Career Summary

From University to The Melody Maker
I started writing features whilst I was studying geology at Cardiff University, working on the award winning student newspaper, Gair Rhydd and on the Geology Department newsletter, the pun-tastically titled Jollyologist.

My first job after graduating was working as an editorial assistant for Current Biology, a science publishing house, on three of the Current Opinion titles. I tussled with authors, editors and printers during the day and spent my spare time of an evening writing and editing a Radiohead fanzine.

After a detour into private music education where I worked in admin and student liaison, I found myself at the doors of the Melody Maker, and I became a music journalist writing features for the muso-geek section, The Works. I wrote features about gear, A&R, and the contractual side of the industry amongst other things, which in turn resulted in work for industry magazines Total Production and Pro Sound News.

The dot.com era
By the end of ’98, a number of music magazines had either closed, or were about to, and finding freelance work was becoming increasingly difficult. At the same time, the dot.com boom was well under way so I switched my focus to online work, developing websites for businesses in the south of England.

I advised on content, sometimes writing fresh content or editing existing copy, and designed and built the sites myself. In July ’00 I secured a two-week web design contract with PricewaterhouseCoopers’ in-house studio, and ended up staying for nine months. The main project I worked on was Enlighten, an internal e-business awareness campaign for which I was product manager.

My next contract was for mobile phone operator Hutchison 3G, now rebranded as 3. I worked in the Internal Communications team as intranet editor and helped with the changeover from a centrally-administered intranet to a ‘self-serve’ model using Documentum. Once that was successfully completed, I transferred to the E-Learning team to work on an internal project facilitating the communication of essential technical concepts to the non-technical staff.

My Internet Start-Up
I had been learning Welsh since April ’98, and had been running a website for Welsh learners, Clwb Malu Cachu since April 01. When my contract at Hutchison 3G was complete, I decided to launch my own business Get Fluent, a service providing Welsh learning materials to subscribers by email. Thus was Y Ffynhonnell Ltd born.

‘Y ffynhonnell’ means ‘the source’ in Welsh, in case you are curious, and is pronounced ‘uh fun-HON-ell’.

Get Fluent in Welsh was launched in August ’02, providing 10 page weekly worksheets by email. We received some fantastic testimonials from subscribers who loved the informal worksheets and found that they really were becoming more fluent in Welsh. Each worksheet (download example pdf) contains word and grammar exercises, reading comprehensions and a fun puzzle, and is graded in order to appeal to a cross-section of abilities. I wrote, translated and typeset all 40 worksheets, using a Welsh translator to ensure the highest editorial standards. I also designed and built the website.

At the end of ’03, with the new media industry still depressed and development funding difficult to secure, I decided to scale back my work with Get Fluent and start freelancing as a writer again.

The Blogosphere Beckons
I started my personal blog, Chocolate and Vodka, in June ‘02, and my professional blog, Strange Attractor, in July ‘04. Over the last year I have gained an insight into all aspects of the blogosphere, from being a blogger-for-hire to advising companies on their blogging policy to helping people start blogs.

If you’re interested in blogs, then talk to me and I’ll sort you out.