Meet Cathy Sciott | Journalist and Narrative Nonfiction Author

We had the good fortune of connecting with Cathy Sciott and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Cathy, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My goal was to become a newspaper reporter, so I freelanced for small publications as an avenue to get on staff at a weekly or daily newspaper.. I also finished my bachelor’s degree, because newspapers require it.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
It was a tough road breaking into the news business. I started out by forming my own business as a freelance journalist. As I continued writing, I began getting journalism awards, which helped propel me from a weekly to a daily paper and, ultimately, as a police-beat reporter at the Las Vegas Sun. While there, I became a stringer for The New York Times and wrote for them for 11 years. So while I worked full-time, I also kept my freelance business going. Then, while reporting on the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, I was encouraged by other journalists to write a book about the homicide case. So my first true-crime book was The Killing of Tupac Shakur and became hi a Los Angeles Times bestseller. Six months later, rapper Biggie Smalls was killed and a literary agent contacted me about a book, so I wrote his biography, The Murder of Biggie Smalls, which was published by St. Martin’s Press, and qualified as a New York Times bestseller. I am now working on my 13th book (which does not include anthologies I’ve contributed to), which is a biography of the late true crime author Ann Rule, who I got to know the last three years of her life. She was known as the Queen of True Crime.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I would show visitors my own community of Julian, a San Diego County 1870’s mountain town known for its apple pies and snowfall. They could stay in an Airbnb, or in one of the lodges or historic hotels in town. We could have breakfast at a local coffee cafe, then go to Lake Cuyamaca and hike around the lake before eating lunch at the nearby Cuyamaca Cafe. We could then go to the Julian Arts Guild Gallery in town, and walk around visiting an array of shops. San Diego also has many fun things to see as well: Balboa Park, Mission Beach, San Diego Zoo, Wild Animal Park, Sea World, with lots of eateries around the city. I grew up in San Diego and love the city, plus I lived in Mission Beach for 19 years, and the boardwalk is always a wonderful walk along the bay and ocean.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I discovered the book The Corpse Had a Familiar Face written by newspaper reporter Edna Buchanan.. Her book inspired me to break into the news business. Also, in college my sophomore year, creative writing instructor Robert E. Moore wrote on a paper that I was talented and to keep writing. I’ve never forgotten it, and I still have the paper.

Website: https://www.cathyscott.com/

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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CathyScott3?app=desktop

Image Credits
Author photo (first photo), credit Barbara Fletcher.
I certify that I have the rights and own the remaining photos.