Hello, my name is Eleanor Knowles and I'm a civil engineer and technical author who loves cooking and writing, but not necessarily in that order. From working as a coastal engineer to renovating houses, I soon discovered that making concrete isn't so different from making cakes, except that sometimes the cakes are lighter. Now I'm out of the hard hat and working at the computer, researching current and past engineering projects, and writing online biographies of famous engineers (see www.engineering-timelines.com). To avoid piling on the pounds I take a keen interest in healthy eating, trying to strike a balance between delicious and fattening. I also love to devote any spare time to creating short stories, sometimes with a food-related theme.