Sharon

A sixteen-year veteran of Austin's indie music scene – surviving the media wars by playing both sides. As both a seasoned writer and editor, I’ve had experience in all aspects of magazine publishing. For the past seven years I have covered the Austin rock scene for San Antonio-based "The Edge Magazine" with my monthly rock news column “Jonesin’ Austin.” In 2006, I had the pleasure and honor of being selected as one of the Top 10 Best Music Journalists in the Austin Chronicle’s Readers Poll, the first indie journalist to make that list in the preceding 10 years (meaning I did not write for the weekly Austin Chronicle or the daily Austin-American Statesman or a national magazine, as all other writers on that list had.) However, as of May 2008, I am retiring “Jonesin’ Austin” to fire up the ole' freelance writing career, as I'm more than ready to expand my coverage of Austin and Texas artists with other media outlets. In addition, I’ll soon be re-emerging into the PR game, with “Pic-O-The-Litter Media.” I'm eager to head back to my Austin roots, beginning with my magazine ownership/publisher days with local popular music ‘zine "Mike's Feedback Magazine" (1995-97). Throughout 1992-2007 I also owned Feedback Media & PR, conducting publicity & grassroots marketing campaigns for local and regional artists. I also stayed active promoting and producing various charity events and outdoor festivals, including an annual top 5 fundraising benefit for the Capital Area Food Bank. As Publicist for the first 10-years of the annual Austin Bob Marley Festival, I contributed to its growth into an Austin tradition - packing over 20,000 people onto Auditorium Shores for a weekend of reggae music and charity giving, topping total donations of over 1 million meals. As former Media Director for CardinalZen Music Group, I continued to learn a lot about the in's and out's of running an indie artist development label and management of bands, such as Hekill Three.