Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else. –Gloria Steinem

Toronto-based Mary Nersessian is a qualified print and web journalist with experience at major media outlets including: www.CTV.ca, The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, and The Independent (U.K.)

She has covered everything from the brinkmanship and bureaucracy of the 2006 federal election and budget lockup -- to the sights, sounds, and stars of the Toronto International Film festival.

Mary has skulked in sleazy strip joints, read the nearly 800 pages of Thackeray’s “Vanity Fair” before interviewing the director of the remake, stood outside Union Station with a sign offering free hugs, and sat patiently in police station foyers for hours at a time. Her curiosity knows no bounds.

Mary is enterprising too. When a federal cabinet minister announced he would be leaving politics, Mary was one of the first to get him on the phone and report his reaction online. Her secret? She had once sold him a designer handbag at a luxury good store.

He remembered Mary, memorable as she is, and called her back immediately.

She specializes in stories on crime, food, politics, publishing, but a good yarn on a showbiz scandal will never fail to pique her interest.

In her spare time, Mary indulges with books by Ian McEwan, Bill Bryson, and Joanne Harris; hunts down first-edition copies of Roald Dahl books, cooks a mean goat cheese quiche, and plays Brahms on the piano.

One day, she will retire to a villa in the south of France and eat cheese and truffles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.