Sweet, sweet Summer.

This summer is flying by, ya’ll.

Life’s been keeping me busy with travel, family, and work — but I have mostly been happily spending more time around home these last few summer months. In 2023, I traveled 126 days of the year. It was super fun but also an insane amount of time to be adventuring, flying, and spending time away from what I love most: my partner and our home. So, this year I vowed to (mostly) keep travel to a minimum — unless it was to a local state park or a road trip over to Michigan in our new-to-us 1992 Toyota van.

Work has been keeping me busy too (remember when I was saying how nervous I was about the state of the media industry, lol). However, most of my work these days is going beyond freelance writing. I’ve started to pick up some contract work outside of contributing stories to industry publications. It’s been a fun challenge to manage so many projects and clients at one time — but a great way to diversify my workload. Some of my work this summer includes:

• Supporting the Outdoor Media Summit team to help produce their 2024 conference in Missoula this October.

• A 7-week project gig with a former PR tech agency I used to work with (gotta get that $$$).

• Contracting with several tourism boards on social media, content writing, and marketing consulting.

All to say… I’m still writing quite a bit for CNN, Treeline Review, Trails Mag, GearJunkie, Backpacker, and many others. Whewww! Busy times.

Backpacker: Camp Shoes Are Essential, According To Podiatrists. Here’s Why.

Backpacker: This Hiking Paradise In The Heartland Flies Under The Radar

CNN Underscored: The best camping tents in 2024, tried and tested

CNN Underscored: The best barefoot shoes in 2024, tried and tested

CNN Underscored: The best hiking daypacks in 2024, tried and tested

Gear & Beer Podcast: Turtlebox Gen 2 Bluetooth Speaker + Old Style Lager

TBH I’m taking a break from accepting pitches for September and October until I get through this HECTIC season of project work outside of freelance writing.

That said, I’m alwaysss open to pitches in my inbox: erica.zazo@gmail.com 🙂

Let’s pick back up in November!

Shameless plug to listen to my guest appearance on the Gear & Beer pod 🎙

I’m in love with this Live rooftop set by Fred again. I put it on while I work for background noise and some reprieve from staring at my computer too long 😵‍💫

Thanks for reading ✌️

Your pal, Erica ✨