Words, words, words

I write constantly, always have. From tortured teenage journals to prosaic to-do lists to graduate-level analyses of Victorian women writers, my words runneth over. Starting around 1995, I've been editing and writing for the Web professionally.

I've been a senior editor at Yahoo! since 2001, and my work has encompassed:

You can find my full resume on LinkedIn. I'm occasionally available for editorial consulting where it doesn't conflict with Y! projects. My freelance writing tends to revolve around the interests noted below.


The art of dressing up

My mother and grandmother taught me to sew when I was little, and I've been designing elements of my own wardrobe and historical / fantasy costumes ever since. Creating unusual clothing lets me work with my hands while exploring history. I also love acting and bringing characters to life -- which requires elaborate costume. For far, far too much detail about my life in fancy dress, visit my Costume Closet.

  • Looking for material about one of my costume classes? Go to the articles page.

The desire to express myself in fashion led me into the gothic subculture early in my life. In addition to sewing wild outfits, I assembled the original faq for the Usenet group alt.gothic.fashion and ran fashion shows for the net.goth convention, Convergence.

To prove that one can be a professional and still express the darker side, I started a blog about my daily work outfits called This Is CorpGoth. A couple times a week, I photograph what I'm wearing to the office and post it for the online world to see.

And back in 1997, I created Gothic Martha Stewart -- not a parody, but a genuine guide to decadently dark home decor and crafts. The website was reviewed in Entertainment Weekly, Maxim, The New Yorker, Bust, and many other publications. I don't really update the site anymore, but the projects are pretty timeless.


All seven continents

Travel makes the world smaller and your heart bigger. My husband, videographer Thomas Dowrie, suggested traveling together when we first met in 1992, and we eventually set foot on all seven continents including Antarctica.

In 2004, we began T&T's Real Travels -- a business to promote travel for everyone. We film our adventures and have a video podcast series about travel. Our latest DVD project is about Venetian carnevale.

Where are we going next?
  • 2012 -- Local roadtrips & such
  • 2013 -- France
  • 2014 -- ???

Of course, as we learned from our Antarctica expedition leader Olle, the itinerary is always subject to change...