PDQuin :: Wordcraft


I write and edit technical materials. I revise and reorganise textbooks and manuals.

  • To expose the essential at the core of complex data, information and processes.
  • To obey and expose the logical progression of a task or idea.
  • To help the reader build a personal context for understanding the big picture and recalling salient points.

I work with corporate clients, schools and community groups.

  • To facilitate agreement on community goals and objectives, providing a basis on which to write incorporation papers, dreams documents and engagement plans.
  • To develop and write plans for community initiatives, businesses and social groups. By laying out resources, goals, challenges, beliefs and context, we work together to create a schedule for success.
  • To develop education and training programs that empower normal folk to make their dreams a reality.

I make reports, slide shows, news articles, essays, chapbooks, technical manuals, newsletters, incorporation plans and business plans.

  • With content to fit the communication — and form to expose the content.
  • In the physical mode best to meet your audience at their most receptive.
  • With a spirit that speaks to your values and objectives.

I bring experience across the social scale, from writing city plans and coordinating peace marches to helping bridge persistent social divides through friendships and common cause.

Let me write, edit, organize and present for you.
First step: Call or write. We can have coffee and talk about what's on your list and how I can help.

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My serendipitous muse of the Eurasian steppe
  The Muse of Zizkiban

  Truth is beauty; beauty, truth.

  We are all, at best, hopeless romantics,
  jokers, blind folk in dark rooms.

  All we can do is write. Every day.
  To friends + lovers, to our haunted selves,
  to our common memory.
  We can try to explain how the world looks.
  Today. Here.

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My early writing teachers, Harold Bloom and Elliott Coleman, trained me to be honest — and to stop when I'm done. Recently, developing a course in content marketing has introduced me to another side of the wrtiting world, the diligent Twila Grissom, Brian Clark and his crew at Copyblogger, the work the Cooper folks do on audience/persona. Opening new doors in the imagination. Here are a few things I've written.

Eames chair parts

Business writing
2017 :: May'd in May[hem] campaign, Vincie :: Imagine, write, design, produce
2014 :: Business plan, Pizza Angeli :: Construct business case, write, design, produce
2012 :: Key differentiators, Apollo Learning Systems :: Write + design
2008 :: Business plan, History of the Purse, Vincie :: Construct business case, write, design, produce
2007 :: Mission statement, New England Association on HIV over Fifty :: Workshop, edit, produce
2001 :: Personnel manual, AcroSports :: Write, test, design, produce
1972 :: Manifesto, Gay Liberation Front :: Workshop, edit, produce

Found objects on desk

Training and education writing
2016 :: Designer's intro to Bootstrap, LearnLocal
2004-07 :: NAHOF Connection newsletter, National Association on Hiv Over Fifty :: Write, design, produce
1999-2004 :: Zipline newsletter, five years, AcroSports :: Research, write, design, produce
1998 :: On-line style guide, Netscape :: Organisation + content, Netscape
1997 :: Ancestral Rhythm: Afro-Cuban jazz, with John Santos, Dizzie Gillespie Jazz Education Fund, Jazz in the City :: Write, design, develop rhythm + dance notations, illustrate, produce
1992 :: The Story of Gospel: Song & community, with resource + activity guide, Threads of Jazz series, Jazz in the City :: Write, design, illustrate, produce
1989 :: Efficient Study Strategies, Usova, Brooks/Cole :: Developmental edit + design
1974 :: Food correspondent, Bay Guardian
1967 :: Newsletter, Baltimore Farmers' Market :: Write, design, produce

Kennedy home altar for travelling priest

Personal writing
2013 :: Print vs Digital: Concrete Tradition, Consider
:: Paris Honeymoon, Promises to Keep v.1
:: diy science, Variations On 1:3
2005 :: A personal take on three masters of the Spanish tongue, Translations & critique of Machado, Neruda & García Lorca
1995 :: El día de los dead, la historia de Maria, Club Minehan, Merryhill :: Write, illustrate, produce
1994 :: Real Matter, stories of photography, The Hartford Courant
1992 :: The Brave Story of Ütê Ruus, Diamond Travel Club :: Write, photograph, produce
1979 :: Meditations on food, Le Trou Restaurant Français :: Write, design, produce
1965 :: BA, the Writing Seminars, Eliot Coleman, chair, The Johns Hopkins University