The day Barbara Moran reported for her new job as reporter for the Atlanta Constitution, her editor said two things:

“You the new kid?”

There was a pause.

“We got a triple murder out in Flippen. Get on it!”

At the crime scene, Moran broke her only pencil and, upon viewing the bloody and violent aftermath that included three dead bodies, promptly threw up.

Helped by a sympathetic detective, Moran soon realized there was a subtext to the story: The victim’s small cabin was surrounded by expensive homes but the family had a reputation for trusting their mattress over any bank. That led police to focus their hunt for the killer on a disgruntled nephew.

Moran’s story ran on the Atlanta Constitution’s front page the next day and she joined a very small fraternity — she was only the seventh reporter in the paper’s long history to have their rookie story on Page One.

“The thrill lasted just a day or so,” Moran recalled. “My editor demanded quality work on everything I turned in; a good way to learn one’s craft.”

Moran shares that anecdote to instill a sense of wonder in students taking her new class, Journalism 102, which began last week at Skagit Valley College’s facility at Ken’s Korner.

It’s all about clips.

“In my classes, students write to get published,” Moran explained. “I tell them to leave their excuses at the door. ‘You have a dream and you can do it.’ Eventually they’ll build a file of clips and that’s the way to get into the business. When you look for a job, you need a gallery of clips.”

Moran sold her first article to a national youth magazine for $15, a story about two teens befriending a crabby, lonely old man in a random act of kindness. “It was a start,” she said, pointing to hundreds of clips stored in her Clinton garage.

She wrote a humor column for the high school paper before enrolling at Kent State University.

“I was there the day (May 4, 1970) the National Guard shot those four students,” she remembered. “The official word was at odds with what I witnessed; even my parents believed the governor’s version. It was that more than anything else that made me study journalism so I could tell the truth.”

Back in the early 1970s, being a reporter was still mostly man’s work, especially in editorial newsrooms.

After graduation she became a court reporter for an Atlanta weekly — “I begged them for the job and bombarded the editor with clips,” Moran said.

That eventually led to the big time on a respected Southern daily paper, where Moran followed in the footsteps of legendary author and reporter Margaret Mitchell, who penned “Gone With the Wind” in the 1930s.

Her new editor admitted her persistence had driven him nuts. “I’m going to hire you just to get you out of my hair,” he told her.

Over the next three years she traveled the world, covered presidential news conferences and, with her colleagues, laughed at the ambitions of a peanut farmer in plaid pants from Plains who wanted to be president.

“Very few folks had faith in Jimmy Carter, but he had plenty of faith in himself,” Moran said.

Following a ski trip to Colorado Moran decided to move west, settling in California and a new job with the San Diego Union-Tribune. She started specializing in kid’s stories, then animals — “You may have heard they have a nice zoo there” — and finally environmental topics, always a hot item in the Golden State.

Along the way she met and married Dr. Bob Baker (“He kept his married name”), a pioneer in assessing and treating Vietnam-era veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Her dream and eventual brainchild coalesced in the “Special Species by California Kids,” a book about native plants and animals as seen through the eyes of children.

She knew she still wanted to teach and write when she moved to Whidbey Island in 2003 after her husband retired.

One of Moran’s passions is journalism, in any form.

“We’re always going to have newspapers, but the Web is the future and writers must understand how it functions to use it properly,” she said.

To that end, she’s written a textbook, “Crafting Multimedia Text,” that addresses the reality of written information on the Web and the layers of interactive involvement needed to be successful. “What people don’t realize is the Web is all about words; it really is a writer’s medium and provides lots of opportunities to create electronic clips.”

“I don’t want to scare anybody; there will always be newspapers,” she said. “But those who think the Web has put writers out of business are clueless about the realities of both print and the Internet.”

Her mission is simple: “I want people to believe in themselves — it breaks my heart when they say they can’t do it. There is so much talent in the bushes on this island but I need to get them through the door.”

Though class members fondly refer to Moran as “Ms. B,” they aren’t fooled by her pleasant demeanor and outgoing attitude — she’s expects them to study, learn and produce.

Her class focuses on journalism but is useful for anyone who regularly writes press releases or deals with the media. She noted two of her students have already published articles in the Viewpoint section of the Record.

Even though classes have begun (Tuesday and Thursday at 5 p.m.), Moran encourages aspiring writers to “Just show up.”

For more information, contact Skagit Valley College at 341-2324.