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 – Mine is a portfolio career swinging from aeronautics to art, music business to boutique retail, jewellery creation to teaching–training, music research to health writing.
Since rediscovering writing, it’s gone like this:
Author since 1993
Freelance writer & editor since 1998
Tutor, postgraduate writing, Deakin University 2010–13
Related & unrelated but interesting enterprises:
Presenter, Dance Steps for the Self-Employed, 2012–21
Business manager, Warmun Art Centre, Warmun, WA 2007–08
Band booker & manager, 1992–96
Owner, maker, wholesaler, retailer, Coyle’s Richmond, Fitzroy & Melbourne 1980–96
Travel – As often as possible, now that I’ve semi-retired:
2024 – Deep South USA; New Zealand, Tahiti & Marquesas; Japan, South Korea & Taiwan
2023 – New Zealand, Tasmania, Townsville, Canberra, regional Victoria
2022 – South Australia, Western Europe & UK, Far North Queensland
At the moment, I’m enjoying …
planning our Japan trip, watercolour sketching, exploring Melbourne, qi gong & yoga, Radiotherapy on RRR, Grigory Sokolov, MSO, PBSFM, Writers Victoria’s LiveWrite, Isabel Allende’s Violeta, Christina Thompson’s Sea People
Books
Cancer Treatment Breakthroughs (Wilkinson Publishing, 2022) – co-written with Tim Ladhams
In the End: A Practical Guide to Dying (Fernlea Community Care, 2022)
Wordy-Gurdy
Wordy-Gurdy morphed out of Jackey’s freelance music–travel–lifestyle writing, funded mostly by editing for Lonely Planet (2003–13) and lifestyle and health magazines.
We added publishing to editing and proofreading in 2011, with Indian Summers: Mumbai and beyond by Ian Cochrane (Wordy-Gurdy 2011).
We were headhunted in 2011 as business-magazine founding editor of Strategic Super Investor (Summit) and Inside Small Business (Octomedia).
Wordy-Gurdy’s 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.
Authors include Ali Corke, Dr Charlie Corke and Ian Cochrane; fiction and nonfiction authors, academics and small businesses.
Jackey has/is
Master of Arts (Writing & Literature)
Certificate 4 (Training)
Member, Institute of Professional Editors and Writers Victoria.
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