This small story in the local paper dates from less than a year after I moved to Columbus from Louisville, and is yet more than three years before I started on the Computing Across America adventure. I had just quit an engineering job, had a 4-month-old daughter, and was attempting to carve out a serious living as a freelance writer. I had just published a book called Micromatics about the technician’s perspective on microprocessor-based products, and had started on the Industrial Design with Microcomputers textbook project that would gobble most of a year.

(Apparently the author of this piece had not heard of William Wordsworth.)

Multi-faceted writer combines talents
Dublin Villager
June 11, 1980

The name Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is easily recognized by most people as the famous 19th century American poet who wrote, among other things. “Hiawatha” and “A Psalm of Life.” But to a young Dublin writer, the famous poet has become much more.

Steve Roberts, a young writer with tremendous potential, has paraphrased the poet’s middle name and calls his writing business — Words’worth.

Roberts started Words’worth a year and a half ago in Louisville, Kentucky, and just recently moved it to Dublin.

Words worth, a company solely owned and operated by Roberts, is in the business of writing anything and everything. With an extensive background in computer science, engineering, and math and having dabbled in music, literature, and photography, Roberts comes well equipped to write about most anything.

The young writer, who is 27 and has had only a few months of college education, is a self taught individual with a great deal of curiosity. He has been interested in electricity and writing since he was eight years old. After his short college experience, Roberts began developing parts for computers and eventually built his own at home. He started a computer parts business called Cybertronics which sometimes competed with much larger national companies, and many Louisville companies began seeking the young engineer’s advice.

After publishing “Interfacing a Teletypewriter with an IC Microprocessor,” Roberts realized his potential in technical writing. He continued publishing such articles as “Copy/Sort/Search: 8080 Data Manipulation” and “Reliable Sensing with Optoelectronics” for major technical journals. Because of his interest in computers and music, he published “Music Composition: A New Technique,” presentation of a program in BASIC for generation of fractal sequences for computer music.

To date Roberts has published 30 articles, mostly in computer and engineering trade journals. But he is ready to branch out into other areas. At present he is working on a science fiction novel, has just published a technical book, Micromatics, is working on a senior-level college textbook and is looking for writing jobs wherever he can find them. “I want to have fun with writing, get recognition, and make money,” Roberts says.


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