Today we’d like to introduce you to Cathy Scott
Hi Cathy, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was a secretary and a single parent with just two years of college. When my son began his first year at a university, I enrolled at the University of Redlands’ extention program and finished my degree in a year. I heard about a weekly newspaper in the Mission Beach area where I lived. I met with the owners, and they offered me a position, so I quit my secretarial job and became their first reporter. After I won a top award from the San Diego Press Club, the editor of the La Jolla Light newspaper called me and asked me to interview for the business editor position. I got the job. From there, I went to a small daily newspaper in North San Diego County as a police reporter. When the 50-year-old newspaper folded, I freelanced for the Associated Press and San Diego Union-Tribune for 1-1/2 years before the Las Vegas Sun hired me as a full-time police beat reporter. Three years later, rapper Tupac Shakur was killed, and I covered his murder. It turned into a Los Angeles bestselling crime book. Six months later, another rapper, Biggie Smalls, was murdered in a similar crime, and that became a New York Times bestselling book. I also taught journalism at the University of Nevada Las Vegas before returning to San Diego, my hometown, and was the Las Vegas correspondent for a decade for The New York Times.. All told, I’ve written 12 books. Along the way, i’ve and had lots of opportunities and challenges. My attitude is to take chances and go for it.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Journalism is competitive, so it hasn’t ben necessarily smooth or easy.. But it’s been worth it. When one newspaper folded and staff laid off, I immediately picked up the phone and called the Associated Press San Diego bureau, and the editor brought me on as a stringer. To make it financially until I landed a job with a large daily newspaper, which happened a year and a half later, I also freelance as many articles as I could for local magazines and newspapers. I was determined to make it in journalism, and my hard work eventually paid off. I write books now as well as blog for Psychology Today.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I covered an FBI and DEA drug bust at my first weekly newspaper. I was immediately hooked and was determined to become a full-time police-beat reporter covering crime. Ultimately, I write mostly about murders. I did not know it would lead me to working as a true crime author, but that’s where my career led me. I enjoy the research, interviewing people, and putting the story together in narrative form. .I’ve made a name for myself internationally and am both humble and proud of that.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
A mentor who took a chance on me was then editor Sally Buzbee at San Diego’s Associated Press bureau. Having the AP on my resume helped me land the reporting position at the Las Vegas Sun, as well as helped me land the New York Times correspondent gig and, ultimately, book contracts. Sally ended up in a top editing position at The Washington Post, which she recently left. I’m forever grateful for the sage editorial advice she gave a cub reporter, as I carved out my career in the news business.
Pricing:
- Book editor, $150 a chapter
- Writing coach, $100 per 90 minutes
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.cathyscott.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cathyscott10/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CathyScott10
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/CathyScott
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=cathy+scott
- Other: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Cathy-Scott/author/B001HD0XQA
Image Credits
First photo by Cathy Scott, 2nd photo by Barbara Fletcher
