Rachel Starr Thomson

Welcome to my home! I am a homeschool graduate, author, editor, and self-publisher. My passion is to teach, inspire, and ignite the imaginations of readers and writers alike. On this special Ultimate Homeschool Expo Vendor Page, I’d like to give you a guided tour of what I do — with a very special free gift just for you, along with the free reading I make available to everybody. Ready? Let’s go!

This is me in my family’s dungeony basement. In the lower left corner, you’ll note the gilded edge of a teacup. I have included this photo because that is one of the things I do — I drink tea. Copious amounts of it. It keeps me fueled while I do other things, like . . .

Write.

When I was a young homeschooled stripling, I wrote for my own amusement. I still write for my own amusement, but now I also do it for a living. I write articles on faith, family, homeschooling, the arts, and more, many of which you can read here. And I write books. Like these:

Young adult Christian-based fantasy in the tradition of Lewis and L’Engle, Worlds Unseen and Burning Light are the first two books in The Seventh World Trilogy. Worlds Unseen is available for free download — or you can buy copies of both books. For more information, visit the Burning Light and Worlds Unseen pages.

As for Theodore Pharris Saves the Universe, well, it was my first novel. I wrote it at the age of 13. For technical reasons I currently sell it only as an e-book. Visit the link for more information.

I also write nonfiction books, on topics from following God to growing up homeschooled. These are my nonfiction titles in print:

Did I mention that there’s a lot of free reading on my site? Letters to a Samuel Generation, a collection of essays written in my graduate years (17 – 21), treats of topics like faith, looking to the future, the importance of family, dealing with uncertainty, and living with integrity — all couched in reminders of God’s goodness, greatness, and great plans for our lives. Thirteen specially autographed copies are on sale during this graduation season for $20 each — but if you’d like to buy one, you’ll need to e-mail me at thomson.rachel@gmail.com.

Letters to a Samuel Generation would make a great gift for graduates and others — but you can also read the whole thing, for free, at this link. Check it out today!

I loved writing as a teen, and that has transformed into a love of helping other people write. Which is why I also do this:

Edit and Critique.

As a professional freelance editor, I offer Proofreading, Copyediting, Manuscript Critiquing, and Substantive Editing. You can get lots more details on all those services here. Homeschool parents, take note: if you have a budding writer at home a substantive edit can be a great way to help them grow. There is no better way to learn writing than to finish a manuscript with instant feedback and encouragement. My client Sam Batterman, author of Wayback (VMI Publishers, May 2009), had this to say about working with me:

What remains from this process that we started together in early December is a much stronger, more readable and more enjoyable adventure story … I think she has a magic touch because she isn’t just an editor, she’s a writer herself, and she understands the mental gymnastics that goes on when submitting your work for improvement to another person. I suspect validation is something I will always struggle with, but Rachel made this process easy and even fun.

Are you or your student a writer looking for feedback, advice, or just polishing? Contact me at thomson.rachel@gmail.com for a free sample edit and a quote. If you or your kids write, you might also want to download this free copy of my Publishing Resources Handout, a companion to my “Helping Your Teen Get Published” workshop, which you can check out here at UHE!

Here I am, writing and editing at the ‘Bucks with fellow homeschool grad and author Libby Russell. Note the intense look of concentration on my face. I work hard.

 

Before we go any further, may I encourage you to sign up for Little Dozen News?

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Thanks for signing up! I look forward to getting to know you better in the coming months (hey, maybe we’ll like each other so much that we’ll keep it up for years!). You’ve come a long way by now, and to thank you, I’d like to offer you a special free gift — just for you! I often give away Part One of Tales of the Heartily Homeschooled, but today, I’d like to offer you the whole thing. Yes, you read aright. You can download this madcap collection of essays and vignettes on growing up large, loud, and homeschooled, co-written by myself and Carolyn Currey, by clicking this link.

Proudly Presenting – Inklings: Community | Learning | Inspiration

Inklings, found at http://www.rachelstarrthomson.com/inklings/, is my blog. It gets its own category in this guided tour because it’s a little world of its own — an exciting literary one! Inklings regularly features writing tips, passages from great writing, interviews with authors and other creative types, contests, links to great resources, and good old-fashioned conversation. Writing can be a lonely occupation — with blogs like this one, it gets a whole lot less lonely!

Fan art: a scene from Worlds Unseen, sketched by Libby Russell.

Just in the last month, Inklings has featured posts like these helpful comma tips, my award-winning review of George Bryan Polivka’s Christian pirate novel Blaggard’s Moon and discussion on the relevance of pirates to real life, a review of the homeschooler-made epic film Pendragon: Sword of His Father, and an exclusive interview with one of Pendragon’s makers. The Inklings Book Review Writing Contest is about to enter its second phase, as entries are posted on the blog and the winners are announced.

Inklings is an exciting place. I’d be pleased as punch if you’d bookmark it and add it to your regularly visited educational sites.

All’s Well That Ends Well

Thanks for coming on this guided tour with me! I hope you’re intrigued enough to keep exploring, stocked up enough with books and articles to keep reading, and blessed enough to come back. Before you go, let me tell you about two more gifts I have for you!

First, download this free PDF catalogue of Little Dozen Press books, including full first chapters of each title and the articles “In a Separate Place,” written about my homeschool years and why I so appreciate my parents’ decision to homeschool me, and “Beauty and the Beast: Good, Evil, and the Art of Writing.”

Second, enjoy one more novel on me: Taerith is the story of Taerith Romany, a young man who is banished from home and family and finds himself standing at the crossroads of good and evil. The entire story can be read online at this link. Enjoy!

Blessings! May you make the best of the Ultimate Homeschool Expo Week 2009.

Rachel Starr Thomson

Ending well! What is this, you ask? This is Soli Deo Gloria Ballet, the other thing I do. Visit our site to learn more!