My skills for creative and nonfiction writing were first honed as editor of the award-winning Choate Literary Magazine, followed by an AB from Stanford, followed by a JD in law from Illinois. Sandwiched in were gigs in community journalism and wire service (UPI) copyediting in their London and Paris bureaus. I acted as a Pulitzer Juror in the investigative journalism category. I worked in a JAG office in the Navy as a trial lawyer where I learned to be persuasive as my clients were usually guilty.