At ESL for Professionals (www.eslforprofessionals.com), we work with international executives, academics and other professionals based in Silicon Valley and San Francisco. We offer individual English-language tutoring targeted to each client's specific needs, from improving pronunciation to increasing reading comprehension to achieving a better understanding of American culture. I've launched this business after a decade of teaching writing classes at the college level as well as English as Second Language at private language schools and gaining a master's degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages along the way. Prior to and overlapping my teaching career, I have authored two commercially-published books: "A Swedish Kitchen: Recipes and Reminiscences" (Hippocrene Books) and "A Question of Balance: Artists and Writers on Motherhood" (Papier-Mache Press) and contributed to several anthologies( "Culinary Biographies," "A Mother's World: Journeys of the Heart" and "Writing for Your Life #2"). As a freelance journalist, I have contributed to the travel blog epicaro.com and written the content for www.swedishkitchen.com, and blogged on pugs, travel, fashion and lifestyle at http://louielair.blogspot.com, and fiercedesire.blogspot.com. My print articles have appeared in "The Boston Globe," "Publishers Weekly," "The Christian Science Monitor," and the Community Newspaper Company papers, Specialties: ESL instruction, writing instruction, copyediting, food writing, feature journalism, blog editor