Like most writers, I was an avid reader from childhood. And I did a lot of writing in school, and always enjoyed it. But I didn't really know how a person made a living at it. After a few years working as a musician after college, I began trying different sorts of volunteer activities, seeing what direction I might want to follow next. One evening, I came home and started flipping through the paper. And there it was: an article I had written. I was an unpaid publicity intern for a local museum, and I had written it as a press release. I kept reading, and to my astonishment I saw they had reprinted it exactly as I had written it. There was no byline on it, but it was enough—it was a real thrill, in fact—to know that I had written something that was in the paper.
I started getting actual bylines not long after that—first in newspapers, then magazines. Then I started working as a magazine editor. I think the people who were hiring me sensed that I was a lifelong reader, and had the interests of their own readers at heart. At any rate, they trusted my judgment, and I've tried, over the years, to find out what would interest people and put it down as effectively as I could.
Times have changed, and so have I. I do a wide mix of publishing things nowadays for a wide variety of purposes. I do press releases, ad copy, marketing materials, website copy, and a wide variety of other sorts of work for associations and businesses. I blog about an infinite variety of subjects. Often I'm poring over books and searching websites for new techniques in digital image processing or website content presentation. But it's still a question of trying to imagine the mix of words and images that will make other people respond.
So even though things change, they stay the same too. I'm still trying to present things in a fresh, vivid way. It's tough to do, but it's more fun too, for me and for the readers. I still keep them in mind as I work. And I'm still having a tremendous amount of fun. I have to tell the truth—every now and then, if only on the inside, I'll read something that I've done that I think really does the subject justice, and I'll get that same little thrill again. I think every story deserves to be told well. And that's the enthusiasm and commitment I'll bring to the work I do for you.