About the blogger: Donna Marcotte

I’m a freelance writer and editor who specializes in business and technical writing solutions for oil & gas, engineering & manufacturing, and related information technology.

Most of my work is delivering marketing and technical writing solutions for industry businesses. Each assignment is not only an opportunity to work with leading companies and organizations, but a chance to learn about fascinating industries that are crucial to the world economy.

When someone hires me to write for them, the goal is to help them figure out what it is they want to say and how they want you to say it. The focus is on what my customers want and the message they want to communicate to their customers.

But I’ve got viewpoints and observations that I’d like to express too.

One of the best jobs that I ever had was as an editor at Hart’s E&P Magazine, an upstream oil and gas industry publication.  Within the drilling and information technology (IT) topics, I decided which stories  we covered, solicited/edited articles or wrote them myself, and wrote a monthly column (check out some examples at my website).

A big part of that job was attending industry conferences and talking with  technical professionals and experts to determine relevant topics. It was fascinating and they paid me!

As a self-employed writer, I still attend conferences, network, and research, and have decided that I need an outlet to write about some of the things that I see and learn–even if  no one  is paying me directly to do so. So that’s why I’ve joined the billions of other bloggers and started this blog, Mostly Marcellus.

Why the Marcellus?

Well I work in the oil and gas industry, Pennsylvania is my “adopted” home state, and the Marcellus is the big news for unconventional natural gas resources in PA (maybe even the country, because of its size and location).

Originally from Boston, I moved to the Pittsburgh area many years ago and instantly felt at home. I graduated from Pitt, and met and married a Pennsylvania guy. Times being what they were, we moved to Houston for jobs, where I started my career in the oil patch. But after 15 years in Houston, in 2006, we moved back to PA to be closer to our families. And happily, the oil and gas industry is booming here again, which will give a big  boost the local economy and provide a strategic energy resource for the Northeast.