The Principal Writers of Storyline Ink

Writing isn't everyone's jam. Yet in business environments, managers are often expected to whip up vision documents, clever names, tag lines or catch phrases in an instant, or summon out of the ether gripping descriptions of products and services for collateral materials, websites and blogs. All this in addition to keeping the train moving, reporting on progress, managing customers, clients, bosses and employees, and getting to every meeting on time. We say, not fair. 

After decades of being the go-to writers in our companies, we created Storyline Ink to make other people great. In doing so, we believe we make the world a better place by:
  • Easing the crushing load of competing priorities and objectives for busy business people
  • Making businesses more fun to interact with at the consumer level
  • Fulfilling our own obsessions with the written word

We're the storytellers of Storyline Ink. Individually, we possess harmonious corporate and creative-writing superpowers, which makes us a good team. Collectively, we bring 50 years (that was hard to say) of communications strategy to bear when working for you.  

Stacey Ellis
Email:  stacey@storylineink.com

Picture
Stacey is a senior communications pro specializing in corporate and creative writing, branding, marketing, content management, PR, and internal communications. Her ability to transform complex topics into easy-to-understand sound bites has made her invaluable to the executives, companies and clients she’s served over the last 20 years. 

Stacey has worked in the corporate, nonprofit and agency realms with an emphasis in restaurants, hospitality, arts and culture, lifestyle, and consumer products. Most recently she was Senior Director of Communications for Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants for nearly eight years, where she oversaw corporate communications and PR for the company and its more than 60 hotels and restaurants. While there she created, launched and published the company’s popular Life Is Suite blog, worked with executives on messaging and speaking opportunities, developed and launched Kimpton’s new brand voice to better reflect its “indie” personality, expanded and systemized internal communications efforts, and set communications priorities that earned the company millions of media impressions each year. 

Prior to that she was Vice President of Blaze PR, a boutique firm in Santa Monica, CA, where she worked on communications strategies for clients in the hospitality space, including Westin St. Maarten Dawn Beach Resort & Spa, La Valencia Hotel, Rancho Valencia Resort and Paradise Point Resort & Spa in San Diego, The Oaks at Ojai, Abercrombie & Kent Destination Club and Concierge Villas, and the L.A. Marathon.  

Stacey spent five years working for the San Diego Zoo and its sister property, Safari Park, where she led communications related to everything from animal and habitat conservation issues to seasonal campaigns and crisis situations. She began her career at Nuffer, Smith, Tucker, a well-known issues management and PR firm in San Diego, working on prestigious clients such as the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club and its landmark oceanfront restaurant, The Marine Room, as well as WD-40, the San Diego Zoo, McDonald's of San Diego, and more.

Stacey has a deep understanding of content and what it needs to do. She’s a colorful storyteller with expertise in: 
  • Matching brand voice and tone
  • Master messaging architecture — strengthening brands with unified content throughout all departments and channels 
  • Scripting, creative briefs and business presentations 
  • Corporate, executive and employee communications 
  • Branding, marketing and PR content (web copy, email marketing, advertising, and media materials) 
  • Blog editorial content-planning, writing, management, and publishing
  • Creative naming and titling
  • Editing and proofing
  • Project management

Stacey is a graduate of the School of Journalism at San Diego State University.

Mark Hiss
Email:  mark@storylineink.com

Picture
Over the course of his career, Mark has worked on multiple sides of the media equation, gaining unique insight into the worlds of publishing, content production and marketing. As a freelance writer and photographer, he knows how to pitch and how to tell a compelling story; as founding editor of two magazines, he understands how to develop meaningful content in a team environment; as former blog manager for Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, he’s well-versed in SEO best practices; and with a longtime career in marketing and public relations, he has firsthand experience in the opportunities inherent in successful marketing.

Following his graduation from San Diego State University with a degree in journalism, he began his professional career with the San Diego County Fair — the region’s largest annual event — producing a daily newsletter for carnies, exhibitors and staff. He then joined the Tony Award–winning Old Globe Theatre, where he was mentored by San Diego public relations legend Bill Eaton. During his stint at the Globe, Mark became a publications specialist, producing playbills and newsletters, as well as serving as staff photographer. Jobs with the San Diego Repertory Theatre and Broadway San Diego followed. At Broadway San Diego (part of the New York-based Nederlander Organization), he implemented local marketing campaigns for nationally touring blockbuster productions such as Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Riverdance, The Phantom of the Opera, and Les Misérables.

Mark next became founding editor of WHERE San Diego, part of an international network of visitor publications. Two years later, he brought to life Performances, the playbill magazine for Southern California’s leading performing arts venues.

As a freelance writer, Mark has enjoyed long relationships with San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles magazine and Frommer’s. His interviews with architects, artists and designers continue to run monthly in SDH/G, while for Frommer’s he explored the width and breadth of California in a series of travel guidebooks, including Frommer’s San Diego and Frommer’s California Day by Day. Other freelance credits include work for TravelChannel.com, Cigar Aficionado and Coast magazine. Mark’s full-length play, Talking Woman, was presented in a staged reading in 2012.

As a photographer, he has captured subjects ranging from Pete Townsend to Neil Simon, and was staff photographer for San Diego’s Sushi Performance and Visual Art, documenting the work of cutting-edge performers like Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Joe Goode. Mark’s Sushi gallery exhibition, "Field Recordings," highlighted those artists and many others; he was also a featured photographer for the visual art component of the Celebrate Dance festival in Balboa Park.

He returned to corporate communications in 2013, becoming the driving force behind Kimpton’s award-winning travel and lifestyle blog, Life is Suite. He was principal writer and editor for the site, as well as being responsible for back-end production; he also recruited, voice trained and managed a team of regional contributing writers. Additionally, he was brand-voice guru for the company’s relaunched website, writing and editing copy for more than 100 hotel and restaurant properties, as well as brand informational pages.