About

We Still Have Wires is a new blog from Karen Anderson, covering technology as it’s used — and misused — in the real world.

Karen Anderson designs, writes, and produces innovative online communications for business and consumer audiences. Her adventures in writing and communications span investigative journalism, magazine management, web content design, book reviewing, fundraising, blogging, and social media consulting.

Karen writes, edits, and consults on a contract basis for Oktopost, Medical Marcom, Cardiac Science, CrowdComputing Systems, Naples Florida Vacation Homes, AM Consulting Group, Web 1 Marketing, and Profound Networks. She also writes a humor column for the Home Owners Club. Her past clients have included Ant’s Eye View, Radarworks, Anthro-Tech, Custom Toll Free, Concurrent Product Development, Impact Capital, Muse Indigo, Orange County Housing Trust, and Plymouth Housing.

From 2000-2006 Karen worked at Apple as a writer for iReview and the iTunes Music Store and as the managing editor for the one-million-member .Mac Internet services website (the forerunner of MobileMe and iCloud). She’s the author of the ebook Take Control of iPhone Basics.

Karen’s volunteer work includes chairing the board of the Clarion West Writers Workshop. She is a past president of the board of Northwest Folklife, and a member of professional organizations including Women in Digital Journalism, Biznik, the National Book Critics Circle, and the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. Karen has served on boards and committees for nonprofit organizations including the Pat Graney Dance Company and Foolscap, and on the Digital Publishing Advisory Board for the University of Washington’s Professional & Continuing Education Program.

Writing & Social Media Projects

Karen specializes in social media consulting and in SEO-savvy writing and blogging for business websites. In addition, she edits ebooks (including Take Control of iWeb ’09) and writes client and investor profiles.

She served as a reviewer for the Webby Awards (2008 and 2009) and for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest (2008–2011). Karen gave a RapidFire talk at MacWorld | iWorld 2012. She spoke at the BigFoot Blogging Conference, at Ignite Seattle, and at the 2011 Seattle Social Media Summit hosted by the Center for Nonprofit Success. She conducted a workshop on websites for writers at the 2012 Nebula Awards. She appeared as a guest blogger on Deborah Ng’s Freelancing Writing Jobs site, asking “Is Copy Editing Extinct?” and was interviewed by Seattle 24×7 about the iPhone.

Blogging & Articles

In addition to blogging about all the write stuff here at WriterWay.com, Karen posts at Fitness, Food and Fashion and at Amazing Stories Magazine. Her articles “Are You Smart About Using Your Smart Phone?” and “9 Ways to ‘Power Up’ Your Business Blog” appear on Biznik.

“For women in their early 50s, a no-sweat 20-minute workout is about as useful for fending off fat and unfitness as sprinkling salt substitute on your large order of greasy french fries.”

— from Karen’s essay on fitness in
In Our Prime: Empowering Essays by Women (2010)

Reviewing & Commentary

Karen taught “Critical Eye on Writing” at the 2011 Foolscap Convention writers workshop, covering ways writers can use a book critic’s tools to critique their own fiction.

“I live in a city whose name is synonymous with “coffee.” What’s a poor tea drinker to do? Listen to Karen’s radio commentary on KUOW-FM.

“Fuzzy. Persistent. Persnickety. Annoying. Allergy-inducing. I’m referring here not to felines, but to the literary subgenre of cat mysteries…” Read Karen’s review of cat mysteries at January Magazine.