Portfolio
I’ve written and edited for travel agents, software publishers, video game packagers, entertainment marketers, and book publishers.
Collected here are a couple examples of my recent work as a writer — contact me for lengthier excerpts.
As an editor, I’ve been responsible for dozens of titles, from acquisition through indexing, in travel, parenting, humor, and interactive entertainment. See my resume for the complete list.
Travel
East African Safari Planner
(Agency Catalog: Copy and Project Management)
East Africa.
For many it begins with an image – a pride of lions stretching in the shade, a tented safari camp, a lean Maasai herdsman watching over his cattle, brilliant red shuka draped over his shoulder. The images accumulate. Serengeti. Kilimanjaro. Spice Islands. Savannah. Mt Kenya. Wildebeest. Mountain Gorilla. The Big Five. The Big Nine. Lake Victoria, Source of the Nile. Uganda , Pearl of Africa. Rwenzoris, Mountains of the Moon.
Eventually the stories become an idea, at once simple and complex. Go to East Africa. See it with one’s own eyes. Make a safari. Find the answers to questions you can only answer yourself. How does Swahili sound? What does the savannah smell like in mid afternoon? How wet is the rainforest on the side of a Virungas volcano?
Until finally one wonders: How do I get there?
Interactive Entertainment
User Manual for Disney’s Nintendo Wii game High School Musical: Sing It!
(Copywriting: delivered document includes typesetting codes and design notes.)
Join the East High Drama Club
Troy and Gabriella may have been afraid to sing in front of their friends and family. And their friends at East High School may have wanted the budding singers to give up their musical dreams and to stick to the status quo. But with Disney’s High School Musical: Sing It! there’s nothing to stop you from taking the stage and truly breaking free. It’s your best chance to join the East High Drama Club and show everybody what you’ve got.
Even better, Disney’s High School Musical: Sing It! features a unique duet karaoke system so you and a friend can both join the drama club. Together you can sing your way through the story of the original High School Musical movie as soloists or as a talented duet. With twenty songs from both High School Musical movies – plus ten bonus songs – you’ll have plenty of hits to host a karaoke party for seven of your friends.
So, take a moment to review the instructions and the lyrics (find them online at www.disney.com/videogames), then get out there and show them what you’ve got!
[…]
Sing Along with HSM Karaoke!
//Designer’s Note: Insert screenshot of Wii gameplay Screen, arrows from screen features to descriptions //
It’s all about the song for members of East High’s Drama Club. Here’s how you can keep up with the band.
[[lyrics]]Song lyrics scroll across the screen – sing in time for the best score.
[[overall score]]The singer’s total score for the song.
[[current multiplier]]Sing phrases well to earn score multipliers.
[[current phrase score]]The singer’s score for the current phrase.
[[desired pitch]]Where the singer’s voice should be. The higher the bar, the higher the desired pitch.
[[current pitch]]Where the singer’s voice actually is. The closer it is to the desired pitch, the higher the singer’s score.
[[performance meter]]More stars mean better singing. How many stars can you light up?Voice Lessons
It’s time to switch off those cell phones and get’cha head in the game! With a little practice you’ll feel like you can bop to the top in no time!Microphone Use
Position the microphone an inch or so from your mouth and try to keep it there throughout your performance. You can adjust the microphone’s sensitivity in the Options Menu.Pitch
Keep an eye on the pitch meter when you are on stage. The arrows show which way your pitch needs to go to reach the Desired Pitch: an up arrow means you need to move up to a higher pitch, and a down arrow means find a lower pitch.Cadence
Don’t rush through the lyrics – and don’t take too long singing them, either. Try to voice the words just as they cross under the pitch meter.Phrases
Songs are divided into phrases (or pieces of song) that are several words long. If you sing a phrase well, without any mistakes in pitch or cadence, you will earn score multipliers. If you put together consecutive flawless phrases, you’ll earn multiple multipliers.Long Notes
Some notes need to be held longer than others. For these, try to voice the note with a vowel sound rather than a consonant sound. The microphone is much better at picking up vowel sounds. However, you can’t hold a long note if you don’t have enough breath to sing it. So in addition to learning how to sing in pitch, and how to sing in rhythm, you will also need to learn how and when to breathe. Whew!
Packaging
Back of Box Copy for Disney Interactive’s High School Musical for GameBoy Advance video game.
(Copywriting)
It’s a ‘Who Dunnit’ and a ‘You Dance It’!
Bop to the top with Troy and Gabriella as they solve a mystery and show off their signature dance moves.
Get’cha Head in the Game!
- Play as Gabriella, Troy, Sharpay and Ryan, each with special skills.
- Explore East High while solving the mystery and finding the lost instruments.
- Dance gameplay lets you bop to nine of your favorite High School Musical hits, with four of your favorite High School Musical characters.
- Find and collect 45 high-res still photos from the High School Musical movies.
- Replay your favorite levels – from Dance or Adventure – as often as you like.
- Solve the mystery once. Then solve it again with different characters (and tougher challenges).