Thinking back, it was the book "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck that stirred my interest in writing about people. As I read the book, I marveled at the vivid characters and human drama that revolved around a man’s love of the earth. Eventually, that interest compelled me to go into journalism. As a journalist, I could write about people every day, not fictional characters with make believe dialogue, but real people caught up in the events of the day, the serendipities, the tragedies.

During my first years in journalism, I developed a fascination with criminal cases. Covering crime became became one of my specialties and I spent much of my time writing about people who had been murdered. That’s how I was assigned to cover one of the most sinister slayings in history in Omaha in 1978. Years later I chronicled the case in a book called: Toxic Love. The book The Search for the Green River Killer also was an extension of my journalism. The book is about a serial killer who murdered up to 49 young women in the Pacific Northwest. He’s still out there.

	The Search For The Green River Killer
	Review the first chapter of the book: The initial victims of the biggest unsolved serial case in the country.

	Toxic Love
	Review the first chapter: An Indian summer turns tragic in the midwest.