About Me

I'm a Louisiana native with a Master of Arts degree in English. In my mid to late twenties I worked as an English teacher at several different high schools, but I decided that teaching at the high school level is not the right job for me; I found it very rewarding, but ultimately not in a way or to a degree which made it a viable choice for an extended career. Being a teacher enriched my life and provided me a chance to pass on (I hope) some of the good experiences that I had as a youngster through the offices of some memorable and committed educators . . . but the time finally came for me to move on.

I became a technical writer for an IT consulting firm called Strategic Staffing Services, after that, and gained some experience writing documentation for a claims processing system for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana. It was a valuable experience for me because working at BCBSLA's Baton Rouge headquarters exposed me to a corporate environment for the first time. I learned to appreciate Dilbert strips in a new way; I also learned what it's like to be a lowly cubical dweller who reports to multiple bosses . . . and of course I got lots of practice writing technical documents. See my freelancing services if that interests you.

I parted ways from S3 and Blue Cross in May 2009 ago, and immediately took employment as Operations Manager/Chief Operating Officer at Tommy's Lock and Alarms, Inc. I oversaw core activities of the business, including shipping, receiving, finance, marketing, product development, and business planning. Informally, I was also involved in sales and project management for contracts involving large-scale security and surveillance projects.

During my time with Tommy's Lock and Alarms, I broadened my repertoire of business documentation, composing business plans for several of the owner's new business ventures, as well as marketing plans, proposals, bids, policy and procedure, and the copy for fliers and other advertisements. I was responsible for the design and development of the company's new website, as well as multiple other websites that served the needs of other businesses owned by my employer. All of the sites were founded on the Drupal 6 content management system, and they all used an online shopping cart which I personally configured.

Throughout the above, I have maintained interests in current events (I'm a news junkie and read from multiple outlets across all political spectrums), literature, food, and film. I enjoy literature of all kinds, especially science fiction, fantasy, and other forms of speculative fiction; other favorites of mine include history and classic literature.