In the fall of 1977, I wrote a weekly humor column for my college paper, the Daily Nebraskan. At the rate of $10 per column it was my first paying job as a writer. After college I went to Los Angeles. My very first magazine article, for Soap Opera Digest, described how we did cue cards on "Days of Our Lives," when I worked at that job, and it was illustrated with the photos I'd shot using a fixed-lens Argus 35-millimeter. Since then I've contributed to dozens of magazines and to newspapers from New York to Fairbanks. I've always tried to make my stories informative, funny, and engaging. I don't claim to be a great photographer but have often shot the pictures to go with my stories, and a photo editor once said I was pretty good—for a writer.