Outed...Sort of...

It's true.... I'm writing for PHOENIX Magazine now. I had only told a couple of friends because I wanted to see my name in print before I started telling the world. Just because I turned in articles, didn't mean they would soak up ink on a page, I thought. But today, a friend forwarded me a blog entry from the Phoenix New Times restaurant critic, Michele Laudig.

She writes in her 6/19 post that the magazine unveils three new scribes, including me. I haven't seen the July issue yet...it's June 20, for crying out loud... but regular subscribers apparently get the next month's issue about two weeks before it hits the newsstand.

I am extremely honored to write for PHOENIX Magazine. I loved reading long-time critic Nikki Buchanan's reviews, even though I didn't always agree with her, nor experience the same dining experience she did that formed the basis of her reviews.

Not often, but occasionally, I thought her choice of words were brutal and unnecessarily hurtful. There are ways to convey you have issues with food and/or service without interjecting heart-piercing words. But I admired her talent for writing -- describing food so that the reader could taste it -- and her wealth of knowledge about food and restaurants in general.

Before I agreed to write for the magazine, I met with the editor. Rumors were swirling about the circumstances of Buchanan's departure. It was a "He said, she said," scenario. I grew up as the daughter of a newspaper editor. My Dad had built a figurative firewall around his news/editorial department that the advertisers were constantly trying to climb over. He never once caved in even though the pressure, at times, was unrelenting.

I felt comfortable enough after my meeting with the editor to start writing for the magazine, and I made it excruciatingly clear that I would bail if anything happens in the course of my work for them that compromises my standards. I do understand that advertisers bring money to the table. I also understand that the real customer is the reader, and the reader has every right to expect and receive credible information from the writers that is in no way influenced by advertising dollars.

My goal, in writing for PHOENIX Magazine, as it is for every other client I write for, is to be honest, to entertain, and to share the passion of food I have with all who read what I write.