I’ve had a passion for excellence ever since I started school. I was always at or near the top of each class, from kindergarten in rural Anderson, California through my associate degree in engineering at Shasta College in Redding, California, to my bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and my master’s degree in political science at the University of California at Davis.
That desire to produce high-quality results transferred to my professional life. I taught college for several years after graduate school, primarily in Chico, California, but I wanted greater challenges, so I started my freelance writing business in the early 1990s.
I began by writing supplementary materials for college textbooks covering subjects in the social, earth, and life sciences. I soon expanded into outdoors writing. I wrote over 100 articles for newspapers and magazines, including Sunset, VIA, and Outdoor Adventure. I’m also the author of two hiking guidebooks on Northern California: 100 Classic Hikes in Northern California, third edition, and 75 Hikes in California’s Mount Shasta and Lassen Volcanic National Park Regions, revised edition, both published by The Mountaineers Books (Seattle). These books have been in print for over 20 years and have sold over 60,000 copies.
I lived on Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands in the latter part of the 1990s. Even with the distraction of living in the most beautiful place on Earth, I expanded my repertoire to include many types of writing for Hawaiian businesses and nonprofits: brochures, newsletters, reports, website content, and much more.
Since returning to the mainland in 1999, I’ve lived on the redwood coast of far northern California, below the snowy slopes of Mount Shasta just south of the Oregon border, and, since 2012, in Ashland in southern Oregon’s beautiful Rogue Valley. I’ve continued writing for businesses and nonprofits of all sizes, and I’ve also continued updating my hiking guidebooks for my publisher.
I love hiking (natch), and I also love studying natural and human history, supporting my favorite charities, and enjoying the cultural offerings of Ashland and the Rogue Valley.
My LinkedIn Profile
You can find out much more about me at LinkedIn:
My Other Websites
John Hikes: My site about hiking in northern California and the western United States
HigherEdWriter: My site detailing my experience with and qualifications for writing college textbook supplements
Productive Writers: My site that helps freelance writers be more productive and earn more money
