I used to write a sex column. Now I solve murders. Nice to meet you!

Hi, I'm Catherine...my friends call me Cat, my mom calls me Catherine Alice when I'm in trouble.

I'm a writer, licensed private investigator and podcaster with a passion for solving mysteries and an obsession with Nancy Drew (though in my version, the punch she drinks would definitely not be nonalcoholic!)

I'm also a former dating columnist, and some people find my path from sex columnist to criminologist bizarre.

And they are right - it has been one long, strange trip.

But honestly, dating and detective work have a lot in common. In both instances, I'm trying to figure out if the person I'm talking to has skeletons in their closet - though (hopefully) in the dating world, the skeletons are mostly metaphorical rather than hidden in a crawlspace.

Sorry, but since I have no boundaries between work and my personal life, the "About Me" and "About My Work" sections will definitely run together!

Over the years I have written for publications including The Atlantic, Elle, New York, GQ, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, the Daily Mail, the New York Post, Cosmopolitan, The Huffington Post, the Independent (where I wrote the Sleeping Around dating column) and Investigation Discovery. I've covered everything from pop culture to murder cases.

But my true passion has always been solving mysteries. So a few years ago, I moved to Los Angeles, signed up for detective school and got thrown into the field with former FBI agents, police officers and other PIs. I chased corporate criminals and cheating husbands and found myself sitting outside countless no-tell motels at 5 am - but that's probably another post!

Speaking of which, my love of gonzo journalism means I've LOT of crazy things while chasing stories over the years - from learning to street fight like Sherlock Holmes to road testing an experimental sex drug. I've interviewed Prime Ministers, FBI profilers, Playboy bunnies and convicted killers.

Last year, I spent several months in the Arkansas Ozarks investigating the cold case murder of 22-year-old college student Rebekah Gould for the podcast Hell and Gone.

Outside of work, I have a huge passion for subcultures and for solving puzzles, which is what initially drew me to the cryptocurrency world. The number of unsolved mysteries in the cryptocurrency realm is massive (QuadrigaCX, bitcoin, etc.) and I find new ones every day.

Outside of solving mysteries...I love pub quizzes, dystopian literature and TV shows (J.G. Ballard, Aldous Huxley and Black Mirror are favorites but there are SO MANY others!). I love writing fiction and studying languages - I speak fairly fluent French and I'm currently studying Japanese. Also, as is probably evident from a lot of my pictures, I love solo travel for business and pleasure.

My postings could be rather random - but on Steemit I'll probably blog about topics that focus on true crime and current events, with some random musings about travel and insomnia thrown into the mix. I'm excited to get started!