ABOUT ME

You’re looking at Alexander E. Braun, who considers himself fortunate that all of his life he’s worked at what he loves best: writing. Although I’ve blogged for a while, this is my first personal website. I expect to post regularly about things that interest me and that, I hope, will also interest you. So you’ll read my rants and raves—mostly directed against the insanity of today’s illiterate, politically correct and governmentally inept society. You can also visit with my two favorite friends, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, in my Sherlock Holmes page (and learn about my new novel), as well a be supplied with writing tips, photographs of places or things I find unusual and other subjects that may innocently meander in front of my gunsights.

A little about myself. I sold my first piece in 1959, while in my teens, and launched myself as a freelance science writer, writing short articles and columns putting science and technology developments into context for the general public. In time, I began writing for engineering trade magazines such as Microwave Systems News and its sister publication Defense Electronics, for which I covered developments in radar and high-frequency applications and communications, eventually becoming MSN’s editor in chief. I then worked in the PR world, as account manager for the high-tech branch of Ketchum Public Relations, and at The Benjamin Group. Thus, I was initiated into the dark mysteries of setting up press conferences and tours, how to write press releases that editors will read, planning product introductions, and preparing white papers and PR plans--even training executives how to deal with the media when being interviewed or during a press conference!

Eventually, I returned to my first love as Senior/West Coast Editor (in Silicon Valley) for Semiconductor International, the leading trade magazine that covered that industry, as well renewable energy technology, until its end in April 2010. If you would like to see some of the things I have written about, just Google Alexander E. Braun.

Early on in my writing career I discovered that you can write simply and effectively about just anything, and that your readers will love you for it. This is true whether you address a general audience or engineers and scientists. Just because your subject deals with advanced research and flashes the occasional equation that shoots back, doesn’t mean that as a writer you should make it more difficult to understand, perhaps in the mistaken belief that it makes you look more professional before your reader.

When I write something for a client, I always keep in mind that although it’s the client who pays me for my efforts, it’s the reader for whom I’m really working.

I hope you’ll enjoy what you find here and email me your comments. And should you have a question about writing, or a writing project that you might be considering sending my way, I’ll be glad to discuss it with you and show you my wares. Just email me at AEB@aebwriter.com.