While I excel at commentary, personality profiles and long-form narrative, I also do breaking news and investigations, having honed those skills as a beat reporter at the Tucson Citizen, which closed in May 2009. The words, “Did you hear about…” make my heart race and my hands reflexively grab the nearest writing implement. In fact, I once took notes for an entire story on Dairy Queen napkins because a source called when I was out for dessert.

I’m instinctively drawn to unique human interest stories, such as this piece I wrote on a University of Arizona professor doing ground-breaking research in spite of missing one-quarter of his brain, or this story I did reconstructing the day Tucson police officer Erik Hite was murdered. I work well under stressful and unusual circumstances, as shown by the four months of investigation and reporting on the sale-turned-closure of the Citizen.

My work has been recognized with state and national awards for feature writing, sports reporting, sustained coverage and commentary, and my blog was awarded Best News Blog in May 2010 by the Arizona Press Club. Editors describe me as a reliable, inquisitive team-player dedicated to shoe-leather journalism and sharing donuts with co-workers. Sources describe me as inquisitive, tenacious, intelligent and polite.

Please look around the site for samples of my writing, a detailed listing of where my work has appeared and recommendations from those who’ve worked with me. If you’d like to contact me regarding your writing needs, click on the “Hire me” link below or write to rshorton08 (at) gmail.com. Enjoy!