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Copywriting, Feature Writing, freelance life, Writing

August 2025: some recent work

DorkyMum

It’s been a few months since I did a post about my work projects, so I thought I would pop on here and share a few links!

Firstly, a thank you to Brand Tasmania, who continue to be one of my most regular clients – and also one of my favourites! My work for them involves taking interview transcripts and turning them into profiles. Sometimes there are a few as part of a series – women in sport, or healthcare workers – other times it’s just an inspiring individual who in some way captures what it means to be Tasmanian. My recent profiles have included:

Continue reading “August 2025: some recent work” →

Copywriting, Feature Writing, freelance life, Writing

ChatGPT and me: a commitment to my clients

DorkyMum

 

I’m in a lot of writer groups online, and there’s one topic that seems to come up almost daily at the moment: ChatGPT.

The conversations around it are wide-ranging and often passionate. Some writers won’t go anywhere near it for ethical, environmental, or creative reasons. Others have fully embraced it, and are open about how they have incorporated it into their workflow. Some use it quietly, without disclosing it to clients. And some are using it against their better judgment, simply because clients expect or require them to.

It’s clear we’re still in the early stages of figuring out how AI fits into creative and professional writing. There are strong opinions and no settled norms – and as freelancers, it’s up to each of us to take an individual position that we are comfortable with.

For me, that decision is clear: I don’t use ChatGPT for client work.

Continue reading “ChatGPT and me: a commitment to my clients” →

Copywriting, Feature Writing, freelance life

April 2025: some recent work

DorkyMum

Hello everyone, I hope you’ve all enjoyed a break over the Easter weekend.

If you’re anything like me, you’re now racing to get a week’s worth of work done in three days before the next public holiday on Friday! Perhaps instead I should just give myself over to some enforced rest and pick things up next week when school goes back instead…

While I do have a moment spare, I thought I would share just a few links to some of my recent work.

Continue reading “April 2025: some recent work” →

Copywriting, Feature Writing, freelance life, Writing

Cheerio 2024, hello 2025!

DorkyMum

It’s that wonderful week between Christmas and New Year when there are few demands on my time, and still plenty of festive snacks left in the fridge.

I always find this period to be both relaxing and productive. Without any work obligations, I can tackle some of the other things that need doing around the house – all the paperwork tasks and chores that sit on my to-do list for six months, but take only ten minutes when I finally get to them… leaving plenty of time for an afternoon nap.

In order to put 2024 firmly behind me, I thought I’d pop up a quick blog post to share some links to my final few published pieces of the year.

Continue reading “Cheerio 2024, hello 2025!” →

Reading

2024: My year in reading

DorkyMum

It’s time for one of my favourite annual traditions! A roundup of the reading I’ve done this year. 

There are still a few days to go, and I’m about halfway through Salt Houses by Hala Alyan. I’m expecting to finish it by New Year, so that will bring my 2024 book total to 103 books. That’s slightly down on the previous few years, but there were some big chunky novels in there and fewer poetry collections, so I reckon my reading pace remains unchanged.

Of those 103 books that passed through my hands, 46 were fiction, 50 were non-fiction, five were poetry and one was a hard-to-categorise anthology of images and words.  Continue reading “2024: My year in reading” →

Copywriting, Feature Writing, freelance life

October 2024: some recent writing work

DorkyMum

Hello friends,

I hope the year is treating you well. We are very happy to be moving into spring here in Tasmania – the warmer, lighter days are a delight after a very wet and windy winter. I no longer have to shove a hot water bottle up my jumper when I’m sitting at the desk in my home office!

Since it’s been a couple of months since my last post on here, I thought it was time to share a few more links to pieces I’ve worked on recently. So, here goes.

Almost all of these are articles that I’ve written for CSIRO, but they’re on a very diverse range of subjects so hopefully there will be at least one that piques your interest!

Continue reading “October 2024: some recent writing work” →

Feature Writing, freelance life, Writing

July 2024: some recent work

DorkyMum

July already! Goodness me, how did that happen? This year seems to be galloping along at an incredible pace.

It has been a very busy year for me so far, with a great combination of shorter one-off projects and longer tasks that I can really immerse myself in. I hope the second half of the year continues in the same way – although perhaps with fewer family medical dramas. Thank you to all my wonderful clients for your patience and flexibility as we worked through that tricky little spell.

It’s always fun to take a moment and reflect on the variety of work that has come across my desk, and this update is no exception.

Continue reading “July 2024: some recent work” →

Copywriting, freelance life

January 2024: some recent work

DorkyMum

We have somehow reached the end of January already!

It’s still school holidays here in Tasmania for another week, but now that my kiddo is a little older – and very able to entertain himself – I’ve managed to get some work done over the last few weeks and thought I would share some links with you.

Continue reading “January 2024: some recent work” →

Reading

2023: A Year in Reading

DorkyMum

Photo shows the pages of a book with text overlaid that reads '2023: A Year in Reading'

 

One of my favourite things to do in the relatively calm week between Christmas and New Year is take a moment to reflect on my year in reading. 

My Instagram account @ruthreadsbooks has made that task a bit easier because the covers jog my memory on books that I’ve particularly loved or found interesting – but for the grand tally I still rely on my written reading journal.  Continue reading “2023: A Year in Reading” →

Copywriting, Feature Writing

October 2023: Some recent work

DorkyMum

This is a bit of a fly-by blog post!

I’m just back from a wonderful three weeks visiting family and friends in the UK, and my inbox needs more than a little attention… but the list of articles I’ve had published recently has also been growing steadily. I thought I’d better pop some links up here before I start delving into new work.

It has been an especially busy spell for my work with CSIRO. The pieces I’ve worked on for them recently include:

I have a couple of other CSIRO articles in the publication pipeline, which I’ll share in my next post.

It has also been quite a busy time with Brand Tasmania. Not all of those articles have made it onto the website yet, but the two that have are about Archie Matteo from Westhaven Dairy, and Royce Smith from Granville Harbour Wind Farm.

Finally, I was really pleased to help out the team at Swansea Beach Chalets with content for their revamped website. Swansea Beach Chalets is our favourite place to stay on Tasmania’s East Coast, and it was an honour to help them showcase some of what they have to offer!

Thanks for taking the time to check out some of my recent work. Now, back to that inbox… and let’s see what I’m going to be working on next!

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Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash