Not Dead Yet

Barbara Ballinger is an award-winning wordsmith who has interviewed a variety of celebrities and experts—Tipper Gore, Martha Stewart, Danny Meyer, David Rockwell, Rosalynn Carter, and Lorraine Bracco among them—while covering such diverse topics as business, design, entertaining and food, law, and personal finance. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Chicago Tribune, Crain’s Chicago Business, HGTV, House Beautiful,Hudson Valley, MultiFamily Executive, The New York Times, Realtor, Robb Report, and St.Louis Post–Dispatch. A popular author, her latest book is The Kitchen Bible. In addition, Barbara blogs at three popular sites: Why That Much, The Bare Root, and Builders Blocks. Ballinger also speaks at conferences and in various media, including “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “The Nancy Glass Radio Show,” and “The Mark Nash Radio Show.” Margaret Crane is a nationally-known freelance writer focusing on business, food, wine, fashion, and home furnishings. She has interviewed such luminaries as Virginia Johnson, Moshe Dayan, Shimon Peres, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Tippi Hedren, Sally Quinn, Jack Buck, William Shatner, and many others. Her work has appeared in a wide variety of publications, including Beverage Journals, Crain’s ChicagoBusiness, Family Business Magazine, Inc. Magazine, Midwest Living, The New York Times,Newsweek, Realtor, St. Louis Business Journal, St. Louis Post Dispatch, St. Louis Magazine, St.Louis Town & Style, The Wine Spectator, and Your Company. A proven author with more than a half dozen titles to her credit, Margaret’s latest book is The Kitchen Bible and Suddenly SingleAfter 50. She formerly worked as a senior writer and researcher at Jewish Federation of Saint Louis, where she helped launch and maintain an award-winning website. Margaret also writes website content and does editing for non-profit organizations and for-profit companies.