The path to here.
I started writing and drawing in elementary school. I wrote books on lined paper, stapled them together and shared them with my mom. They were about a boy who really really wanted a dog, and a boy who had a lizard for a pet. Spoiler: Both those boys were me.
In high school, I wrote a lot of angsty poetry and one terrible science fiction novel. None of which will ever see the light of day.
Ever.
In college, I majored in creative writing — specifically children’s literature — and art. I was very lucky to study with a Pulitzer-nominated award-winning children’s author.
Like a lot of people, I got drawn into the web development industry at the height of the dot-com bubble. I worked as a project manager, user-experience designer, and content development specialist. I learned a lot about reader and user expectations, and how to write copy and create experiences that fulfilled those expectations.
Later I landed with a distance-learning startup, helping to develop training courses designed to teach digital marketing best practices. I ended up being the marketing manager, and also managed the launches of two spinoff companies focused on professional training and certification. This taught me more about the use of storytelling in marketing, and how to communicate information in ways that kept readers engaged.
That startup sold to an international distance-learning provider, and I became the U.S. Brand Manager, where I was responsible for all the public-facing messaging throughout the merger. Any content for the website, social media marketing, and all support documentation and assets crossed my desk. I also trained the overseas content development team on localizing their messaging to a U.S. audience.
In 2017 I left that company so I could do two things: