With nearly 30 years (but, then, who's counting?) of writing, editorial,
business, educational, and computer-training experience, Richard G. Mills can
offer you and/or your organization a wide range of knowledge and talent. Whether
you need just copy or layouts and graphics, personal training or training
materials, audiovisual, multimedia, or print, just think Mills!
Richard first began to hone his layout talents in Naperville,
Illinois, as editor of his college weekly newspaper during his sophomore and junior
years. In 1969, after two years of teaching experience, he accepted a position as
writer/art-director for a Chicago-based educational travel service, writing and
designing travel brochures for specialized group tours throughout Europe, the then
Eastern Bloc countries, and various other locales of educational and/or newsworthy
interest.
In 1970, Mills became a writer and editor of home-study courses --
from air conditioning to algebra! He moved to Chicago in 1971. There, he went on to
become a mild-mannered assistant editor of over half a dozen insurance magazines
(by day) and a keyboard-backup man for an improvisational theatre group (at
night). After about five months in Los Angeles and seven months in San Francisco, he
returned to Chicago, continuing his free-lance editing there for a year.
In 1974, Richard accepted a position with the Society for Visual
Education as a writer/producer of multimedia instructional modules -- which utilized
his writing, musical, and humor talents with such hit characters as "Sassie, the
Wonder Dog," "The Lone Stranger and Pronto," "Whiz Ms.,"
"Super-Fred," and (makes his mark with a Z) "Zero" to teach
math, not to mention his song sung by a TV "soap opera" character,
"[Got the] Divisor Blues" (with vocal-trio and piano backup provided by
Mills, himself!). Sample dialogue-- Woman (of her husband's will): "...and he
left the remainder to charity." Blues singer: "How noble of him!"
Woman: "Charity was his secretary!" Blues singer: "Oh."
As a free lance since 1976, Mills has written and edited a variety of
multimedia and print materials for various business and educational organizations in
Chicago and across the country. He has written two published self-help books (one on
home maintenance and repair and one on skin care). He reviewed over two dozen books
for Booklist magazine. And he has taught at all grade levels -- including post-high
school -- mainly English, but also music, math, and foreign languages
(none of which he actually speaks).
In the mid-1980s, Richard became interested in computers and has
since taught himself several word-processing and graphics programs on three
different computer systems, wired together his own doubled-up computer system, and
written various computer programs -- including a talking, voice-recognition calendar
and budgeting system in BASIC for personal use and a combination file-info and
invoicing database program in WordPerfect Corporation's Data-Perfect for a Momence,
Illinois, lawyer's office.
For the past few years, he has been teaching
computer-literacy courses at the local community college (in both Mac and IBM
until the college removed their Mac labs). He has also held
computer-software seminars and taught a pre-college-writing course for the
college and teaches a high school remedial math course offered by the
college. He has done corporate computer training for Computer Training
Associates, been called upon by clients to do computer hardware and software
installation, and does beginners' computer setup, training, and consulting work.
Of course, being a generalist in this age of specialization can cause
some problems. As Mills quotes from a newsletter he wrote for one of his clients,
"Keeping up with the changes can be a full-time job!" But you can make it
his job, not yours! Why not e-mail him right now while you think of it so he can
start contributing his talents to you or your organization?
E-mail Richard now about your writing or training
needs (or whatever)!