Cathy Scott, True Crime Writer/Investigative Journalist, Grossmont College, 1969-71

Cathy Scott, whose eighth book was released in March, began her writing career with a paper on Ray Bradbury at Grossmont College.

She was enrolled in creative writing at Grossmont and the entire class interviewed science fiction writer Bradbury who spoke on campus. The students then wrote in-class papers about the experience.

“I received an A-plus, but it was the comment the instructor wrote on the paper that had a huge impact,” Scott said. “I still have it. He wrote, ‘You’re a talented writer.’ His comment has carried me throughout my career. His comment also stood as a beacon of hope for me of one day becoming a full-time writer.”

Scott worked for several newspapers in San Diego, before relocating to Las Vegas to cover crime for the Las Vegas Sun. Her first two books, “The Killing of Tupac Shakur” and “The Murder of Biggie Smalls,” were about the rappers’ deaths in drive-by shootings in what was dubbed the West Coast-East Coast rap war.

She graduated from the University of Redlands and taught journalism at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where “I tried to encourage my students, just as (my former instructor) had.”

Her sixth book, “Pawprints for Katrina: Pets Saved and Lessons Learned,” resulted from Scott’s four months on the Gulf Coast, writing about the largest pet rescue in U.S. history.