01/23/07

Welcome to my Web site!

My name is Mike Gowen.  I am a Freelance Writer in addition to being an IT Specialist living in Winston-Salem, NC.  This is a wonderful location to live.  It's difficult to mention Winston-Salem without mentioning the arts in the same sentence.  This community has tremendous support for the arts.

As an IT Specialist I have over 20 years experience working with IBM mainframes, specializing in Databases and CICS.  I have a B.S. in Business & Economics and a A.A.S. in Information Systems.  I also hold the Certified Computing Professional (C.C.P.) designation from the Institute for the Certification of Computing Professionals.  I also enjoy web development, using Microsoft's Frontpage as my tool of choice.  Contact me to see how I can assist with your web needs

I love to write.  Drawing on my experiences as a single dad, I wrote numerous articles about single parenting for sites on the web such as Suite101.com and HumanBeams.  My articles have also been featured on a number of Single Parent websites.  I also enjoy writing humorous essays and satire and have been published by Ungroomed, a humorous site dedicated to the Marrying Man.  I wrote a single dad column for the short lived magazine, SingleParent Magazine. 

On the journalistic side, I've written quite a bit for the Winston-Salem Journal Special Sections having articles featured in Mature Times, Carolina Golf, Career Seeker & Car Seeker.

I am currently writing non-fiction and fiction for children, having recently completed a Writing for Children & Teenagers course through the Childrens Institute of Literature.

I am no longer a single dad, having remarried in 2000 to a wonderful lady named Anne with two children of her own.  Together we have six children, two granddaughters, and two grandsons!