About Me

I've spent the last 20 years on an exciting journey down the paths of writing, editing, teaching, researching, and, most recently, book binding and conservation. I spent nearly five of those years working for a major health insurance company in St. Louis, Missouri. During my time there I had the opportunity to work with both commercial and proprietary software systems, manage data, provide service to the providers of the network, edit and proofread documents and directories, create training documentation, and teach new employees.

Needing a greater challenge, I then spent two years teaching English in Madrid, Spain, and six summers doing the same at a summer camp in northern Spain. During that time, I had the unique opportunity to teach a wide variety of people from all walks of life in a variety of settings: six-year olds to sixty-year olds; Spanish military colonel to retired carpenter; oil company to the Spanish mint; in homes and offices as well as at summer camps.

I've since continued my journey taking on more challenges as a writer, editor, tutor, and researcher, with leanings towards online and library-based content research, development, presentation, and management. Over the years this has included blogging, travel writing, technical writing, long-form industry guide development, academic research, fiction and non-fiction editing, and a variety of special projects. Much of this has been done using content management tools such as MediaWiki, WordPress, and Moodle.

I've also developed myself even further, acquiring a degree in library informatics. I've also been taken under the wing of a book conservator and book arts teacher, rapidly learning about the skills involved in book conservation and artistic book binding.

I adamantly believe writing, editing, and teaching are closely linked, and I constantly strive to find how they intersect. Over the years, research has also heavily woven its way into writing, editing, and teaching work, expanding my philosophy. As such, I remain dedicated to providing quality professional services to the public and private sector at a time when they are needed most: during a proliferation of generic, poorly edited and researched content.

As artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) show both promise and pitfalls, the quality of AI- and ML-generated content has also come into question. My personal preference is to avoid tools like ChatGPT for my professional work. I believe the current state of such tools can potentially make a novice writer a somewhat better writer; however, those tools do little to make a great writer and editor an excellent one.