An Ayrshire lass, I’ve always been interested in a broad range of subjects. I graduated with a BSc Hons in Technology and Business Studies, combining Biotechnology and Marketing, from Strathclyde University.
I discovered my love of writing and simplifying complex subjects when I wrote my undergraduate dissertation. It was commended for clarity and original thought, and part of it was published.
My career began in Marketing, working for a British subsidiary of the US corporation, Parker Hannifin which sells electronic factory automation equipment. I moved to California two years later and supervised the distribution of their UK product into the US. I gained a good all round training in manufacturing and customer service, in a highly competitive market. After nine years I decided that I’d prefer to write about business.
My first professional writing job, ‘phones and writing’ the ad said, was for Sonoma Business, a small science and business magazine in beautiful Sonoma County. California Wine Country, that is.
Interviewing everyone from chief technical officers, to entrepreneurs and old time mom and pop traders, I delved into the worlds of telecom, insurance, property and construction, organic food production and of course the wine industry. I reveled in it. The magazine had the kudos of Private Eye in the local business community, my stories were in regular print and the Sonoma County Library system even archived us. Amazing!
When I could no longer survive on $12 an hour and no healthcare, I talked my way into Alcatel USA and became a technical writer. Following September 11th, and the burst of the Telecom Bubble, I went freelance and learned how to peddle my writing abilities on the hot, dusty sidewalks of a fast disappearing Telecom Valley.
Amongst other places, I worked at Gluon Networks, an Alcatel spin-off and wrote the online help for their Class 5 switch (telephone exchange). Then, when I had saved up enough money to cut loose, I drove around Australia for a year and decided to pop back to Scotland for a visit. I was homesick and Bush had just been ‘elected’ for the second time. It was a no brainer. I stayed.
A couple of years of managing my father’s last small business and more contract technical writing finally confirmed what I’d known for a while, and Words for the Web was born.