About Me — Mary Louise Tucker
I’m an almost-retired Technical Writer, a language lover, reader, singer, traveller and keen eater. Happy at home in Australia for the moment, though I will travel again.
I’m Mary Louise Tucker (MLT or Lou to many). I was born in Pennsylvania (USA) but have lived most of my life in Australia after arriving as a 25-year-old traveller.
I am married to a guy who cooks well and still makes me laugh. We have no children. We do, however, have a somewhat sulky but cuddly cat called José Gonzalez. His cheerful brother (litter-mate) called ‘Speedy’ passed away during 2020. And, no, we have never referred to pets as fur-babies. They are uncomplicated companions, like good housemates you might say.
As I no longer work full-time, I can pursue interests that I didn’t previously have time for. I’m learning Latvian from scratch and maintaining an intermediate level of Italian through weekly classes, online and sometimes in person. In 2018 I joined two local choirs where we sing in the languages mentioned above.
Somewhere in between, I try to find time to do ad hoc technical writing and editing for two freelance clients.
My reading includes fiction and non-fiction: mostly novels, essays, some poetry and short stories. Outside of work, my writing so far has been limited to blogging, mostly about our travels, albeit sporadically.
I know a few things about writing, having spent the last 40 years doing just that. But the thing I know most is what Virginia Woolf put best when she said:
Writing is always difficult.
I have spent most of my professional working life massaging words and trying to communicate. The subjects I have written on are mostly regarding Information Technology (IT): software user manuals, how-to guides, training materials, policies, procedures, flow diagrams and product descriptions.
With all that experience, I should be an expert at something, but I’m not really. My writing has spanned many different industries and audiences.
The passion for writing is still there, so Medium is where I will write for now. It’s a change in writing style and audience from my past structured writing on technical topics to a narrative essay format. I hope to use my project management skills — learned on IT projects — with planning, writing, and publishing here.
I don’t know how to categorise what I hope to write. Reflections on my life and things I’ve picked up along the way could be called Memoir. My quotidian observations could be called Personal Essays.
I’ll leave you with a snippet I heard on a podcast today. The podcast is called ‘The New Writer’s Room’. In episode two, the presenters interview Alana Hicks, winner of the 2020 SBS Emerging Writers’ Competition.
The interviewer asked:
So much of memoir writing is about putting yourself onto the page, opening yourself to judgement. Was that difficult?
The author, Alana Hicks, responded:
It’s the worst, are you kidding me! It’s like being put on a cold table and asking someone to examine your naked body...
So there we are. Thanks for making it this far in my introduction. Here’s to new beginnings and a certain amount of learning about my pain threshold, I suspect.
You can find ‘The New Writer’s Room’ podcast here.
