A-1 Editing Service

Brian O'Neil

Born in Chicago and raised in the city’s northwest suburbs, Brian O'Neil began a lifetime of writing under the tutelage of some very demanding Dominican nuns and Viatorian priests. Their intolerance of poor spelling, bad punctuation, and sloppy grammar provided Brian with a solid foundation for his undergraduate work as a journalism student at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, IL. Brian earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1972 and went to work as a reporter and staff writer for the DeKalb Daily Chronicle. Within 18 months, he was promoted to the copy desk, launching a 35-year career as a writer/editor.

The birth of his daughter in 1978, and his wife’s desire to be a stay-at-home mom, realigned Brian’s priorities and career path. He went to work for the world’s largest agribusiness – DeKalb Agricultural Research, Inc. – as its internal communications manager. Charged with keeping DeKalb’s employees informed about the company’s various divisions, Brian traded a career in the Fourth Estate for the life of a flack (publicist). He wrote and edited the company’s weekly management newsletter, a monthly seed dealer newsletter, and a quarterly employee magazine.

In 1980, Brian and his family traded the corn-covered flatlands of Illinois for the mountains, rivers and forests of southern Oregon. The economic stagnation of the early 80s, which plagued much of the country, hit Oregon particularly hard. Mill closures and record unemployment prompted Oregon’s political leadership to embrace tourism as its new economic salvation. Brian reinvented himself, applying his media and corporate public relations background to tourism promotion. Over a fifteen-year period, he directed the promotional activities of three Visitor & Convention Bureaus in Southern Oregon, writing brochures, instituting advertising campaigns and creating an Internet presence.

Brian also worked as the Southern Oregon editor of Oregon Business Magazine and wrote articles for the Tri-County Journal of Business, the leading business publication in Southern Oregon.

Most recently, Brian completed work on Married to a Single Woman - A Survival Manual for Men Going Through Separation and Divorce. He is also working on a screenplay titled The Three Days of Darkness, a suspense thriller set in Washington D.C.