All Spokes of One Wheel

I’ve always envied people who can capture their occupations with convenient one-word descriptors like “veterinarian” and “dentist”; or even a pithy phrase—say, “bowling ball manufacturer.” For me, it’s not so simple. There’s always the list option: voice and presentation coach, dialect coach, playwright, actor, teacher, speaker, copywriter…I usually begin the list with the question, “How much time do you have?” The list is descriptive and informative, but the problem with the list is that it incorrectly implies that I do a million unrelated things. In fact, they’re all spokes of one (not conveniently named) wheel.

I thought about splitting this site into two sites or even (Heaven help me) three, in order to simplify my message and to reach different people with the site most likely to be relevant to them. It never sat right with me, and here’s why—all these things, all these jobs and activities, spring from the same source. They’re simply different manifestations of the same passion: words.

Whether I’m arranging my own words as a writer, speaking someone else’s words as an actor, or helping people connect with words as a voice and presentation coach, I’m passionate about which words are chosen and how they’re communicated. I respond to words on levels practical, aesthetic, sensual, and visceral.

I enjoy a beautiful sunrise as much as the next girl, but I enjoy it even more when I can look at it and think, “But look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,/Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill.” Not my words, of course, but words written 400 years ago that still perfectly capture an experience I had this morning. Words are a time machine, words are telepathy made flesh, words are humanity’s greatest gift.

So what is it that I do? I am a logophile. I love words, and I invite you to love them, too.