Feature writing & editing
I spent 12 years as a writer and editor at Wyoming newspapers. I started at the Gillette News-Record right after college, covering local and statewide education issues. In 2001, the Wyoming Education Association gave me its School Bell Award for outstanding education reporting. I also wrote for and edited the paper's weekly lifestyle section.
I spent six years as features and projects editor of the Casper Star-Tribune, managing a staff of three feature writers as well as two special publication writers. I planned, wrote for and edited up to six feature sections per week while leading multi-faceted newsroom teams for special projects and initiatives.
At the Star-Tribune, I won several state and national awards for feature writing:
Society for Features Journalism Excellence in Feature Writing, 2010, third place
Society of Professional Journalists Top of the Rockies, 2010, third place
One of nine feature writers in the country selected for the Mike Levine Workshop in Shandalee, New York, 2010
Special Merit Award, "They Served with Honor," from the Wyoming Press Association, 2011, first place
Outstanding Historical Publication, "They Served with Honor," from the Wyoming State Historical Society
Star-Tribune photo by Dan Cepeda
Colton Sasser's Long Walk Home
Top to bottom, Colton had 23 serious injuries: fluid on the brain, broken neck, cracked sternum, broken spine, ruptured spleen, four broken ribs, deflated left lung, lacerated liver and two broken legs.
Sasser's parents took photos throughout his recovery. It felt morbid at first, snapping photos of their unconscious son hooked to machines and monitors, “but I said to myself, ‘I’m going to show him how far he’s come,'” his mother said.
Star-Tribune photo by Dan Cepeda
Reconciled: Mothers forgive priest who killed their sons
Rob's scapula is broken, and his kidney is torn. Nurses have removed the glass from his face and cleaned the blood from the cuts. A man walks into his hospital room, and Rob can see he's been crying.
I need to know, Rob says. Is Matty dead or alive?
The president of Mundelein Seminary doesn't answer. Rob thinks of his friends’ families, of his own parents. I'll never be able to go home again, he thinks. I'll never go to a place where they don't know.
Star-Tribune photo by Kerry Huller
Lord of the snow
People who don't live within this landscape, who can't feel it coursing through their every ounce, often assume snow is white. Not so, the man will say. Each flake is a light-catching prism. A trillion reflect a whole spectrum of color, especially at dawn or dusk when deep blue shadows drape the hills. During winter in Yellowstone National Park, water is trapped in the snow, in the dagger-like icicles and in the boiling, untouchable springs that spot the back-country.
The man sees all the colors in this great albino desert. He sees them because they are his.
For 34 years, this man has lived in the heart of one of the most breathtaking places on Earth. He lives here through the summer when visitors clamor over the roadways like spawning salmon swimming against the river. And he lives here through the winter when the park empties of people, when the snow muffles even the sound of the wind and the colors become his once again. Meet Steve Fuller: Yellowstone's winter keeper.
Star-Tribune photo by Dan Cepeda
Corral becomes salvation for Stanford Addison
The filly circles the round corral, running close to the log rails. An Arabian, she holds up her tail as she runs. The man flicks a soft whip behind her, pressing her forward. "Whope!" the man says. He backs off, retreats to the rails and waits. The filly slows to a trot, then to a walk. Finally, she stops. She looks at the man on the far side of the corral. They stay like this, man and horse, as the dust settles around them. The horse in the process of being broken.The man in the process of becoming whole.