Portfolio
Feel free to check out these examples of my freelance work below. From copy and resumes to blog, article, and travel writing, I do a lot. Stay tuned for fiction in the near future.
If you are interested in how I can help you in writing and editing, check out my Services page here.
Blog Essay
Walking Ground
“But only the simple version of the battle, and the war, exists in the modern mind. The park rangers I listened to spoke with great authority about the battle in what were actually only the most general terms of the action. Unwittingly or not, they helped create the image of the battle in the visitor's mind that resembles the battlefield map --- units in neat, mass ranks, filled with generic soldiers, led by a commander whose name becomes synonymous with either brilliance or ineptitude. Units charge or retreat, commanders lead or die, and the battle progresses to a new phase, and now step right this way, ladies and gentlemen, for our next stop on the tour.”
travel essay
The Sashimi Master
“He's stabbed men. He made that very clear. Gaelin held his sashimi knife, the blade scoured in half-moon patterns from sharpening, and made a thrusting motion. ‘It is easy to . . . put knife in,’ he said. ‘But . . .’ He took another minute to think. He then made a twisting motion with the knife, as though one were rotating the blade inside a wound. ‘When you twist knife . . . it make hand feel . . . funny.’ Again, he did not brag about this. In his Shanghai university gang, Gaelin was clearly a leader. He's fired a gun once, but prefers knives. Still, he was not the toughest: ‘Number one man had eight bullet holes.’"
Blog Essay
The Road to (Indy) Goes On Forever
“Not every can be expressed in political terms, though. One’s community, family, religion, language, trade — these things and more are not inherently political. They are merely things that people do in life together, things that shape a society and which help develop healthy relationship between society and the political sphere. But these constituent parts of society have eroded considerably in Scotland — going into their decline is beyond the scope of this essay, but it suffices to say that the complete politicization of everything has led, in a push-pull manner, to their decline. Politics (or the market, which is politics by other means) wants to absorb them completely into its sphere and, given the opportunity, it does. These constituent parts wither further as the autonomy is lost to the demands of politics, thereby justifying the need for politics to further supplant them in order to prop up society.”
Travel essay
The Akha
“They live in a totally different world. Up there on the hills, no electricity, squealing pigs running around eating shit (literally), burning up the hills to grow rice, knowing almost nothing but their neighbors and how to survive. They knew nothing about other countries or their location, other than Vietnam, Thailand, and China. They didn’t know about Korea. They thought the U.S. was close by. They are completely poor in everything material and extremely rich in everything relational. They talked about the ten elephants that came through the village the night before – yes, way up on the ridge, the elephants are even there. This seemed like their greatest worry in the whole world. You could add disease, crippling, widowing, but that’s what they’ve always dealt with, and it is intrinsic to their environment. To them, there are no forces, invisible and sinister and distant, that threaten them. No vast empires, ideologies, or powers are within their comprehension.”