Mom, Marine, Businesswoman, Farmer, Writer

Karin Johnson was born Oct. 5, 1973 in Philadelphia, PA. Growing up she lived with her parents and brother, Michael, in Colorado, Virginia and California and began expressing her self off and on through writing starting at the age of 10. Karin married at the age of 19 and joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1994. She completed her training at MCRD Parris Island, S.C. and continued her training as a Combat Correspondent at the Defense Information School (DINFOS) at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis. Her love of journalism, broadcasting and photography flourished during her training.

While at DINFOS, Karin discovered she was pregnant with her first child. After graduating with honors, Karin was released from active duty due to her pregnancy but remained in the Individual Readiness Reserve for the next four years, serving periodic sets of orders working in Public Affairs. While in Indianapolis Karin gave birth to three children, Devon, Megan and Carissa. She and her husband started a commercial cleaning company and Karin managed those operations while working as an Executive Administrator for multiple small businesses.

In 2001, Karin was called back to active duty to serve at the Marine Corps Reserve Support Command in Kansas City, MO. Excited to be back on orders, Karin moved her children with her to Missouri and spent the next three years serving her country. The last two years of those orders put Karin back where she loved most - Public Affairs. She wrote articles, created presentations, worked on marketing materials for recruiting campaigns and served as editor of a monthly magazine. During this time, Karin and her husband divorced and she eventually was diagnosed with multiple medical issues that led to her retirement from the Marines. Frustrated about her physical condition and inability to work a "regular" job, Karin started her own small business management firm, specializing in outsourced bookkeeping, customer service, marketing and project management services.

In 2006, Karin remarried and she and her new husband, Arcenio Velez, along with her three stepchildren, Anthony, Brianna and Tessa, started NV Ranch. The small farm is focused on organic, sustainable methods of growing produce and raising meat and eggs. Karin is devoted to local foods grown without the use of pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers and the humane treatment of food animals. The farm began a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program which is still going strong and is currently looking to supply area restaurants interested in serving local, seasonal foods.

Karin began writing again as part of marketing efforts for the family farm and rediscovered her love of words. She closed her management company to focus on the farm and had time to devote to freelance writing projects as a creative outlet and additional source of income. The combination of her passion for local, organic foods, sustainable living, finance, news and inspiring life events have made Karin a versatile writer.

Karin is currently working on a joint project for an inspirational book and four of her own projects. She also writes periodic articles published on various websites and blogs on both her farm website and this site. Karin also provides services for companies looking for a writer for their promotional articles, blogs or websites.

Karin lives on her small family farm in Peculiar, MO with her family and a myriad of animals.