The Writing Life

Writing is both my profession and my personal passion.
    Currently, all my professional writing is done on a freelance basis through my company, MultiLingual Communications. My personal writing, as featured prominently on this site, is generally on the subjects of history and/or travel.
    The diversity of my all my writing efforts is reflected in the wide range of places I’ve been published, including: Constru-Gia al dia, Energy Markets, Women’s Enterprise, European Royal History Journal, Octopus Travel (Guides), The Unofficial Royal Family Pages, TimeTravel-Britain, Royalty Digest Quarterly, All Info About English Culture, All Info About British History, The Duke and Duchess of Windsor Society Newsletter, Tales from a Small Planet, and Pictures & Stories.
    My education in mass communications and a professional career that has spanned journalism, public relations and marketing, have provided me with a uniquely well-rounded base for the life of an independent writer. Throughout my career, I have written and published everything from marketing and promotional materials to ghostwritten executive by-lines to regular contributed columns to anecdotes and features.
    Continue reading below for more on my professional writing.

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Professional Writing

As a freelance writer, I am able to provide writing services of all kinds to individuals and companies around the world. My professional experiences have provided me with a great number of opportunities to not only write and publish press releases, business articles, and ghostwritten/by-lined articles, but also write for and edit a number of magazines and newspapers.
   With 14 years experience in marketing, public relations and journalism, I am able to bring a uniquely well-rounded perspective to any project. I am flexible and easy to work with, and I always deliver projects on time and at a reasonable price.
   My writing services include copywriting, editing and proofreading. I offer editing and proofreading services for almost any medium and on most subjects, and can produce copy for almost any purpose, including: advertisements, annual reports, articles, brochures, catalogs, direct mail, e-mail campaigns, editorials, essays, headlines, invitations, magazines and newspapers, marketing and PR plans, marketing copy, newsletters, press releases, speeches, and web sites.

MultiLingual Communications

As I child, when people asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up, my standard answer was: "I want to do what my Daddy does." Today, that’s exactly what I do as a public relations professional and writer.
    In 2002, after years of working in public relations agencies and corporate communications, I went into business with my parents as the boutique PR agency, Van Orden Communications.
    After they retired, my husband and I started our own company, MultiLingual Communications, which combines the best of his skills as a translator and interpreter with mine as a public relations professional and writer.

Find out more at our MultiLingual Communications web site

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Working in Print

My experience with publications began in college when I served for two years on the staff of The Lasso, the Texas Woman's University newspaper. I started as a staff writer, reporting on various beats and writing my own weekly column, then continued my tenure as entertainment editor and, finally, editor-in-chief.
   Following college, I served as editor of the National Business News for the National Business Association, ensuring that a quality bi-monthly magazine was produced and sent to thousands of association members. Later, I served as the editor-in-chief for the Women’s Enterprise family of magazines, including Women’s Enterprise Texas, a tabloid-sized monthly, and Women’s Enterprise USA, a quarterly glossy magazine.

Featured Writing

Travel and History

Simply put, I'm a travel writer with a twist... my love of writing, traveling and history feed on each other too much to just write your basic travelogues. And while I write articles and commentaries about the places I visit, my real passion is to delve deep into the history behind those places - especially the people - and write both true history articles and historical fiction stories that capture the imagination.
   I also enjoy writing articles about my travel experiences, adventures and practical advice as a lone female traveler, or as my father aptly dubbed me - a "Globetrotting Broad." From a travel perspective, I have written everything from a travel guide on Dallas, Texas, for Octopus Travel, to a series of articles on historic destinations in Britain for a great web magazine called TimeTravel-Britain.

continue to "History" page

The Royal Scribe

My column on historic and modern royalty

Over the years, one of the most enjoyable forums for my writing on historic and modern royalty has been Etoile's Unofficial Royalty Site. I've written many articles for this popular royalty web site under the pseudonym "The Royal Scribe," and also researched and developed the content for a section of the site called The Unofficial Spanish Royal Family Pages.

Scholarly Journals

In print, I've done several in-depth historical articles for specialty and scholarly journals, such as the European Royal History Journal and Royalty Digest Quarterly on subjects like: Alice Heine, the first American princess of Monaco; the Duke and Duchess of Windsor; a history of Bonapartes in America; and the history of the Czech monarchy. Several of my articles on the Duke and Duchess of Windsor have also appeared in Duke and Duchess of Windsor Society Quarterly.