I have been a professional technical writer for over twenty years, working both in software documentation and as an author of best-selling computer books. I work in Silicon Valley, CA (408 or 650 area codes).

My qualifications include:

• I understand the entire documentation process and how it integrates with software development, from planning to release.
• I have designed, written, edited, and shipped manuals, help and other forms of learning and support in a variety of formats including printed books, PDF files, structured and modular online and web-based help, API references, wiki pages, forums, and blog postings. I have worked in social and collaborative environments as well as on my own.
• I have written four books including Teach Yourself HTML and Teach Yourself Java, which have been published in multiple editions, been translated into dozens of languages, and combined have sold over a million copies.
• I am comfortable working in full-service authoring tools, content management systems, raw HTML and XML, or plain text. I am fluent with API documentation generation systems such as JavaDoc, Sandcastle, and Doxygen.
• My experience crosses a range of industries, from UNIX workstation manufacturing to gaming technology to front- and back-end web development to mobile devices.
• I have contributed to software product design on a variety of fronts, including writing and editing user-facing application interface text and error messages, helping with user experience issues, and providing input into API design for consistency and ease of use.
• I am a technical technical writer. I have hands-on programming experience and can develop my own examples. I understand source code control systems, bug tracking, IDEs, and debuggers. I would rather compile an application for myself or step through the code as it runs to figure out what something does than pester a busy engineer to explain it to me.

I prefer to work as a contractor but I am open to full time employment for very special circumstances (small companies, upcoming technologies, hybrid writer/developer positions).

View my resume or writing samples for further details. You can contact me at lemay@lne.com. References are available by request.