Writing about memory, identity, family, and the stories we carry.

Joe O'Donnell as a teenager posing between cardboard cutouts of Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson, reflecting the pop music influences explored in his memoir.

Writing has always been at the center of what I do. Whether I’m helping an organization clarify its story, building a brand, or writing about my own life, I’m interested in the same thing: how people make meaning from experience.

I’ve completed a memoir, Another Generation Ruined, about growing up in Massachusetts in the 1980s amid family upheaval, pop music, and the search for identity.

My work explores memory, family, shame, humor, and the legacies we carry.

Current Project:

Another Generation Ruined

Bedroom covered with Madonna, Prince, and 1980s pop culture posters, reflecting the music-filled world explored in Joe O'Donnell’s memoir.

Another Generation Ruined is a memoir about a queer Gen X kid growing up inside a nationally publicized 1980s divorce, where pop music, a suburban record store, and the voice of Tina Turner offer a way out of a family coming apart behind closed doors.

The memoir has been long-listed for the Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Award, and excerpts have appeared in Avalon Literary Review and on I Have That On Vinyl.

Ghostwriting & Story Development

You have something meaningful to say. I can help you shape it—and make sure it still sounds like you.

I work with professionals, founders, consultants, and individuals who have a story, perspective, or body of knowledge they want to share but need help finding the structure, language, and path forward.

My approach combines close listening and strong writing with extensive experience in project management, organization, brand strategy, and creative visioning. I can help clarify the purpose of the project, identify the strongest ideas, build a workable structure, manage the moving parts, and guide the work from early concept through final draft.

Through interviews, research, collaborative editing, and a clear process, I turn raw ideas, lived experience, and scattered materials into writing that is focused, compelling, and true to your natural voice.

Projects may include:

Thought-leadership articles · LinkedIn and newsletter writing · Personal essays · Book proposals · Memoir and legacy-story development

Some clients need help developing an idea. Others have pages, recordings, notes, or years of material that need shape and focus. We begin by clarifying what you want the work to accomplish, who it is for, and what form it should take.

The goal isn’t to make you sound like me. It’s to help you sound more fully like yourself—and create the structure and momentum that gets the work finished.