Tom Durkin

From screenplays to technical white papers, general news reporting to deep legislative-legal analysis, op-eds to feature articles, press releases to personality profiles, copy writing to copy editing, ghostwriting to my latest resume, my career has been a peripatetic journey through many genres, media and styles.

Over the many years, with occasional day-job excursions into social work and manual labor, I’ve discovered that I can write (or edit) pretty much anything you need - even if I’ve never done it before. Some of the best writing I’ve done has been from cold assignments on subjects I didn’t know anything about. Some of my other best writings have been the culmination of years of deep research and primary source investigative reporting. As for editing, I can help you with your fiction or non-fiction work - and guarantee it will be presented in compelling, professional English.

Just for street creds, I was almost kicked out of high school for writing for an underground newspaper in Salina, Kansas - but I managed to graduate with honors from UCLA with a BA in Psychology and and MFA in TV/Film. And later on, I put in another three semesters of postgraduate studies in creative writing, computer science, and tennis at Sonoma State University before I ran out of scholarship money.

During this long strange trip, I’ve worked at or for such companies as The Burbank Studios, MGM, Paramount Pictures, KXTV, Raytheon, Sacramento Business Journal, The Bureau of National Affairs, Xilinx Inc., Innovative Integration, Gold Country Media, Swift Communications, and Invisible People, among many others. Most recently I worked as PPP pandemic reporter for The Union newspaper in Grass Valley, California.

While there is a certain romance to the term “freelance writer,” it doesn’t mean I work for free. I’m happy to consult with you for free, but a deposit is always required for work to begin. What I charge depends entirely on the gig. I offer highly competitive market rates. Maybe you can get it cheaper, but you can’t get it better. I don’t do quick and dirty work, because good enough isn’t.