"Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas. For reason, ruling alone is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction. Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion, that it may sing; And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes."

Khalil Gibran
Client: Vermont Studio

URL: www.vermontstudio.com

Challenge: Vermont Studio, which has served as Land Rover North America's primary videography team since 1987, was assigned the task to write and film new footage for a joint Land Rover/Jaguar DVD that was to be used to introduce the 2003 model lines to both the press and public on a 12-city national tour.

Solution: Black Rock Consulting was engaged to write narration voiceover marketing copy for the DVD that would be accessible to automotive enthusiasts and the press, while providing technical and lifestyle information about the vehicles. Professional driving services were also rendered during the production, both for on road handling of various Jaguar models as well as technical off-road use of the Land Rover products.

 

“It is my pleasure to provide a recommendation for Jonathan S. Ross based on my experience working with him off and on for the past three years.

The first thing that people need to understand is how talented a writer (I refer to him as my “word-slinger”) Jonathan really is. Not only is he highly creative, but he has a wonderful understanding of business and knows how to lend a personal touch to everything that he does. I have found Jonathan to be a forward-thinker who is quick to understand the needs of not only a company, but the individual as well. He has proven to me that he understands the world of entertainment and knows when to be discreet and diplomatic, yet he can be a bulldog when it comes to protecting his clients’ interests.

Above all else, he is honest and a man of integrity and character. I have recommended Jonathan’s services to my own clients and I would not hesitate to recommend him to anyone else. “


Lin Milano
President & Chief Executive Officer
Celebrity Loop

 

Portfolio


BUSINESS
We're proud of the work that we do at Black Rock Consulting. Some of it, however, is subject to confidentiality agreements, in which case we can provide a client referral to allow them to disclose whatever they feel is appropriate.

Redacted and sanitized Business Plans and other strategic deliverable samples are available upon request, subject to the execution of a Non-Disclosure Agreement. Please contact us for details.

Additional examples of business writing can be found on the Tao of the Zentropist blog


CREATIVE
The following are representative samples of previous work. This page is periodically updated, so feel free to come back!

You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available as a free download, to view the following files:

Click here if you'd like to download a PDF file containing brief descriptions of completed creative projects written by Jonathan Samuel Ross. Hard copies of completed scripts and manuscripts are available by request.

Click here to read a brief epigraph written on the art and science of tracking, a subject of considerable interest to our founder.

Click here to download the PDF of “The Rugaru,” a short story / introduction to a novel originally written for the 2005 WordHarvest / Cowboys & Indians magazine writing contest.

Click here to download the PDF of “The Wine Dark Sea,” a short story originally written for the fiction writing category of the 2004 Power of Purpose Essay Competition.

Click here to download the PDF of “A Field Guide to the American Character,” an essay written for a 2004 Vanity Fair competition.

Click here to download a PDF of “Do We Need Nature?,” an essay written for the 2003 Shell Economist Writing Prize, a global competition sponsored by Shell Oil Company and "The Economist" Magazine.

Click here to download a PDF of "How Much Freedom Should We Trade for Our Security?," an essay written for the 2002 Shell Economist Writing Prize.

Both digital media and print copywriting samples are available upon request; please contact us for details.