About Me
My background
My career spans engineering, journalism, community planning and finance but writing provides the common thread. When I needed to learn Python, I taught myself by writing my own "beginners guide". I focused on automating what I already did in Excel while transcending many of its limitations with new coding freedom.
My writing roots
I've been writing since high school. Here's a drama photo of me -- perhaps suffering from writer's block -- from the New Trier East 1979 yearbook "Echoes" on which I served as an editor.
An engineer who could write
I studied civil engineering but spent most of my time writing (and student government.) After editing the University of Wisconsin's engineering campus magazine, McGraw-Hill hired me for their editor-in-training program because I was the first engineer to ever apply. My rotations included Engineering News Record in New York City and Byte magazine in Peterborough, New Hampshire.
Not my first rodeo
Eventually I drifted into finance but never stopped writing. I published dozens of professional articles, topping of with my first book Managing Energy Risk (PennWell, 2001). I also delved into writing histories and presenting them at our local library.
Writing the Python book
When I started to learn Python, I kept little notes on scattered Post-it notes. Then I organized them into logical sections for easy lookup in a notebook. One day I realized I had a book. The project became a labor of love spent over many weekends and during many Amtrak trips between New York and New England!