When you're given a newspaper column, you're not being paid to sit on a fence and scratch your chin and say 'On the one hand this' and 'On the other hand that.' You're getting paid for your opinion.

Hiaasen's young adult novels follow the theme of environmental issues. Hiaasen lives in Vero Beach Florida. He was a reporter for Cocoa Today (Cocoa Florida) for two years beginning in 1974 and then was hired by the Miami Herald in 1976 where he still works.

: /ˈhaɪ. əsɛn/; born March 12 1953) is an American journalist columnist and novelist. Carl Hiaasen (pron.