About

Photo courtesy of Norm Bowler

My formal education includes computer science, story-crafting, and martial arts. My many careers include barista, software engineer, internet entrepreneur, communications director, fiction author, and life coach. I’ve worked in artificial intelligence, ecommerce, micro-finance, social justice, and the high-end fine chocolate industry.


Word-crafting

My published fiction includes fantasy, horror, mainstream, science fiction, humor, software documentation, and business plans.

My business writing has ranged from the aforementioned plans to information architecture design to industry newsletters. I know how to make ideas accessible, compelling, and persuasive. (If you’re trying to explain a world-changing paradigm-shattering insight, drop me a note. I enjoy challenges.)

Various other published non-fiction includes articles on human communications, dance, ecommerce, virtual reality, and chocolate.

Technology

I’ve been a software developer for decades, combining in my teaching and writing ability to produce a range of technical resources for engineers and end-users. My early engineering work was in artificial intelligence research and development in which I helped with some early designs for the international space station. In the early ’90s I built some of the earliest websites and wrote tutorials to teach others how it was done. I helped create one of the first end-to-end ecommerce systems providing HBO and Sony’s first online store. In the aughts I created a web application using Ruby on Rails to crowd-source and organize data for some 1.5 million non-profit organizations.

Ventures

I have founded three internet start-ups, from web development to ecommerce to social justice. In those startups, I’ve taken on every job from software developer to chief editor to HR director to CEO. I know how to organize people, projects, and priorities. I have herded cats with a shoe string, staffed up teams with a grin, and passed out cookies on Fridays. I get things done.

Consulting

I have conducted usability analysis, provided guidance on media communication strategies, and edited and produced iconoclastic newsletters about high-end chocolate.

Project Management

I enjoy organizing and facilitating technologists and those with a creative and independent streak. What do good management and excellent teaching have in common? Helping people do good work under their own steam. That’s the kind of fun I like to have.

Martial Arts & Dance

I’ve been practicing various fighting arts and weapons training since I was a teen and studying dances like Argentine Tango since 2006. While on the surface these would seem very different ways to engage, they have much in common: both require balance, communication, and a close study of human nature. I am a passionate practitioner of both.

Animals

An animal lover since early childhood, I have lived with, trained, and been trained by cats, dogs, birds, and a few very clever rats. I have raised generations of free-range chickens and ducks, kept and fed llamas and goats, and hosted a pair of emus. From those emus I raised an emu chick from her first pip to full-grown modern-day dinosaur. One sunny afternoon, I played with two 40 pound cougar cubs who looked at me with unsettling clarity, and later stood in a cage with a full-grown African lion and his companion, a full-sized Siberian tiger, an experience that taught me a great deal about human entitlement.

Opinions & Perspectives

I have a few. I mostly opine on Facebook, but I have some articles at Noise and Signal, too.