About
Born & lives – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Places lived – London, UK; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Sydney, NSW; Warmun, WA; Port Germein, SA
Education – Masters (Writing and Literature) Deakin University
Selected experience – A chequered career driven by eclectic interests and passions – aeronautics to art, music business to boutique retail, jewellery creation to teaching–training, music research to health writing.
Freelance writer & editor, 1993–present
Tutor, postgraduate writing, Deakin University 2010–13
Presenter, Dance Steps for the Self-Employed, 2012–21
Business manager, Warmun Art Centre, Warmun, WA 2007–08
Band booker & manager, 1992–96
Maker, wholesaler, retailer, Coyle’s Richmond, Fitzroy & Melbourne 1980–96
Travel – As often as possible.
South Australia, Europe & UK, Far North Queensland, 2022
New Zealand, Canberra, regional Victoria, Tasmania, Townsville, 2023
Japan & Taiwan, Tahiti & Marquesas, Deep South USA, 2024
At the moment, I’m enjoying …
editing photos from Tasmania trip, drawing Tassie plants, brewing mincemeat, planning next year’s getaways, mentoring writers; Books for Cooks, Life’s Too Short, qi gong, Radiotherapy on RRR, Grigory Sokolov, MSO, PBSFM, LiveWrite, yoga, Joyce Carol Oates’s A Widow’s Story, Max Allen’s Alternative Reality, Lyndall Ryan’s Tasmanian Aborigines
Books
Cancer Treatment Breakthroughs (Wilkinson Publishing) – co-written with Tim Ladhams. Released in 2022, it’s available via booksellers and Booktopia in Australia and the likes of WH Smith in the UK and Book Depository internationally. It was featured in US Fall 2022 catalogues.
In the End: A Practical Guide to Dying (Fernlea Community Care) was published in 2022. It is available in print here and e-book here.
See more on Jackey’s writer page and via Australian Society of Authors.
Wordy-Gurdy
In 2006, Wordy-Gurdy morphed out of Jackey’s freelance music–travel–lifestyle writing and editing for magazines and Lonely Planet.
Tutoring writing units 2010–13 at Deakin University led to developing and presenting freelance business skills through Dance Steps for the Self-Employed for Editors Victoria in 2012 and Writers Victoria in 2015.
Editing and proofreading grew into publishing in 2011, with Indian Summers: Mumbai and beyond by Ian Cochrane (Wordy-Gurdy 2011).
Jackey was recruited as business-magazine founding editor 2011–16 of Strategic Super Investor (Summit) and Inside Small Business (Octomedia).
Wordy-Gurdy covers fiction, poetry and and nonfiction; lifestyle, small business, biography, health, science, academe, music and the arts. We’ve even proofread a cricket book!
Publisher client list includes Black Inc., Bonnier Publishing Australia, Burnet Institute, Deakin University, Lonely Planet, Major Street Publishers, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Octomedia, Wild Dingo Press, John Wiley & Sons, Wilkinson Publishing.
Self-publishers include Ali Corke and Ian Cochrane, fiction and nonfiction authors, academics and small businesses.
Jackey has/is
Master of Arts (Writing & Literature)
Certificate 4 (Training)
Member, Australian Society of Authors, Institute of Professional Editors and Writers Victoria.
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