Welcome to Caterpickles!

Hey Neighbor, 

Welcome to Caterpickles, a blog about Scientific and Linguistic Engagement with a Four-Year-Old Mind.

If you have a preschooler, you know that on an average day, your child’s question-to-declarative sentence ratio can clock in at a healthy 5:1.  Keeping up with all those questions can be pretty challenging, even on a slow day. Fortunately, my daughter asks some really interesting questions.

Many of those questions are easy to answer, but some are real stumpers. Especially for an English major like me. This blog explores what happens when “I don’t know” is followed by “Let’s find out!”

Who am I?

Although in 2011 I converted to being a full-time novelist, I still think of myself as a freelance technical writer. I’m also a spouse and parent.

Like every other tech writer you will ever meet, I’ve been working on the next great American novel for several years (well, unless you happen to meet that one tech writer in Concord, Massachusetts, who paints. I’ve also heard that there’s a technical writer in California who’s in a band, but I have yet to personally confirm this outrageous accusation). When I’m not scratching my head over pesky characters who refuse to do things how I want them done or dreaming of my next book (which will of course be much easier to write and research than the current one), my writerly self can be found at my Mac dreaming up new ways to translate product specifications from Engineer to English.

Why a blog on exploring the world with a preschooler?

Over the many years I’ve worked as a professional technical writer, people have paid me to explain how everything from genetic testing to networking security works (with a subset of people paying me to explain how to do things like manage an access point for a 3G wireless network or use a Christmas tree to regulate the flow from an oil well).

Then I had a child. And though she doesn’t really want me telling her (how) to do things, she does ask a lot of interesting questions. So I started this blog. She doesn’t pay me much for it, but that’s ok. She can’t read (much) anyway.

I hope you enjoy reading it at least as much as I enjoy writing it. And if your child comes up with some stumpers of his or her own, let me know. I’d love to track down the answers for you.

See you around the Common,

Shala 

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Shala K. Howell

Writer

caterpickles.com