I’ve been a journalist since the mid-1990s, writing about politics, science, technology and popular culture — or ideally, the interactions between two or more of these subjects. I’ve been on staff at California Journal magazine in Sacramento (a much-mourned political monthly and weekly, something along the lines of National Journal for state politics), CMP’s TechWeb, and for more than seven years, CNET’s News.com. Since going freelance, I’ve been published in a number of other publications, including Wired News, MIT’s Technology Review, and Scientific American online.

At CNET, I won a number of national and regional journalism awards, including the SPJ’s Sigma Delta Chi prize, the Society of American Business Editors and Writers’ Best in Business award, and the Northern California SPJ’s Excellence in Journalism award.

In 2003, with co-author Brad King, I published “Dungeons and Dreamers,” tracing the development of online, game-focused virtual communities, and their influence on the broader culture of technology. A second edition of the book will be published by Carnegie Mellon’s ETC Press.

Since 2006, I’ve lived in Berlin, freelancing, slowly learning German, and writing a novel. I’m still reporting on tech and science topics, but am also thinking increasingly about fiction writing, and about telling stories in a way that can drift across the fragmented mediums of print, online, audio and video, while retaining a cohesive essence.

When people ask me where I’m from, I sometimes say San Francisco, and sometimes Seattle. I miss the mountains and the water, but have loved what Berlin has given me: freedom and time, resources that should be everyone’s by birthright.