"Everybody has a story," Al Sullivan said last Wednesday from his markedly unkempt cubicle at the Hudson Reporter Associates. "I'm just lucky I get to write about it."

Over the years, as a senior staff writer for the Hudson Reporter newspaper chain, Sullivan has painted expository portraits of beekeepers, tax assessors, animal control officers and violin-makers. Rutgers University Press recently published 70 of these stories in a collection entitled "Everyday People: Profiles from the Garden State."

A softcover edition will be available in bookstores across the country and on www.amazon.com starting the first week in July

Like the personalities portrayed in his book, Al Sullivan is the stuff that provocative profiles are made of. For instance, while the rest of the Hudson Reporter staff writers have upgraded to Microsoft Word, Sullivan still insists on writing his articles in the antiquated computer program, DOS. "I like it," he said. "It's simple and I understand it."

Sullivan was born in Passaic, N.J. on May 12, 1951. He spent his childhood in Paterson, where, from an early age, he was surrounded by characters who were just screaming to be profiled.

"My father left when I was very young," he said. "So I grew up with five very hairy Italian uncles who were boat builders and contractors, and I think one of them was in the mob. But no one was supposed to ask him about it."

With the exception of an early '70s cross country road trip in a red, white and blue painted VW bus - "We were very inspired by Easy Rider," he said - Sullivan has spent the majority of his life in New Jersey.

"I've wandered a way a few times, but I always come back," said Sullivan, who, despite his steady job and stable second marriage, has retained many of his bohemian sensibilities. "I understand the people here better than anywhere else I've ever been. I think there's a certain practical side to people in New Jersey. The basic stock that I grew up with and associate with have a real working class ethic that I haven't found anywhere else."

While Sullivan began experimenting with poetry and fiction during his cross country travels, his newspaper career did not officially begin until the late '70s when he found work freelancing for The Independent Prospector, a Clifton-based weekly. "It was a real rag," he said, "filled with dripping gossip about the townspeople."

In 1982, while he was studying English literature at William Paterson University, Sullivan founded Scrap Paper Review, a monthly literary newspaper. Along with co-editor Michael Alexander, Sullivan self-published Scrap Paper for almost 10 years, supporting himself and his magazine working at Dunkin' Donuts and Fotomat.

"We had this concept that newspapers form a community," Sullivan said. "We were trying to bring the arts community together. We just didn't have the money, and I eventually went broke trying to publish it."

In 1992, around the time when Scrap Paper became defunct, Sullivan discovered Secaucus. With the exception of a one-year hiatus spent at Worrall Community Newspapers, Sullivan has been covering the pseudo suburban community for the Hudson Reporter newspaper chain for almost 10 years. He's chronicled everything from city council meetings to the town's high school graduations, meeting many of the characters that make up his book along the way.

Everyday People features 70 profiles of individuals Sullivan has encountered during his years as a beat reporter for the Hudson Reporter Associates and the Worrall Community Newspapers in Bloomfield.

"There is a kind of special moment in everyone's life," said Sullivan. "And with profiles you're getting inside someone's head and getting to live that piece of their life."

Sullivan, who often visits senior citizen homes for inspiration, said his favorite profile is of Ruth Austin, a "crotchety" 104-year-old retired nurse and Brooklyn Dodger fan who lived in Bloomfield. He also likes his portrait of Joe Hansen, a Bloomfield-based beekeeper. "He was this old navy guy who watched his entire way of life dying," Sullivan said. "A lot of the stories in the book are with older people who represent a way of life that is no longer around."

Like with his earlier literary newspaper, Sullivan used his book to create a community, albeit a paperback version. "I tried to pick out all of the individuals you would find in a community, from criminals to artists to teachers to politicians," he said. "Everyone has a narrative. And it usually centers around one specific event in their life. You just have to find out what it is."

When asked about his own life's narrative, Sullivan grew uncharacteristically silent.

"I don't know if you can look at yourself and find the overall theme of your life," he said. "My narrative is writing about other peoples'."