Braiden Rex-Johnson

"I've always been a writer in my bones. On family car trips, I wondered about who lived in the houses and what their lives were like." Braiden majored in journalism at Southern Methodist University, but ended up with a double major in English and Spanish, graduating Magna Cum Laude. "My parents were horrified with that choice and wanted to know what I was going to do with it."

Braiden training her palate in the early days

She took law school entrance exams and did well. Her parents were happy. At the University of Utah, "It was like going to Mars: a different culture, atmosphere, climate. People around me wanted to be there. I was there for my parents. It was not meant to be from the start. I flunked out."

In Dallas, she worked at an international oil and gas company as an entry-level proofreader. "What kept me there for nearly 5 years was doing the company newsletter. I taught myself photography and learned graphic arts." She moved to an ad agency, staying a year as a proofreader. Next was a medical company that provided insurance and computers to doctors. She stayed for two years, then freelanced for them after the company moved to Austin.

In 1982, she went totally freelance. It was very unusual for anyone to work in a home office. "My husband Spencer was great. He said to take a year and figure out what I wanted to do, but thought I should honor my writing talents." She became a magazine writer, and in the evenings wrote press releases for the PR firm she and Spencer started. "I was 30 years old and had energy," she laughs. She wrote romance novels and screen plays. "Nothing was published, but I was training myself. I did this for seven years."

Braiden loved going to high-end grocery stores, not easily found in 1989-90, and going out for dinner and wine. As travelers, they'd go to upscale restaurants and stores like Dean and Deluca. "I always loved food and wine. My parents would drive 100 miles for a meal. They lived near Philadelphia and we enjoyed the farmers market. Unconsciously, I was training my palate."

In 1988, she and Spencer came to Seattle for the Romance Writers of America conference. "Lots of women in antebellum costumes. Spencer spent his time walking around Seattle with a video camera. He took me to a very cool market downtown; as we walked through Pike Place Market I was just smitten. We ate strawberries right out of a basket. I had no idea there were different varieties of salmon. At the southern end of the Market, Spencer showed me a condominium building. I said ‘If I could ever live anyplace in the world, it would be this place.' Back in Dallas, I was reading The Seattle Weekly and Spencer was looking for a job. Two years later we were here."

"At first I was intimated by the shouting and fish throwing at the Market, but eventually I really got into it. I thought I could help them with brochures and recipes. Eventually, I realized what they needed was a cookbook. It hadn't been done in 10 years. I started writing and Spencer illustrated." At the Northwest Food Conference, Braiden met a Sasquatch Books editor. "I told her about the book; she asked for samples. Four days later I got a postcard saying Sasquatch was interested and wanted to schedule a meeting."

The book was signed and she received a $2000 advance. Six months later, she delivered the book and illustrations. The Pike Place Market Cookbook was published in the spring of 1992 and sold 70,000 copies. For a regional publisher and an unknown author, it was an amazing success. "I always say that after seven years, I was an overnight success," Braiden laughs. "Those years of writing in Dallas taught me my craft."

There have been two editions of the cookbook, then That's Fresh (1993), Inside the Pike Place Market (1995), and the Pike Place Public Market Seafood Cookbook (1997, 2005). Random House/Ten Speed Press just released the seafood book in an e-edition. In 2007, she published Pacific Northwest Wining & Dining. "It's my crowning achievement in the print book world," Braiden says. "It's a culmination of 20 years in Seattle and the region, meeting luminaries in the food and wine world. It really made me realize how much wineries have added, especially in the last 10 years."

Braiden is now teaching herself e-publishing and self-publishing, as well as getting back into photography. "I'm thinking about self-publishing my own book, but not a cookbook. There are so many recipes online already. You can look up almost anything."

She's not a stranger to the online world however. In 2004, she started her Northwest Wining and Dining website. She adds content on that site twice a week. "I'm very proud of the site; I get a lot of hits and people stay on the site a long time. It's good, clean, nonfiction writing about food and wine."

In 2010, she started the website Five More Minutes With, giving people an opportunity to write down what they'd say to a departed loved one if they had just five more minutes with them. "This is a different kind of writing and a good outlet. Death, relationships. Very close to the bone, but cathartic."

The writing world is a different place than when Braiden started out. "It's tough when you're a little older—I don't want to be edgy or snarky. I want to write kindly, lively, and fairly." She's doing more writing now than ever before. She has her sites, is a contributor to The Seattle Times Pacific Northwest magazine, is a Wine Press Northwest's Northwest Edge columnist, and a monthly contributor to Amazon's Al Dente blog. She seems to be keeping up with the times quite well.

Connie Adams/April 2012