Maybe it started with practicing to write? Maybe it was that I prefer sentences to just writing single words? Whatever the reason, writing has been something I started doing at around age 8 years old to express what otherwise I could not find a way to share. This ability has stayed true to me through the years and to this day I still find it soothing and helpful.
Perhaps that’s why I enjoy writing poetry, stories, articles, essays, business documentation, all of it – for different reasons but at the end it’s a way to express something. A concept, a thought, an idea, a goal, potential, facts, it’s one of the most beneficial methods of communication someone can try and master in their life.
Freeform poetry has been an ongoing love of mine since I was a kid and continues through today.
Rewriting lyrics to either fit my mood, what it sounded like, or fill in given a situation has always been easy for me and fun. Did a lot of that writing once I left the “business world”.
Journaling is something that I was encouraged to do as a young child and while I have taken breaks from it still proves to be the best way to sort things out in my head! It’s amazing how quickly filling up a notebook can happen and so helpful to get it all out.
Some of my favorite writers that have not faded in my admiration are:
- Edgar Allen Poe – His style
- Marianne Williamson – Her introspection and inspiration
- Robert Frost – His viewpoint
- Walkin’ Jim Stoltz – a man like no other
- Lisa Loeb – The way she can combine words
Published Works
1995-2024 Website Design, including: editing, proofing, content, layout, consultations, advising, and managing.
As the web started being filled with sites, starting out as text based through days of animated gifs and “website graphic sets” and now into CSS and Web3, my interest in creation of easy to navigate and friendly to load websites continues!
Whether professional or personal, a website should be reflective of the owner and not cookie-cutter to the point that no one could remember it from one to the other.
There’s a few guiding principals I like to focus on and if you want to know more, just ask!
My sites historically have been for service-based businesses and personal representation. I actually enjoy evaluating people’s websites for accuracy, connectivity, and proofing for edits.
1995-2021 Documentation, PR, and Training Materials
Between my personal, volunteer, and professional life being able to edit and proofread was a huge help! The other thing that had helped along the way is that I always loved creating forms! Whether it was a billing sheet, informational form, phone script-like form, promo materials like flyers or postcards, and even newsletters I always have enjoyed it.
The layout, choosing fonts and sizes, spacing, complimentary to what the topic was at hand or message to get across.
When I had the opportunity to create easier-to-follow step-by-step instructions for various aspects of a system with pictures included so the person couldn’t get lost – I was more than happy to help! I loved breaking difficult to follow or overwhelming tasks into smaller steps and making it easier for people to not skip or miss steps and actually understand the why behind the rationale to do it that way!
1998-2012 Eulogist
Inspired and honored to be able to give eulogies across the country for people and their friends and family that remain, there’s something special when it’s done with a personal touch.
Usually within that service I also offered program design for the service if there was music or things like that. At times I did artwork for them or wrote poetry.
1993-1999 It’s a Zine Life
1996-2001 Started writing for an email zine which archived on the web (used a pen name). Before it stopped being published I had been the second largest contributor besides the original creator of the publication which started in 1993.
1999-2001 A poetry zine started by the same person who did the zine directly above only stopped writing for it because it closed (used a pen name).
1997-1999 Created my own email zine under a different pen name. Had to solicit and maintain submissions and subscribers and do the layout for each issue (used a pen name)
1993-1995 My writings were in three different USPS zines (under a nickname)
1993-1998 Role-playing Games
Originating on the boards for Prodigy’s Online Service I discovered the world of writing in RPG’s. There were no dice to predicate what would happen next, just the imagination and interaction of those involved in the game.
There were a few basic rules: No controlling another person’s character (including killing someone), must stick to the timeline or have a plausible rationale for how you’re not, and interact with others, it’s not a place to write a book.
Finding my way through them, there’s several people I know who ran their own and I enjoyed writing with them. Other times, they would specifically request me to come into the RPG to help balance someone else’s character or storyline.
It was first on Prodigy that I quickly grew to love not only creating characters and their backgrounds but the worlds in which they lived and the chance to share about where they came from in their lives. The histories, plots, it was all so much fun! Before I was done with creating my own RPG’s I had created four different ones and had played in over a dozen. Notebooks were full of biographies, stories, sketches, and more! Over 75 different characters at one time.
As the days of Prodigy were nearing an end I found DelphiForums to be the place we could all move to and interlink our RPG’s. I helped set some of them up and let everyone know about it. While it wasn’t the same, it was close enough to allow us all to keep writing, together.
Katie J. Rose 