Books, writing and language are my lifelong passions.

In my thirties--while married and raising four children--I enrolled in college. Despite urgings to earn a degree in teaching or nursing, I chose to study journalism at The City College of New York, a tuition- free institution at that time. I was the oldest student in my classes.

One summer, I snagged an internship at Newsweek that provided my first contact with professional journalists.

Prior to this, I'd worked as an unpaid writer and columnist for a local newspaper.The Black American, edited, and published by Carl Offord, an insurance salesman, out of his storefront office in Harlem.

I wrote general interest stories, movie, music, and theater reviews, and a weekly column. I covered local politicians, celebrities, writers, community leaders, and ordinary Harlemites. This was an invaluable experience since I got to cover several "beats."

After graduating from college, I landed a reporting job with a non-profit news organization, The Community News Service (CNS), which provided a daily roster of stories for local newspapers--The New York Daily News and The New York Times--and the networks, CBS, ABC, and NBC. Back then, these news outlets seldom sent reporters into the city's black and Hispanic communities. That was our job.

This was a dream gig. I worked with and learned from seasoned journalists such as Gil Moore, who'd written extensively about the Black Panther movement for Life magazine, Bob Collazo, a former Daily News reporter, and Annette Samuels, senior editor, who left CNS, to work as an assistant press secretary in the Carter White House.

I went on to work for The New York Amsterdam News, Essence, Food and Wine, and The New York Village Voice.

Almost two years ago, I relocated to North Las Vegas, where I belong to LV Quill Keepers, a group for local women writers.

I'm working on a memoir about the relationship between me and my son, who died in prison in 1999.

Without having deadlines to meet, it's a challenge to treat writing as a business. I'm working on that. The SheWrites homepage with all those covers is a real inspiration.

Can't wait to add mine.