Don Ranly and colleagues wrote The Writing book in 1984. At that time, Ranly was a professor of journalism at the University of Missouri. I was a freelance writer living in Arizona. In the summer of that year he held a three day workshop in Minneapolis on how to write a good story. I headed up to attend the professor’s workshop. “Bring your best story,” Professor Ranly said in the seminar invite. I packaged my story on the murder investigation of a Tempe, Arizona school girl

Some thirty years ago an advertisement ran in the Phoenix Business Gazette for a stringer. In journalism, a stringer is paid by the story and is often a position keyed for persons wanting to break into the field. I immediately called an old newspaper man who was a family friend and told him about the job. “Wally,” I asked. “Knowing me, do you think that is something I could do?” Wally chuckled, then got serious and said, “I have three questions to ask, Michael.” “Shoot,” I