About Andrea Hartley
I started writing in high school under the tutelage of my Creative Writing teacher, who was also a retired daily newspaper editor. I began writing a column about our high school for our local weekly newspaper, The Hammonton News. After graduation, I was hired as a reporter and wrote four articles a week. After four years, I went to work for our daily newspaper, The Press of Atlantic City, where I worked for three years. Later, as a wife and mother, I wrote articles for many newspapers and magazines as a freelance writer. I can email clips of some of the articles written during this time in my life.
Then I decided that I wanted to publish a magazine for women and The Lehigh Valley Woman's Journal was born. It was in print for 3 years before I transitioned to an online venue. I found that I was spending much more time doing advertising sales and management of the publication, than writing, and so I decided to give the publication to my daughters so I could get back to writing. I returned to school to study creative writing and immediately gravitated to creative nonfiction while obtaining my MFA in Creative Writing at National University. I wrote Bryant's true story which is entitled, The Vietnam War, The Dream Amidst the Nightmare as my thesis, in the creative nonfiction format so it reads like a novel written in the first person.
Also as part of my education, I have designed a creative writing course and a seminar in business writing.
The highlight of my career as a newspaper reporter was when I covered President Reagan's visit to Hammonton, New Jersey. One of the stories that I had been assigned was to write about a 95 year-old-resident who was permitted to stay in her second-floor apartment which overlooked the main street in town where the president would be speaking. She had to have a secret service agent present with her. Since she was a gold star mother and a Reagan fan, she had much to say about the experience.
About a week later, I received a call from the White House Press Secretary who told me that President Reagan had read my article and liked it, and he wanted to telephone the lady the next day. I was asked for her phone number and asked to not tell her of his call. So, the following day I called and asked her,
"Anything new?"
She replied, "Nothing much, just some fellow called here pretending to be the president."
I said told her that it really was President Reagan and she replied she was glad that she "played along with him and wasn't rude." She said that he was going to send her his autographed photo which is what is pictured below.
