I'm a writer.
Hi there. My name's Charles Hodgkins. I'm pretty good at parallel parking, and I even ate pizza on Francis Coppola's couch once. But more on that another time. We're here to discuss work.
I've spent much of the last decade-plus writing and editing content on a variety of topics, from travel and food to music and urban environment. I've also written speeches here and marketing copy there.
My editorial versatility fills needs well.
I'm an editor.
Although I've certainly had my work published in print — most notably by Rough Guides, the respected, U.K.-based series of international travel guides — the core of my editorial experience revolves around bringing Web content to life.
From my earliest editorial position as Staff Writer, Associate Editor, and finally Senior Editor with pioneering music website Listen.com (now Rhapsody), through my current role as championship-caliber Editorial Consultant for a small handful of clients in San Francisco and far beyond, I'm a highly respected manager, colleague, and foot soldier.
But don't just take my word for it — see what others have said about my work.
I'm a Swiss army writer and editor.
These days, I keep busy in a number of editorial roles.
As an Author/Contributor for Rough Guides, I tour around my hometown and homestate — and sometimes range as far afield as the Rockies and Great Plains — researching updates to ongoing editions of The Rough Guide to San Francisco & the Bay Area, California, Yellowstone & Grand Teton, and the USA. It's as fun as it sounds.
I also keep my editing and content production skills sharp as an Assistant Managing Editor with iVillage, where I manage the work of over 15 contractors while editing and producing reams of content every week. It's a real good gig.
Capitalizing on my many years of music editorial experience — to say nothing of my many years of music obsessiveness — I also write and edit copy and blog posts for Brandracket, a small but wildly successful music licensing and creative agency based in Southern California. It's another real good gig.
And until 2010, I wrote product descriptions for food-judging site ChefsBest, detailing in consumer-friendly terms the dimensions and basic tastes found in everyday grocery foods such as packaged iceberg salad, microwaveable chicken pot pies, and fish sticks. It was actually more fun than it sounds.
I'm efficient with my time.
I'm a patron saint.
Finally, I eat burritos. Then, I write reviews of these burritos. But the real punchline? Many people read these reviews.
Burritoeater.com, which I founded, author, research, and produce, provides me with a highly visible platform for writing about its namesake item and San Francisco's favorite homegrown econo-food: the burrito. I've appeared on the Cooking Channel, I've been called "slabulous," and I've even had the "patron saint of San Francisco taquerias" tag famously slapped on me by DailyCandy.
See a slew of additional press shout-outs here, including my punditry in The New York Times and a full-page piece in San Francisco Chronicle Magazine.
I also clean blinds.
In writing for print or the Web, I inject the ordinary with a sharp dose of vitality. Early evidence appeared as early as my junior year of high school, when my essay My Least Favorite Pastime: Cleaning Venetian Blinds garnered critical raves from my English teacher, the late Bob Morrish.
Kindly peruse samples of my published writing. You're bound to learn something valuable about hiking in Yosemite, an obscure band that could be hugely popular three years from now, an end-of-the-road town in Montana, or...how to clean Venetian blinds.