Going to the Dogs and Blogs....

I've been kicked out of my desk again this morning by my beagle, Tytus.  Fun. 

Well, I'll just going to move him and get back to writing.  While I'm known as The Amish Cook's editor and I'm proud of the expertise I've assembled in all things plain, my roots are as a writer.  When I was 16-years-old I began writing for magazines, with my first published piece in a tiny magazine called Environmental Action. I often talk about the beating newspapers have taken from the internet and the sour economy, but magazines have been similarly shellacked.  There used to be so many magazines, fat with stories and ads and freelance writings tripping over themselves trying to fill their pages with stories.  I was one of those freelancers.  Now magazines like Time, Newsweek and others have shriveled up to prune-like skeletons. Anyway, I was a reporter for The Middletown Journal in Ohio for over 10 years penning hundreds of features, hard-news stories, boring council meeting rehashes, and sometimes my own columns.I also wrote for a slew of magazines,  some you may have heard of,most you have probably not...magazines like Sky (the inflight magazine for Delta Airlines), Cincinnati Magazine, Environmental Action, Michigan Country Lines,The Cleveland Plain Dealer,Home Education Magazine, Writer's Digest, Home & Away, Travel America and Lord knows I'm sure I've forgotten some.   I am slowly exploring fiction writing  I published my first Amish-themed novella last year, Rebecca at the Beach and I have my first full-length novel coming out soon.  There's often a lot I'd like to say about a variety of topics, but it just doesn't seem like amishcookonline is the right place to talk about my crazed pets, whether my wife's way or my way of loading the dishwasher is correct, bemoaning high gas prices, or my speeding tickets. So coming later this week I will debut my own daily blog called, Not So Simple.  On the blog will be my musings about anything from the occasional Amish topic to favorite restaurants (or least favorite) to nutty neighbors, greedy banks, favorite festivals, riveting movies and books or anything else on my mind.  I know some people don't like when I veer "off topic" on amishcookonline, so my own blog will better separate the two worlds.  And, of course, I'll continue to pack this site full of Amish stuff and,yes, even here I will still occasionally veer off course...that's just me!  Stay tuned!:)