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.

Currently, I'm a senior editor for Yahoo!, and my work includes:

Editing articles and selecting content for Yahoo! Green.
Writing environmental articles for Y!Green's Green Picks blog.
Teaching classes on topics such as user-friendly error messages.
Contributing to updates on the Y! Editorial Style Guide. You can preorder the edition published by St. Martin's Press in July 2010 via Amazon.com.
Writing user-interface text for products such as Messenger, Local, Mail, Avatars, Toolbar, My Y!, Travel, and OMG.
For a several years, I wrote and researched answers to popular Ask Yahoo! questions like Do toilet seat covers provide any real protection? and How many vacation days did George W. Bush take as president?.
I was also one of the main voices behind the kid's Q&A column Ask Earl.

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.

And 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 each continent 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?

2010 -- Jamaica. Scotland and England.
2011 -- Machu Picchu, Peru. Kauai, Hawaii.
2012 -- Australia (Uluru, Great Barrier Reef).
2013 -- South India (Chennai, Bangalore, Goa, Kerala).

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