By sophomore year of college I knew I wanted to be in journalism. The question was: which media suited my skills best? I had to try it all to find the answer. So I hosted my own specialty radio show on a South Florida FM station. I founded a literary magazine on a campus where none existed. I wrote TV news for a local Fox affiliate in Miami at night and anchored a campus newscast early in the mornings.  Later on, moving from Florida to New York City, I interned for CNN at their United Nations bureau. I took a course in photojournalism to explore focus and light and shade. At last, by the end of my college career, I finally figured it out. My greatest strength and passion lay in writing. 

So I wrote.

I started out with The Montclair Times, a very distinguished weekly in Northern New Jersey, producing investigative articles and feature stories, winning journalism awards. Then I moved on to The Press of Atlantic City, where I covered southern Ocean County and its many issues from education, to crime to environment. 

After quitting that job to stay home with my children, I kept writing. I wrote stories and articles for national children’s magazines and tried my hand at novels for teenagers.  I am working on several other YA manuscripts -- even as I have taken the plunge back into the world of full-time journalism as the local editor for the newly expanded Barnegat-Manahawkin Patch.

Born in the Ukraine, I lived in Siberia and in Moscow before my family brought me to New York City at the age of almost-sixteen. I am married to a (very handsome) French-born Italian. Home is Manahawkin, New Jersey, a place I have claimed as my own since 2002, longer than any other town in my entire life!  

Write to me at katia.raina@patch.com, with insight, your thoughts, observations, news tips/local concerns, or just to say "hello." I love getting emails from readers. Or you can contact me at (609) 276-6526.