I love learning to use new products and getting to know new people. I work as an independent contractor and consultant technical writer because I like the variety of work. I am up-to-date with the technical writing tools of my profession and learn about my clients’ products and processes very quickly. I have a meticulous eye for detail, the skill to explain concepts and processes in simple terms, and the ability to help people see how the parts fitinto the whole. I always get the job done on time, while producing top-quality documentation.

Technical writers bridge people and technology

I am a senior professional technical writer with 18 years of experience in the computer software industry, well established as an incorporated consultant. The simplest way to describe the many things I do as a technical writer is that I bridge people and technology to help you do business. I help people use technology to serve their needs and meet their business goals in the simplest, most effective way possible. I was the 2008 – 2009 president of the Canada West Coast chapter of my professional organization, the Society for Technical Communication. I also teach a workshop called Yoga for the Office, in which I teach people how to be close to their technology and take care of their bodies at the same time!

The Portfolio page shows some technical writing samples. I also invite you to visit my consultant listing in the STC directory. See my profile on LinkedIn for recommendations of my work.

Technical writing is one of my passions, and I enjoy the challenges that each new contract brings. Don’t hesitate to contact me, whether your technical writing project is big or small. I am willing to relocate from Vancouver to other parts of Canada for projects of one to six months. I also often work for US companies, via telecommuting.

If you need a technical writer, and you’d like to discuss how I can create great documentation for your next project, please call me at 604.251.6337 or send an email to kyrempel [at] gmail [dot] com.

No recruiters or placement agencies, please. I prefer to contract directly to the clients who will be using my services. I have been an incorporated consultant since 2003 and handle my own contract negotiations, invoicing, insurance, and taxes. Thank you!

At first glance you might not associate beadwork with technical writing. It’s true that writing Complete Beading for Beginners is one of the most fun things I’ve done!

I first had the idea for a book on beadwork in a technical writing class at the New Westminster, BC campus of Douglas College (in 1992). I wrote an eight-page sample in that class, and worked on the design in a desktop publishing class. The support I received from my teachers convinced me to try to self-publish the book. I produced four full-colour, 66-page prototypes, and generated orders for 1,500 copies of the book. However, when I approached the Royal Bank for a loan to cover printing costs, they turned me down.

I was outraged! True, I was fresh out of school, with student loans and only a few months at my first tech writing job. But what about all my years as a faithful customer at the bank? What about my clearly outlined business plan? What about the orders for 1,500 copies, from both Vancouver and New York bead supply wholesalers? When the bank turned down my request, I thought of giving up on the book. But eventually I summoned up the energy to develop Plan B—finding a publisher.

I was incredibly lucky, and my book was accepted by the first publisher I approached, BC-based Harbour Publishing. I thought I had it made, and all my work was over—now I’d just reap the rewards. It didn’t quite turn out that way—the book was accepted in early 1994 and released in late 1996. During the interim I learned many lessons about perseverance, compromise, and conflict resolution. Harbour wanted me to expand the book considerably, which I did. Then the book went through another major revision to fine-tune the tone and make it more suitable to the target audience. Harbour had done some market research and discovered that the teen market was untapped and keen to learn about beading, so this was the target audience we were trying to reach. Initially I had written the book with my younger siblings in mind. They were pre-teens, at least when I started writing the book!

I think mostly I was struggling with my own nature. I’d wanted to self-publish and have complete control. It was very difficult to trust that the people at Harbour knew what they were doing and were actually helping to improve the book. Of course, no one has good ideas all the time (not John Lennon—according to Yoko Ono—and not even the people at Harbour Publishing). So I also had to learn to distinguish between what I was willing to do for the sake of making a good book, and what I strongly disagreed with. Once I’d gained clarity myself, I had to communicate my feelings to the people at Harbour.

I know they also had to learn to trust me. For example, one area of contention was about using clear nail polish to make a knot in the thread more secure. This was something I’d been doing for years, but I guess it sounded kind of fishy. So I was asked to take this tip out of the book. I felt strongly that it was a good tip, so I sought and found proof that using nail polish was a recommended practice in several other books on beading. Harbour checked with a few expert beaders and received mixed responses, and in the end they decided to allow the tip to remain.

There were a few points during this painful process when I seriously considered giving up on the project. But somehow I stayed with the process, and Harbour did too, and the result is a beautiful book that I’m quite proud of. By the way, this process was not what Harbour Publishing expected either. They accepted my book because another book had been dropped from their spring list in 1994. They needed a replacement and thought that my book was ready to go (my full-colour prototype looked really good!). So looking back, I think I was lucky that Harbour didn’t decide to scrap the project when it turned out to be so much work.

Now, 13 years after its release, Complete Beading is a Canadian best-seller. Sales increased steadily from 1996 through 2003, when they peaked. That year, the royalty cheque was enough for me to buy a new car, my Tracker! The book has won local and international awards for technical writing (from the Society for Technical Communication). I’m pleased about the modest financial success, but there’s another reward I hadn’t expected. When I travel, I try to visit bead stores to see if they carry the book, or might be interested in ordering it. The nicest thing is discovering that the store has the book, and recommends it to their customers. That seems quite incredible to me—I created something that is now out in the world with a life of its own, contributing in some way to help others create.

If you Google my name you’ll find lots of beading stores that carry my book. It is available on Amazon.ca, Complete Beading for Beginners, or if you’re American, at Amazon.com, Complete Beading for Beginners. Of course, you can also pick it up at Country Beads on West 4th Avenue in Vancouver, where my book was launched in 1996. Or at Beadworks on Granville Island, also a strong supporter of the book.