Dora Bona, professional freelance writer, amateur photographer, mother of 4, grandmother of 2, sibling of 4, aunt to 4, close friend to a treasured few, passionate cook, avid reader, photographer and world explorer.
I have been a wordaholic since I was old enough to know what a word was. I simply fell in love with what words could do, and half a century later, I still feel the same way. I’ve always marvelled at what a profound effect the grouping together of words could have on a person. Expertly executed, words can move you to tears or laughter, change minds, end relationships, sell ocean liners, incite wars and soothe children. But the most important thing about words, and why I’ve dedicated my life to them, is that they tell stories. At age six, I was devouring books. But they didn’t taste very nice, so I decided to start reading them instead. I became hooked on the works of Enid Blyton, C.S. Lewis, Beatrix Potter, Lewis Carroll, E.B.White and as many books as I could get my pudgy hands on. A full blown addiction to reading can very often lead to a seamy underworld filled with hopeless addicts who think about nothing but writing. There is no twelve-step program for us, and if you’ve been one for as long as I have, then you stop looking for a cure,
(auto) Biographical snippets:
- At age 8, I was proofreading, and eventually re-writing job application letters for my dad, whose first language is not English.
- School years were spent flunking maths and science, and acing it in English and French
- By the age of 19 I was regularly contributing poems and stories to newspapers and magazines, many of which were published in Australian People, Woman’s Day, New Idea, Women’s Weekly, and various literary publications
- My first real ‘writing job’ was as a copywriter at 2BS, the radio station in my then home town of Bathurst
- I also wrote a weekly humour column for the town’s newspaper, The Western Advocate. Later I put together a collection of these columns and with the help of a dear friend and fellow writer, entered the world of self publishing and produced a book of these columns.
- Moved to Sydney and began work as creative director for Sydney’s top ranking talk radio station, 2GB, part of the Macquarie Radio Network.
- After three years of churn-and-burn, I took on the job of marketing director for a natural health company, Topline International, writing the advertising and marketing material for their vast range of products under the Nature Bee flagship. (After 17 years, this company is still a client on a consultative basis)
Career stuff:
- Weekly blog for NatureBee
- Website content and SEO copy for Tremble Digital
- Content by contract for Upwork, formerly known as oDesk
- Content for Copify
- Short Story contributor, blogger and guest editor at Shortbread Stories
- Transcribing and editing a memoir for a client, to be published initially in eBook format
- Managing Social Media content for a client
- Putting together my own collection of short stories to be published initially as an eBook. (Notice this has been tacked on at the end as the hopeful afterthought of a busy freelance writer)
- Guest-tutored in Commercial Radio Management course, Creative Writing Module at Charles Sturt University.
- Worked for PreVu Corporation writing voice-over scripts for videos of hotels and resorts
- Written radio copy for clients of Radiocommercials.com.au
- Worked for Reader’s Digest in their marketing department writing copy for brochures and catalogues
- Worked for Living Social, writing deal copy
- Regular contributor to Weekend Notes, a ‘fun things to do’ website
- Ghost written a 75k word erotic romance novel for a client through Upwork
- Ghost written a 40k audio book series for a client through Upwork
- Edited various full length novels and novellas
- Worked as a voice-over for radio commercials and for various training videos
- Taught creative writing classes for over 15 years, and hope to soon be offering these online right here on this very website!
- Made this very website all by myself, (thanks WordPress for taking me on this white water rafting adventure of learning strange new things)
Send me an email if you like…
