Gail Anderson-Dargatz on her job as a cub reporter

Gail Anderson-Dargatz is the author of The Spawning Grounds and The Cure for Death by Lightning.  Before she became an award-winning novelist, she told stories about her community in her hometown of Salmon Arm, B.C.

Probably my most favourite job, aside from writing fiction, was my first real job working for the Salmon Arm Observer as a cub reporter, photographer and cartoonist. 

I had a very funny little cartoon. It was just a one-box cartoon. I bugged my editor until she let me do it because I loved to cartoon. It wasn't a political cartoon. It was just about small-town life. At the time, I drove this ratty old Volkswagen that didn't work half the time. A lot of it surrounded my Volkswagen that would constantly break down.

I'd be scrambling the day that we went to press. It was a small-town paper — at the time, there were only two of us working there. I had to do everything. That very often included chasing the fire trucks and writing everything from the court report to the police report to square dancing. It was a lot of fun — I got to step out into the community and talk to just about everybody about just about everything.

Gail Anderson-Dargatz's comments have been edited and condensed.