Hi, I’m Richard.

I’ve been writ­ing and edit­ing pro­fes­sion­ally for about ten years. I got started writ­ing train­ing doc­u­ments for a com­puter lab and a videog­ra­phy depart­ment at the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia, Santa Bar­bara. I got into arts and enter­tain­ment report­ing, then news and fea­tures, and was soon named man­ag­ing edi­tor of the Val­ley Voice, the local paper of Goleta, Cal­i­for­nia. I then reported on city gov­ern­ment and fea­tures in Chino, Cal­i­for­nia, and I most recently worked in busi­ness com­mu­ni­ca­tions, spe­cial­iz­ing in proposals.

Edit­ing is my spe­cialty. After spend­ing years proof­read­ing and help­ing revise aca­d­e­mic papers, I fol­lowed UCSB’s professional-writing pro­gram. I got my minor with an empha­sis in pro­fes­sional edit­ing, and since then I have edited fic­tion, essays, news, reviews, aca­d­e­mic papers, and busi­ness and mar­ket­ing documents.

I have been prac­tic­ing pho­tog­ra­phy off and on since 1994. In 2002, I had the oppor­tu­nity to advance my skills at the Voice, where I pro­duced much of my own art for the sto­ries I wrote. Then I bought my first dig­i­tal SLR. Now, what was once a harm­less hobby is tak­ing over all my hard drives.

I also have expe­ri­ence tutor­ing stu­dents in Eng­lish and com­puter skills, both one-on-one and in groups. I spent the 2007-08 and 2009-10 aca­d­e­mic years as an assis­tant teacher at a high school and a mid­dle school in France. Not only did I make enor­mous progress with my French, but I redis­cov­ered the fun­da­men­tal com­po­nents of Eng­lish. I find I learn (or re-learn) things best by hav­ing to explain them, and my writ­ing has grown stronger and clearer as a result of my teach­ing experience.

In the late ’90s, at the com­puter lab, I learned how to code Web sites. Since then, I have cre­ated my own Web con­tent. I have recently imple­mented the Word­Press blogging/content-management sys­tem, and I now use that to admin­is­ter this site and a cou­ple of others.

If you’re inter­ested in dis­cussing pho­tog­ra­phy, writ­ing, travel, soc­cer, the weather, or any­thing else, please drop me a line at richard@richardnblock.com. I’d love to hear from you.

Please take a look at my résumé.