I believe I've been preparing to help writers and editors realize their dreams for most of my life. My mother, a nurse who wanted to be a writer, read to me when I was too young to talk. My father, an Associated Press bureau chief in Honolulu and Phoenix, used wire copy to teach me to read.

As a teenager in the Navy during World War II, I raced through the books in ship's libraries, wrote long letters home and tried poetry and short stories. Aboard a command ship, I chronicled amphibious landings on Pacific islands. When the war was over, I worked as a reporter and deskman for daily newspapers in Oklahoma, Arizona, Washington, D.C. and California. I earned degrees at San Jose State College and the University of Florida and worked toward a doctorate at the University of Minnesota.

In my 40s, I became a journalism professor and for three decades taught at universities in Florida, Egypt, Arizona, Minnesota and California. For much of that career I moonlighted as a writer and editor, enriching my classroom teaching with what I learned in the newsroom. Many of my students became outstanding journalists and remain my close friends. I was honored as California's journalism professor of the year. Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo named me one of its distinguished teachers.

As retirement neared, I discovered an exciting new career as a writing coach. I coached for The AP, for 15 newspapers and magazines in six states and for government agencies, professional associations, corporate and private clients. For the past 11 years, I have coached writers and editors in all editions and departments of the Los Angeles Times. I continue to work for The Times and other clients from my home in Los Osos.

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