About Me

I’m an award-winning writer, photographer and web content manager from Washington, DC.

On joeflood.com, I report on creativity and the arts, particularly in the Washington region. I’m particularly interested in artists who use new tools such as e-publishing, Flickr and social media to tell their stories.

Originally from Florida, I came to DC after going to American University. After working in libraries for several years, I began to write and edit content for web sites in the mid-90s, just as they began. I know HTML, Dreamweaver, WordPress and just about any other tool that’s used in web publishing.

Despite my experience as a web content manager for government and nonprofit web sites (see my resume for more on that), I still primarily consider myself a writer. I’ve written articles, short stories, screenplays, white papers, ad copy, brochures, email newsletters, blogs, a novel and just about anything else you can think of that involves typing.

In 2006, I won the Film DC Screenplay Competition for my feature-length screenplay Mount Pleasant. It’s an urban drama about a gentrifying Washington neighborhood. For winning this citywide competition, I got to visit the set of The West Wing, as it filmed its final season.

That lead to my involvement in the local film community. I wrote a couple of short films as a part of the 48 Hour Film Project and then began volunteering with the DC Shorts Film Festival. It’s a great festival, and I’ve worked for them as film judge, screenplay competition manager, volunteer wrangler, photographer, Blogger-in-Chief and just about anything else you can think of.

I always dreamed of writing a novel. And in 2008, I left my contractor job and took several months off to write Murder in Ocean Hall. My book is a mystery set at the Smithsonian, in which the world’s most famous ocean explorer is murdered. Suspects are many and it’s up to a cynical Washington detective to solve the case. This novel made it to the second round of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.

Like many web people, I’m an avid photographer whose work has appeared in local web sites, magazines and even a textbook. Lately, I’ve really become interested in iPhoneography and won the Fotoweek Mobile Phone Image Competition.

And I can’t help writing about creativity and arts, for this web site, as well as the Pink Line Project, which covers the arts in DC. I admire the punk DIY ethos, which states that you should write that book or paint that painting or make a short movie on your own.

Outside of my professional and artistic identities, I’m very much a city person. I love biking around town, visiting bookstores and watching soccer. I am amazed at how much Washington has changed for the better over the past decade.

Let’s stay in touch. Follow me on Twitter at @joeflood or email me.