I love to report exciting news.

This one is a doozy.

If you are a reader of Wood Magazine, be sure to check out page 18 of the October 2009 edition.  There, you will notice what is the first of hopefully many articles I have written for the magazine.

It all started when Dave Campbell called me to float the idea of adding a new voice to the magazine. The editors had evaluated several different blog sites to see who had the ‘right stuff.’  Alas, they got me in the deal….

After some discussion, the Shop Monkey title was selected because it should attract the readers’ attention. And, gazing back from the pages is the image of my good friend Iggy the Trained Shop Monkey.

I have also been maintaining a blog over at the Wood Magazine site where I’ve reprieved some of my old Tom’s Workbench posts.  I will also be posting a weekly “Gimme Five with the Shop Monkey” column where I’ll be throwing  out a top five woodworking list.  This should prove to be fun.

The current schedule for the Shop Monkey right now is that the columns will appear in every other edition (the next one is scheduled to appear in the December 2009 edition).  I feel fortunate to be a part of Wood’s 25th anniversary edition – a piece of woodworking history.

Based on reader feedback, there is a good chance that the column could be picked up to run in all seven editions of the magazine.

Now, let’s all go bananas about woodworking!