About Paul Yoder

Life right now

Here’s my life last year in a nutshell. A little more than a year ago, I graduated with a Bachelor degree from Dixie State College. What a great opportunity that was. I really enjoyed the college lifestyle of learning and improving myself. Three months ago, I finished all my applications to various grad programs. That was probably my least favorite things I did last year. It was horrible, it stressed me out, it was a mess communicating with the various graduate programs and getting my papers ready to send off to them. Tomework (my online editing business) was started up last November. The largest event though is that Nikki (my wife for almost four years now) is carrying our first child. He’s due in April, and because of that, Nikki will be winding down at work. Change is good. It often moves us to better paths; but, great change never ceases to make me nervous. We’re calling our little boy Cove—we’re both very excited!

Background

I’m the tenth child in my family (that’s right, my parents had ten kids!) and because of that, family and friends have been abundant in my life. I live in Saint George, Utah right now. Me and Nikki like it enough here, we’ll probably be sticking around for quite some time. I grew up on the East Coast (North Carolina) and spent a few years in Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Florida, but half of my life has been spent in Utah.

Activities

One thing I don’t get to talk with people a lot about is the sports and activities I like to do. This is mainly because the sports I’m into aren’t all that popular. Sure people know about surfing or rock climbing, but very few actually go out and do those things. I used to live on the East coast, so surfing was a great deal more accessible to me then. Now that I live in Utah, I only occasionally get to ride Swordfish (pretty much the best shortboard ever crafted). Rock climbing became a great staple in my life after moving back to the Midwest. There are so many great lines to climb out here in southern Utah. Though, sadly, after a few close calls, Nikki and I have greatly scaled back on this pastime. We still go hiking about wherever we end up vacationing or visiting though.

Interests

Although my degree is in technical English, my true passion is for the creative side of English. I’ve been writing poems, short stories, novellas, and novels since I was a kid. I thought that one day, I might grow out of literature, but as I grew, my tastes and appreciation for story refined. I could not see myself doing anything else than working with words.

Ventures (Tomework!)

Tomework is coming along well. My greatest hope for this business is to work with people that like working with me and me them. If you think about it, most people spend more time with their coworkers and business associates than they do with their own family. I promise I’ll do my best to be helpful to you, easy to work with, and to be someone you enjoy working with. Check out Tomework here if you are ever interested in having me proofread or edit your work. Also, Tomework has its own blog dedicated to following the changes I make to it. I update it about once every week. Follow it here.