I’ve been a professional writer since 1992. I wrote for magazines for about six years before getting into technical writing. I enjoy the challenge of technical writing. On occasion, I still enjoy writing articles and essays for magazines, and now I'm including my phototography with my magazine queries.

Magazine Journalism
Book Writing
Technical Writing
My Favorite Writing Books

Magazine Journalism

I started my writing career in the children's and parenting magazine market. For a while I wrote quite a bit for Parenting, Bay Area Parent, Chicago Parent, Cricket, and Children's Digest. Later I wrote science, health, fitness, and psychology articles for Discovery Online, Fitness, SELF, and Family Circle. You can read more about my freelancing career as well as samples of my work on the Freelance Writing page.

Book Writing

In addition, I write books. I started with novels, and my fantasy Arlyn and the Purloin Bane was published through Sacred Oaks Publishing, a company I created to publish my own books. Why? Because I can. With the advancements in printing technologies, specifically Print On Demand (POD), publishers no longer need to purchase huge print runs on the outset. This allows self-publishers the freedom to bring their books out to the public. Also, since I'm good with software and enjoy formatting as well as writing, it's a good fit for me. Of course, my writing still goes through an editor, and for my first book I paid someone to do the cover for me. Over time, I'll learn to do my own covers, using my own photography. I'm also writing non-fiction books, one of which is a book of essays, and another about the single life. You can read more about my book writing on the Book Writing page.

Technical Writing

On the side, I taught myself web programming and built sites through contract work, at first for other writers and then for companies. This eventually led me into my job at Sun Microsystems, originally in production working on the java.sun.com web site. Over time, I taught myself Java programming and was promoted to a technical writer. I worked for Sun for 10 years. You can read more about my technical writing experience and view my resume on the Technical Writing page.

My Favorite Writing Books

Here are just a few of my favorite writing books. Most are about improving writing in general, but some focus on a specific type of writing like essays or novels.