Jane Simon Ammeson is a freelance writer who specializes in travel, food and personalities. She writes frequently for The Times of Northwest Indiana, Mexico Connect, Long Weekends magazine, Edible Michiana, Lakeland Boating, Food Wine Travel magazine , Lee Publications, and the Herald Palladium where she writes a weekly food column. Her TouchScreenTravels include Indiana’s Best. She also writes a weekly book review column for The Times of Northwest Indiana as well as food and travel, has authored 16 books including Lincoln Road Trip: The Back-road Guide to America’s Favorite President, a winner of the Lowell Thomas Journalism Award in Travel Books, Third Place and also a Finalist for the 2019 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards in the Travel category. Her latest books are America’s Femme Fatale: The Story of Serial Killer Belle Gunness and Classic Restaurants of Northwest Indiana.
Her other books include How to Murder Your Wealthy Lovers and Get Away with It, A Jazz Age Murder in Northwest Indiana and Murders That Made Headlines: Crimes of Indiana, all historic true crime as well Hauntings of the Underground Railroad: Ghosts of the Midwest, Brown County, Indiana and East Chicago. Jane’s base camp is Stevensville, Michigan on the shores of Lake Michigan. Follow Jane at facebook.com/janesimonammeson; twitter.com/hpammeson; https://twitter.com/janeammeson1; twitter.com/travelfoodin, instagram.com/janeammeson/ and on her travel and food blog janeammeson.com and book blog: shelflife.blog/
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Lee Woodruff’s personal experiences form basis of her new novel
Lee Woodruff knows all the sudden twists of fate that can send our lives careening in what seems like nanoseconds. Her husband, ABC’s Bob Woodruff, suffered a devastating head injury after an IED exploded nearby while he was embedded with the U.S. military during the Iraqi War. The couple explored the aftermath of the explosion…
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Chicago writer explores the partnership between chefs and the farmers who grow food for them
Profiling 25 Midwestern farms in her book Locally Grown: Portraits of Artisanal Farms from America’s Heartland (Agate Midway 2012; $22.95), Anna Blessing tells us the story of each including its history, roots in the community, scale, production and inner workings as well as the premiere Chicago chefs such as Rick Bayless, Stephanie Izard, Sarah Stegner and…
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Buddy Guy’s autobiography traces his blues journey to Chicago
When he first came to Chicago almost 55 years ago, legendary bluesmen like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Little Walter were part of the city’s music scene. “I arrived here in from Louisiana and the greatest blues players in the world were all alive and playing here,” says Buddy Guy, considered one of the greatest…
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What's for dinner next decade?
While many of us are moving backwards foodwise, reveling in heritage vegetables, foraging woods for forgotten greens and enjoying farmhouse dinners, Josh Schonwald is looking towards what we’ll be putting on our tables in the years to come. Will it be cobia, touted as “the next salmon” and prized because it grows ten times faster…
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Brad Thor: Black List
There are A lists and B lists but the one list you never want to be on is the Black List (Simon & Schuster 2012; $27), the secret government list seen only by the President of the United States and his secret team of advisors. The bad part of this list of people who are…
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The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln
What if Abraham Lincoln had survived the assassination attempt on his life? Would he still have been considered the great statesman and hero that he is today? Maybe not, writes Stephen Carter, the William Nelson Cromwell professor of law at Yale, in his latest book The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln: A Novel (Knopf 2012; $26.95).…
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Former sex crimes prosecutor writes second mystery
Allison Leotta, a former federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C. who specialized in prosecuting sex crimes, domestic violence and crimes against children, developed the theme of her latest mystery thriller Discretion (Touchstone 2012; $25) when a colleague/friend worked on the case of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, dubbed by the press as the D.C. Madam. Palfrey ran a…
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Murder Makes Life Interesting in Starvation Lake
Winters are long in Starvation Lake, a fading Northern Michigan town that is devoted to hockey. Fortunately, each season seems to bring at least one murder to keep life interesting and Gus Carpenter, executive editor of the Pine County Pilot, busy. Author Bryan Gruley, a reporter-at-large for Bloomberg News, writing long-form features for Bloomberg Businessweek…
