The Wordsmiths Project Journal

When Daniel and I were first married, he taught me photography, so I could travel on assignment with him. I took to it, as though I had been born with a camera in my hand. When I came out of the closet as a writer, he mentored me, editing everything I wrote and explaining how I could make it better. That was years ago – many hundreds of articles and eight books ago. Happily, the transition from teacher and student to mutually respectful partners has been generally smooth. Nowadays, I will edit his work as much as he edits mine.

In this journal, I will often refer to Daniel, so I thought you might want to know a bit about him. Daniel has been a freelancer his entire career, and has never been on staff anywhere. This has given him the personal creative control that has allowed him to make a rather good living writing about what fascinates him, work with the people he most admires, and devote whatever energy and time is required to write a great story.

It has also translated into a very varied and interesting career, which has included being a war correspondent, photojournalist, author, investigative journalist, book and music critic, features writer, columnist and technology reviewer. Daniel has authored well over 1,500 stories, articles, columns and reviews for prominent magazines and newspapers, such as “Islands,” “Philadelphia Inquirer,” “Reader’s Digest,” the London “Sunday Times Magazine,” “American Heritage,” “Parade,” “Saturday Review,” “PC Magazine,” “Harper’s Magazine,” and many others. His short fiction has appeared in “Asimov’s” and “Focus Magazine,” and he is currently writing his first novel. While he is an award-winning writer, one of the recognitions that pleased him most is that, when he was a Contributing Editor at “Philadelphia Magazine,” his articles were the most requested at Recordings for the Blind, because of the aural quality of his writing.

In addition to the eight nonfiction books he has co-authored with me, Daniel wrote the first biography of J.R.R. Tolkien, the creator of “Lord of the Rings.” and “The Hobbit.” It was initially published in trade paperback (Running Press), then mass paperback (Warner Books) and finally in hard cover (Grosset & Dunlap) – a reversal of the classic route. It has been in continuous publication for more than a quarter century, been translated into numerous languages around the world, and once had the singular distinction of being the most stolen book out of libraries. (Hence, a special hard cover library edition was released a few years ago.)

Recognized, also, as one of the premier experts on digital cameras, Daniel is the president and lead analyst of DigitalBenchmarks, the independent digital camera and imaging test lab. He is a member of The Authors Guild, the American Society of Journalists & Authors (ASJA), the Overseas Press Club, and SFWA.