Nancy is an American citizen living in what has come to look like permanent
European exile. With a fine college education and a Master's of Music in her
bag, she set off to seek fame and fortune in the city of West Berlin, then
still enclosed by the infamous Berlin Wall. She spent a few years in between
in Düsseldorf and The Hague, but she's now back in Berlin, where she
recently got married (a package that includes a 9-year old daughter half the
week) and bought a rooftop apartment in the center of town - all the
accoutrements of "settling down".
Her professional trajectory has been rather unusual. In Berlin she
surprisingly quickly found a job teaching piano three afternoons a week,
which brought in enough to lead a modest life: tiny shared apartment,
literature classes for free at the university, five library cards,
occasional trips around Europe. There came a time when that wasn't enough to
keep her happy and fulfilled. She took an exam as translator and interpreter
in German and English. After a few months translating a TV news show into
English, she got a job translating at a management consultancy - without any
business experience or similar previous position. By now she's been
consulting editor at different international consultancies for well nigh
seven years. Nothing can faze her anymore: no fancy slide presentation,
poorly structured proposal, smart-ass young consultant; no wave of
restructuring, internal re-organization, new job title. This is in fact a
source of her seven-year itch.
To kick things off, Nancy will be writing about a) great books - her
all-time soul food, b) classical music - her first love, c) Berlin - her
adopted hometown, and d) life as an expat. If quite a few people enjoy
reading what she writes, if they feel informed, titillated, amused,
provoked - well she may just be able to write full-time. She's a bit of a
missionary: well aware that we are all constantly bombarded with information
and impressions, she clings to the old-fashioned idea that there is a
difference between good and bad writing, good and inadequate music making,
marketing hype and greatness. And that making distinctions and helping
others do so is a worthy enterprise.
Do drop by her writing website www.apt-words.de. Some of you may also want
to pay a visit to her husband's new web design business, where the emphasis
is on functional, legible, well-maintained sites, not fancy bells and
whistles: www.paso-webdesign.de.
