Portfolio

I’ve worked as a professional writer and editor for over 30 years so I’ve written and edited an enormous number of different types of documents. Unfortunately, I can’t share the most interesting ones (like technical documents I wrote for NASA!) because they are proprietary. But on this page you’ll find some articles, fliers, technical documentation, and more that I can share. My full resume is available here.

Books

I have helped authors develop and write a variety of nonfiction books. I specialize in memoirs, family history projects, and nonfiction business books. In 2014, I self published my first book for a niche audience about the history of one of my favorite caves. I wanted a high quality print book with lots of photos, and printing books is expensive. I set up a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo and raised $5,000 in less than a month to fund the book. I hired an editor and cover designer, but did all the layout myself in InDesign. The book got rave reviews from my niche audience and also won a Benjamin Franklin Award for interior design excellence. Below is a section of the the book. I wrote my first draft in Microsoft Word. I collected slides and photos from a few photo archives and individuals and scanned all of them. I used InDesign to create a template for the book then imported the Word content. Next I added the photos and captions. At the end of the project, I indexed the book and created the bibliography.

Another book project I worked on was a collaboration with a friend titled Hidden Wilderness. He wrote the text and I did the design and layout. I also started a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo for this one to try to cover our production costs of $25,000. We blew past our goal and raised $34,240. The book turned out great, we are very proud of it. Here are a couple of pages from the book.

This is the full spread dust jacket that folds over the hard edges of the book. The skinny sections on both sides fold over and appear when you open the book. The image on the left with the Ansel Adams quote is the back cover. The spine is in the middle, and the front cover is the panel with Hidden Wilderness. The marks on the corners are the crop marks for the print shop. I usually don’t design book covers but love how this one turned out.

Here are a couple spreads from the inside of the book. Because this is a photo coffee table book, many of the images intentionally ran off the side of the page.

I’ve worked on many other book projects over the years, with a focus on nonfiction books.

Magazine Articles

I’ve written for numerous national magazines about topics as varied as caves, bats, erosion control, and how to run a pet store. Writing for magazines is so much fun and a great way for nonfiction authors to establish their credentials and publicize their books. You can find some of the articles I’ve written below.

Business & Nonprofit Marketing Materials

Businesses and nonprofits need many different types of materials to market their businesses. I’ve designed, written, and edited white papers, annual reports, brochures, marketing fliers, web page text, press releases, grant proposals, and more. I have a few samples posted below of projects I supported as a writer, editor, and website designer.

Technical Writing and Editing

I’ve written technical materials for some fascinating businesses. I have extensive experience writing and editing user instructions and marketing materials for all sorts of complex engineering, telecommunications, and architectural hardware and software. I even got to write operator instructions for labs at NASA that tested materials to use on spacecraft. All of my technical writing samples are proprietary so I sadly can’t share them. The types of materials I’ve designed, written, and edited include user guides, reference guides, user tutorials, getting started guides, quick start guides, database administrator guides, configuration guides, training materials, self-paced online courses, and installation guides. Here’s a short list of some of the types of projects I’ve supported.

  • NASA: I wrote lab procedures for the Materials Test Lab at Marshall Space Flight Center. It was a super fun job. I got to learn how engineers performed tests on different materials to see if they could withstand the harsh conditions in space. There were lots of different devices they used and I wrote operating procedures for lab staff.
  • Adtran: I wrote and edited a lot of content about telecommunications hardware and software over several years. One of the reference guides I worked on had over 2,000 pages of content!
  • Carpenter Technology: I wrote all of the standard operating procedures and training materials for a huge manufacturing plant that produces metal powder for 3D printing and aircraft engines. My job involved going around the entire plant watching technicians do all of the various jobs required to operate the complex equipment. I then wrote instructions on how to use each piece, how to clean everything, how to disassemble all the parts, and how to put everything back together. This was my one and only manufacturing job and it was really interesting.
  • Software documentation: I wrote and edited content for a whole lot of different commercial and government software products. Some of the types of software I supported included civil engineering, government planning, engineering testing and modeling, architecture design, telecommunications, and more.