Rachel Starr Thomson

Jennifer Bogart of Quiverfullfamily.com has written a great review of Tales of the Heartily Homeschooled, which you can read here. Here’s an excerpt:

Each short and snappy, slice-of-life chapter (written by either Thomson or Currey), invites us into the joyous tumult of family life. From “The Battle of Underwear Mountain” — we have one of those — to “Vacuum Cleaners I Have Known” — wherein I found assurance for my husband that ours is not the only home inhabited by clumps of tangled hair on the rug due to its many long-haired occupants — and everything in between, this volume is both frank and comedic.

As an added charming flourish, both Currey and Thomson write with a distinctly homeschooled flair. Sprinkling such gems as “quoth” into the mix, with a sense of precise syntax paired with oddball impressions add to the distinct character of the text. A few times I found myself thinking, “Someone has certainly been reading (or watched) Tolkien and Austen lately.” With my ongoing predilection for vintage vocabulary, I found these stylistic renderings quite endearing.

Thanks for a great review, Jennifer!

The book is out! I sent out the official announcement this morning, as you can read below :).

* * *

Dear friends,

Tales of the Heartily Homeschooled is now available for pre-order! You can purchase your copy of Tales at www.littledozen.com/thh.html. Pre-orders close June 30. As a special thank-you to those who order before June 30, we are offering a free Ebook Edition of Theodore Pharris Saves the Universe, the novel Rachel wrote when she was 13!

Pre-orders help us cover the costs of publishing–and they get the book into your hands early! Your books will be ordered and sent to you in the first week of July, when the book is just becoming available to the world at large.

When we started writing Tales as a series of emails to each other, we didn’t really imagine how much you’d share with us! We thank you for your friendship, encouragement, and support as we’ve worked to bring Tales to print. It’s been a marvelous journey!

Blessings,
Rachel and Carolyn

authors, Tales of the Heartily Homeschooled
www.littledozen.com/thh.html

I have now been home for officially one week. The two and a half weeks prior to that, I was in the Niagara Falls region with my cousin and Tales of the Heartily Homeschooled co-author, Carolyn Currey (and her wonderful family). Carolyn and I went for long walks, rambled around the woods as they came slowly to April life, made plans for our Christmas dance tour, and did hours and hours and hours’ worth of author stuff.

No, we didn’t write. We emailed.

Marketing is not my favourite part of being a writer! However, I am pleased to say that in two and a half weeks, Carolyn and I managed to contact local, state, and provincial homeschool support groups in all ten Canadian provinces and all fifty U.S. states. The point of all this emailing was to let people know about our Family Fun Story Contest and our upcoming book.

We’ve made a lot of great contacts who have passed the information out to hundreds of families. It was a lot of work, and not very fun except when we amused ourselves by comparing support group acronyms, but I’m amazed by the internet and very grateful to all the folks who are helping us spread the word.

Isn’t it grand? (Click to make it larger; there’s a good bit of detail.)

Being related to a very good artist (my sister, Deborah, who also did the cover art for Worlds Unseen) can be a very great blessing sometimes :).

The scene depicted comes from a chapter in Part 4: According to Plan (B), entitled “Mama Was a Gypsy, Papa Was a Rock.” We really did drive into a dry creek bed once.

You can read the annotated Table of Contents, chapter excerpts, and more here: www.LittleDozen.com/thh.html.

The newest venture of Little Dozen Press hath been unveiled: Tales of the Heartily Homeschooled, by Rachel Starr Thomson and Carolyn Joy Currey.

A new Web page devoted to Tales has gone up on Little Dozen today. You can sign up for our newsletter, enter a contest, read sneak peeks, and more. Check it out!

Every book has a history, and this one’s history encompasses much of my life. I am the oldest of twelve children (Carolyn, my cousin, is the oldest of eight), homeschooled most of my life, and the privileged participant in quite a wild and crazy life! People have always told me I should write a book. Tales of the Heartily Homeschooled is my answer to their urging. People have often told Carolyn the same thing, so she joined me. Tales is a collection of essays and stories from our lives: a celebration of family and the strange things that bring us together.

EDIT:

I forgot to mention our publication date! July 1, 2008. Mark your calendars, lads and lassies!