Susan Taylor Brown

Current

Freelance writer (Sole Proprietorship)
Freelance Writer at self employed

Past

Senior Engineering Project Coordinator at Credence
Senior Engineering Project Coordinator at NPTest
Senior Engineering Project Coordinator at Schlumberger ATE

Warehouse Coordinator at Schlumberger Well Services
columnist at Times-Picayune Newspaper

see less...

2 more...

Education

University of Phoenix
Mt. Diablo

Recommended

22 people have recommended Susan

Connections

446 connections

Industry

Writing and Editing

Susan Taylor Brown’s Summary

For over 20 years I have worked as a freelance writer for magazines, newspapers, and children’s books. I create and manage my own publicity, and design and maintain my own website. My freelance career has taught me organization, time management, and dedication in the face of rejection. Whether I am writing or speaking, it is this dedication to creative passion that I try to pass on to others.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
• ACSV - ArtsConnect Artist-in-Residency, Osborne School School (juvenile detention) (2009)

• Co-presenter - Social Media for Children's Authors & Illustrators, Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, Walnut Creek, CA (2009)

• ACSV - ArtsConnect Artist-in-Residency, San Jose Community School with at-risk kids • (2001 & 2002)

• Faculty - The Institute for Children’s Literature Correspondence School (2001 – 2004)

• Retreat leader - Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, Missouri (2004)

•Faculty & Featured Speaker - Highlights Foundation, Chautauqua, New York • (2003)

• Teacher In-Service - Achiever Christian School, San Jose, CA (2003)

• Featured Speaker - KTEH Reading Rainbow Ceremony San Jose, CA •(2003)

• Featured speaker - Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, Asilomar, CA (2002)

• Featured speaker - Jack London Writing Conference, San Francisco, CA (2000 & 2001)

• Authors Mentoring Authors - Global Classroom, Online Instruction (1998 & 2000)

• Public Relations coordinator - Lazy R Ranch, Oakley, CA (1993-1995)

• Newsletter editor - California Writer’s Club (1992 – 1993)

• Columnist - New Orleans Times Picayune (1995 – 1996)

• Stringer - Bethel Island Beacon Gazette, Bethel Island, CA (1988-1989 & 1992-1993)

• Sold 34 books for children and over 200 magazine & newspaper articles

Susan Taylor Brown’s Specialties:

Organization, HTML, MS Office suite (Excel, Word, Powerpoint, Outlook), MS Project, MS Access Database, MS Publisher, Paint Shop Pro, HTML editors, Rational Clearquest, SAP, some experience with Framemaker and Unix, writing, public speaking, teaching.

Susan Taylor Brown’s Experience

Freelance writer
Sole Proprietorship

(Sole Proprietorship; Myself Only; Writing and Editing industry)

January 1983 — Present (26 years 11 months)

I write books for children, from picture books to young adult. I also teach writing to all ages.

I like to visit schools and give students the chance to meet and work with a real author, sharing my passion for writing with students and teachers alike. Presentations include: “Storyparts,” an introductory writing workshop, “Quiet Heroes”, where children learn that not every hero has super powers, "Family Writing Workshop" where families write together and “Retell It as a Poem” which encourages students to write in narrative verse.

I am available for motivational speeches for writers and readers of all ages. Popular speech topics include, "Once Upon a Time There was a Girl Who Wanted to Write", the story of how I became a writer, "Write On Right Now", a writing workshop suitable for all ages, and "You Have to Want it Bad", about being willing to take the risks you need to take in order to follow your dreams.
Freelance Writer

self employed

(Writing and Editing industry)

1980 — Present (29 years )
Senior Engineering Project Coordinator

Credence

(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; CMOS; Semiconductors industry)

May 2004 — October 2008 (4 years 6 months)

Develop & implement processes/tools to increase productivity. Project plan analysis & verification. Drive creation/implementation of engineering process, project tracking templates, project management toolsets. Design templates. Provide training.

Intranet web design & maintenance. Create & maintain Eng Project notebooks, internal websites & Wiki pages. Check version controlled documents into the VOBS using Rational ClearCase.

Maintain Hardware System Change Requests in the Rational Clearquest database. Triage. Create custom queries. Cleanup database in prep for migration. Provide weekly statistical analysis.

Hardware Engineering financial activities. Conduct financial research. Process purchase requisitions in SAP. Provide monthly accruals recommendations.

Create/maintain MS Access database for tracking critical information related to key components & assembly for failure analysis. Successfully transferred database to manufacturing. Trained manufacturing in use of tool.
Senior Engineering Project Coordinator

NPTest

(Public Company; 501-1000 employees; Semiconductors industry)

November 2002 — May 2004 (1 year 7 months)
Senior Engineering Project Coordinator

Schlumberger ATE

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; SLB; Semiconductors industry)

May 1997 — November 2002 (5 years 7 months)
Warehouse Coordinator

Schlumberger Well Services

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; SLB; Oil & Energy industry)

February 1996 — January 1998 (2 years )

Position evolved from data entry to warehouse assistance to warehouse leaderman.

• Supervised three warehouse employees
• Directed all phases of daily operations pertaining to ordering materials and supplies
• Responsible for maintaining effective inventory stock levels
• Negotiated vendor contracts to streamline company costs
• Responsible for compiling data for capitalization reports
• Responsible for all material orders via SAP/BASIS
• Compiled Bill of Materials and cost comparisons for offshore units.
• Created and edited Excel spreadsheets tracking internal company orders.
• Maintained relational database (Microsoft Access.)
• Key participant in the creative development of the current Access database.
• Worked directly with programmer for database performance improvement.
columnist

Times-Picayune Newspaper

(Writing and Editing industry)

1996 — 1996 (less than a year)

Susan Taylor Brown’s Education

University of Phoenix

BS , Business Management , 1997 — 2001
Mt. Diablo

1973 — 1976

Additional Information

Susan Taylor Brown’s Interests:

Reading children's literature, visiting old bookstores, California native plants, animals, dogs, books, public speaking, technology, blogs, Internet, laughing, Facebook, Craigslist

Susan Taylor Brown’s Groups:

Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, (SCBWI), California Writers Club, (CWC), Northern California Children's Booksellers Association, (NCCBA),
Children's Literature Network, PennWriters