Monte Burch has been an award-winning freelance writer, photographer, and illustrator for more than three decades. He is the author of over 70 books and hundreds of published magazine articles. His book topics range from cabinetmaking to building sheds, barns, and log homes.Beginning his work in the woodworking field at the knee of his father, a cabinetmaker, Monte became an associate editor ofWorkbench magazine after college. Seven years later he and his family moved to the Missouri Ozarks, and he began a freelance career in both the woodworking and hunting and fishing fields.Monte and his wife, Joan, still reside on a farm in the Missouri Ozarks where he continues his passions for woodworking, furniture building, hunting, fishing, photography, illustrating, and writing for numerous national magazines in several fields. Their farm is managed extensively for wildlife and a cow/calf operation.