This is an embarrassing post to write, because if there's one thing I find awkward, it's blowing my own trumpet. However, I'm in need of work contacts, so I'll prepare my embouchure.

About a month ago, in response to my rather anguished plea for career suggestions, several people suggested technical authoring. I thought it was a pretty good idea, so I did a bit of research. It was clear that having some kind of portfolio (in addition to this weblog) would help me a lot, so I decided to see if I could persuade a shareware developer to let me write a manual for free, in return for using the result as a portfolio piece.

As luck would have it, that very day I stumbled on a fantastic piece of software, which didn't yet have any documentation: Quicksilver. The developer, Nicholas, accepted my offer, so I've been hard at work writing the thing for a few weeks. Quicksilver is proving to be very popular, and the clamor for documentation became so loud that we decided to release the manual in its somewhat unfinished form, alongside the new Beta version of the software. The past few days have therefore been very hectic, but fun.

So, I present the Quicksilver Manual: written by yours truly, edited by Nicholas. It's not perfect, and it's not finished, so be gentle with me. I'd love some constructive criticism, thoughâ€"if anyone can be bothered to read it. And if by some slim chance you happen to be a developer looking to hire a technical author, then do get in touch.

Nicholas came up with a really cool job title for me: Lead Documentrix. I love it — apt, funny and ever-so-slightly saucy. I'm thinking of getting a T-shirt made. So, if you're contacting me about technical authoring, the address to use is: documentrix [at] rousette [dot] org [dot] uk.

Oh, and it's my birthday today (thanks to David for the very observant birthday wishes).