With an MA in Mass Comm, I started as a radio and TV newswoman with an ABC affiliate. I wanted to do international news, so I took off for three years at age 30 to travel around the world and freelance for various papers and magazines, from the International Herald Tribune to the Christian Science Monitor and many more.     I also wrote a bi-weekly travel column for Knight-Ridder. A parent's illness brought me to San Antonio where I became a Metro, then Features columnist for Hearst Newspapers' Light and subsequently Express-News. Multiple years of First Place in Large Newspaper columns for the Texas APME, nominated for as Pulitzer and invited Pulitzer juror; National Presswomen awards. REtired from Hearst in 2007, became editor at SA Scene magazine for several years, now strictly freelance travel, features and  news writing. I'm also the board chair of a harm reduction non-profit that keeps me pretty busy.