Technical writer, journalist and author
Texans know March 2 as Texas Independence Day. At a small shack at a place called Washington-on-the-Brazos in 1836, Texas declared its independence from Mexico. The Battle of San Jacinto, fought and won by the Texans on April 21, 1836,…
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You’re sitting at your desk, nervous and probably in a silent panic. You’ve got a deadline fast approaching, and you don’t know what you want to write about a given topic—if you even have a topic in the first place….
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What moment in Texas history would you have liked to have witnessed—to have been a fly on the wall—and why? Dr. Mary L. Scheer, a Lamar University history professor, thought it made an interesting question. She reached out to fellow…
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You want to write a nonfiction book. You know that a well-written book proposal is crucial to getting a publisher to consider your idea and work with you in turning it into reality. Yet, according to an article in Forbes…
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He might not have had a starring role in politics or the movies, but it’s fair to say that Jack Valenti was a key member of the cast. Valenti was a Houstonian. He grew up on Alamo Street, near downtown….
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You’re in a team meeting. The presenter calls up his PowerPoint slides. The graphics are blurry. The slides themselves are disorganized, unclear, and verbose. The speaker is so wrapped up in reading the text on his slides, it doesn’t seem…
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On February 8, 1836—181 years ago yesterday—Davy Crockett and his men arrived at the Alamo. The rest, of course, is history, and has been told on the silver screen more than once. The first film about the Alamo story came…
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We’ve all seen organizational or personal mission statements. In some cases, they are front and center. In other cases, they are hidden, and it’s clear that they are little more than an afterthought. Through their clarity, direction, and guidance, mission statements can…
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Think of the fictional private investigator/lawyer Perry Mason, and chances are you know he’s a Los Angeles-based character created by the writer and novelist Erle Stanley Gardner. Gardner (1889-1970) was not a Texan. He was born in Massachusetts and eventually…
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Many people have the misperception that brochures are obsolete thanks to the continually advancing technology we have today. This is not the case. Brochures play a vital part of getting your story out there. The first three characteristics could be…
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