Welcome

I think it all started in sixth grade. I would entertain my friends by producing a completely hand written and drawn "newspaper" that featured a humorous take on some of the things we joked about every day. I remember that every issue had to be complete. Headlines, crossword puzzles, pictures, opinions - it was all there.

I never thought to sign up for the school newspaper - I'm not even sure we had one - and by the time I was in high school my time became consumed with learning to type on a state-of-the-art Selectric and methodically counting the spaces to make type centered. We had one font, one size but you could get "creative" by centering type. My, how times have changed!

A friend got me a job during college in the small local shopper paper she worked for. I worked the front desk and took classified ads. Although the job only lasted a few months due to a total collapse of my personal life - more on that another time - I had cought the "bug" and, as they used to say, ink was now "in my veins". A string of newspaper jobs - all in advertising and production throughout the 1980's and it was at one of those jobs that I met my still husband Dave, who has NEVER stopped believing in me.

I used to joke that, as a newspaper person, I could do everything but run the press. And I could, too. I've been a classified ad rep, a display ad rep, an ad designer, builder, proofer, editorial writer, photographer, assistant advertising director and more. So, in 2009, as the world, prematurely perhaps, declares the death of the newspaper - I have finally decided to put all those skills to work for myself. Thank goodness for the home computer and ALL of the software that makes producing an online magazine a snap. And thank goodness for women like Terry Gamer, the Publisher of the Original Hartford Woman, who mentored me in the early 1990's and has come back to graciously do so again today. (You can say hello to Terry by stopping by her FaceBook page at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=664794512&ref=ts )

So welcome to my very wild ride. I have selected some of the coolest folks I know to share their wisdom with you and I am REALLY proud to have their help. I hope you enjoy yourself and that you get to know yourself a bit better from the time that you spend here with us. Please let us know what you are thinking and if there's anything you'd like to know more about.

Thank you for this great opportunity!

Kate LaFrance, Publisher