I have spent a boatload of years in the food industry. I cooked (hi, Union Square Cafe) at every station, rose to expediting huge lunch and dinner crowds.
Then we moved. Or rather, then I had babies. I wish I had never quit working for USC, but that is the past, and we can’t fix it.
I took some more cooking jobs, but always wanted to write, especially after hearing about a neighbor who did freelance writing. I swear, I thought: If she can do it, so can I. So I bought books with titles like: How to Write and Sell a Magazine Article. How to Write Irresistible Query Letters. I followed those steps and began to write for pay almost immediately.
I wanted to be a generalist. I love love LOVE the research part of this job (and, for the record, I went to a liberal arts college and majored in Spanish and Anthropology). But over the years, people would learn about my cooking background and they would assign me a food story.
Slowly the business stories, real estate, education stories, those slowly fell away.
Then blogging started and of COURSE I had a food blog! Babette Feasts, which still has a soft spot for me. I moved from there to food editor at a regional magazine.
And we moved again.
You might think I wasn’t doing any techy stuff all that while, but you would be wrong. At one food magazine, I became the equipment editor, because I knew how things worked. And if I didn’t, I was able to learn.
And another food trade magazine, I became the e-technology editor, right when digital technology and the internet was coming into play and everyone wanted to get into the game. One person once asked me: do you really think every business will need a website? Why? Mmmhmm. And that was not THAT long ago, really.
Then another editor found out I had broken apart a laptop that died, removed the hard drive, gone to Tiger Direct to get another, put all back together and had myself a working laptop again. (I went on to do the same with the laptop I work on now, replacing a failed hard drive with a SSD just about 2 years ago. This laptop is now 8 years old, a dinosaur…except it’s not because of my upgrades!)..
I wrote business profiles of software companies and finance companies and learned about tracking technology in the cattle industry (hello, RFID technology, which I am learning more about these days).
In other words, the crossover from writing about food to writing about the business of food to writing about the technology of the food industry to writing about technology…well, that crossover was as natural and as smooth a transition as could be imagined.
And when there was no crossover, I still forged into the tech arena. I built websites for people who asked for them, learning a lot of WordPress and some HTML as I went.
I was the person friends turned to for quick tutorials on their iPads. I was always the person who figured out how to do something. I wouldn’t be daunted and worked to solve my own problems. How hard can it be, I am always asking myself.
And now, as some of the food writing industry wanes, the tech writing industry grows. And the space is looking for people who can explain complex things in simple, concise terms.
I am that writer.
techsideofthings 