A Little About Us...

Although we really hadn’t a clue, Bob and I began homeschooling our two sons in 1991. The first years were thrilling—we watched our boys grow in every possible way. With few supplies available for homeschoolers, we wrote our own curriculum and cobbled together other materials. As we found or developed resources that worked well for us and our friends, we began to publish them. Time went on and both boys successfully graduated from high school and went on to college. God has amazed and blessed us in this wonderful adventure called the homeschooling life.

Fast forward: Our oldest son, JB, is now 25. He enlisted in the Army in 2001 and served five years with the 3rd Infantry Division. Out of his experiences in Iraq came his first book, From Basic to Baghdad: A Soldier Writes Home. Brilliant, witty, and slightly eccentric, he also put his writing gifts to work for our e-book, Writer’s Co-op: Step-by Step. He is engaged to Christy Barr, a marvelous, funny, animal-loving, Tolkein fanatic—whom we’ve known since she was a teeny little five-year-old!

Tyler, 20, graduates in May of 2008 from Belhaven College with a degree in Theatre Ministry. Tyler will be taking over the administration of Bright Ideas Press. We’re so looking forward to seeing how the Lord will use him here. Tyler is also engaged to be married. His wife-to-be, Helen Spann,  is a quiet, kind, artistic, gentle soul who also happens to have her first-degree black-belt. We are blessed!

My husband Bob works full-time, serves at church, does bookkeeping for our businesses and several non-profit organizations. He supports my whims and idiosyncrasies while trying to keep me grounded (truly no easy task). If he had free time, he would enjoy scuba diving, reading creation science books, and traveling.

I work on the publishing end of our business, write for many homeschool publications, serve on our state homeschool board, speak around the country, eat tiny bits of chocolate, and dream of having time to read, travel, and scrapbook.

Our two office cats, Quandary and Clay, nap, eat, shed, sit on our keyboards, and remind us that the universe does indeed revolve around them. Fortunately, we have great “human” office and warehouse help, as well. When you call us, you will probably reach Beth. Besides being our pastor’s wife, our friend, and JB’s future mother-in-law, she is the one who tries to keep things organized around here!

Another valuable member of the Bright Ideas Press team is Melissa Craig. This homeschooling mom works for us out of her home office in Michigan. There, when not lassoing her four wildly creative children, she oversees our emails, writes, researches, edits, and accepts whatever weird, last-minute assignment Maggie gives her. She loves the Lord, her family, music, reading, scrapping, and homeschooling. And she makes the very best chocolate cake in the whole world. (That’s called job security.)

God bless you all!
Maggie Hogan & Tribe