Since approximately 1987, I have made my living primarily as a technical writer and editor. This includes periods of corporate employment, with Hercules Computer Technology, the late PC display adapter manufacturer (1987–89) and Linear Technology Corporation, one of the leading manufacturers of analog integrated circuits (1995–2001), alternating with periods of contract/freelance work.
During this period I also wrote three computer books for major publishers: Programmer’s Guide to the Hercules Graphics Cards (Addison-Wesley, 1988); Power of … Norton Utilities 7.0 (MIS:Press, 1993), and Power of … FrameMaker 4.0 for Windows (MIS:Press, 1993). All three of these books are out of print and obsolete. They can occasionaly be found on Amazon and other used-book-selling websites, but why anyone would read them today is beyond me.
I retired from Linear Technology Corp., and from technical writing and editing, in 2001, but resumed work on a part-time basis in 2008, working through the website Elance. My work through Elance had consisted mainly of technical writing (online courses on application software for Aries Technology; a manual for Modera Webmaster, a web-based content management system), but has also included editing business proposals and web content for a financial services company and editing and producing an Indian cookbook.
For a more detailed account of my technical writing experience, see my technical writing resume.