Hi, I’m Tom.
I’m a writer + editor, I’ll be 27 in February, and this is my first blog.
I’ve been working as a freelancer in the technology, lifestyle, and startup space for the past 5-ish years. I’ve also been involved in various creative projects all my life like bands and record labels and magazines and films. I like media, I like ideas, and I like working with people to make a vision into reality, generating something you can feel, experience, or remember. Sometimes, I like to do things just because I can. This blog is a place to keep track of and reflect on what I do.
I got into writing because my mother was adamant I try something else after I failed out of my computer science major. God bless her. If it were up to me, I would have dropped out. I switched to a writing major and got a student job working in my Vermont college’s marketing department.
The first magazine-style piece I wrote was a story about a local music festival started by some college alumni. It was originally for a journalism class but a professor encouraged me to pitch it on spec to Adirondack Life. They ended up printing it and cutting me a check for $250. I was a college sophomore and they paid me for my homework. I was stoked.
On a semester abroad in Lisbon, I met an Austrian designer named Anna. We ended up getting coffee and she told me about her idea to launch a food and travel magazine. She already had a brilliant vision and title, Salt & Wonder, a bunch of photos, plus an Instagram account with a couple thousand followers. She just needed someone to write the first story as proof of concept, and I volunteered.
Anna and I ended up making a great team, so I came on board as the principal editor. We crowdfunded the printing fees and I flew back to Lisbon with my best friend a year later to launch the magazine. Over the next few years, we did two more magazines—one in Iceland, one in Italy—a zine, and a bunch of small events and online content in between.
After I graduated, I started working in AV until I leveraged my leftover computer science knowledge and knack for editing ESL writers into a freelance gig editing for a Portuguese app development platform. I worked there until I learned to be cautious of the phrase “re-organizing”. Now I know that means to start looking for other work. Luckily, I’d picked up a few other freelance clients through some colleagues, and I’ve been making a living ever since. These days, I mostly write b2b sales and marketing copy, but I’ve worked on some flashier projects too.
My latest work is an 80-page brand book detailing one NYC entrepreneur’s journey to disrupt the laundry and dry-cleaning industry despite her odds. I led the project, designed the content, and brought on my fellow Salt & Wonder team member Lara to art direct. The book, JULIETTE: The Story of Building Something from Nothing, is available now.