trace was made possible only by the efforts of dozens of selfless people. One of them is my talented, dry-humored, red-haired brother-in-law, Nathaniel Navratil. The moment he heard that I was trudging my way through (I mean writing) my first book, he offered to lend his talents to design it, inside and out. Having seen his work win countless awards, I said very little about what I envisioned for a cover or chapter pages. I wanted to le
