Debra Bell
Wit and Wisdom

The Story Behind The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling

How does a homeschool mom find time to write a 400 plus page book? Not
easily. Back in 1996 when I first naively tackled this project, I compared the
experience often to my first pregnancy – you know, the one that resulted in twins.
The revision project was not quite so difficult, but still had the consuming ‘I’m
pregnant again” feel. But The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling, Year 2001
edition has just hit the streets and thanks to the exceptional team at Tommy
Nelson, I couldn’t be more thrilled with the results. 

This one is especially pleasing because Thomas Nelson selected my project as
their first combination book/CD-Rom. And that was a great idea. The book
contains hundreds of Web sites carefully evaluated for content and value and all
you have to do to find them is pop the CD-Rom into your drive and select a
hyperlink. The vast, cutting-edge online world of homeschooling is only a mouse
click away. 

But here is how the Ultimate Guide to
Homeschooling came about in the first place: 

Our family met Canadian author, Sigmund Brouwer. At my
invitation, Sigmund came to Hershey to conduct a writing
seminar for the kids in our homeschool group. At the time,
SIgmund was my son’s favorite author. His books, “The
Accidental Detectives” had been recommended by Focus on the
Family and they could hardly wait for each one to come out. I
was really just trying to earn a “Mom of the Year” award, and
make them permanently in my debt. Little did I know where
this little writing seminar was going to head – we had so many
registrations for the event, we had to turn away twice the
number of kids we could accommodate. At Sigmund’s
encouragement (he’s the biggest “Big Idea” person I’ve ever
met), we launched what is now the Young Writers’ Institute,
and more than 12,000 homeschooled kids have attended one of
these writing seminars. In case you are wondering, we now
have a full time staff to organize these. (You can find out more
at our Web site: www. debrabell.com) 

Sigmund began talking with me about tackling a book project. I
had developed quite a few homeschool seminars but it was a
challenge to accept most of the speaking invitations because of
time away from my family. But I really wanted to share with
parents the simplicity of homeschooling and the joy of learning I
believed God has for our children. A book project seemed the
best way to get my ideas out. One summer Sigmund told me he
would present my book proposal to his editor at CBA (Christian
Booksellers Association), but I needed to include the first three
chapters and CBA was in 3 weeks. I can’t remember exactly
what I did with my kids at this time, but my husband gave me
his laptop computer and put me up in a hotel for a week. In 5
days, I churned out 50 pages of material and a formal book
proposal. (Those 50 pages never made it into the book.) 

Sigmund next arranged for his editor at Tommy Nelson, Laura
Minchew, to attend a Young Writers’ Institute and to talk with
me about the book project. At that time, my plan was to write 4
short books over 2 years. That’s what I thought would be a
manageable schedule to fit into the corners of my life. Finally,
long after I thought nothing was going to happen, I heard from
Tommy Nelson. The project was approved! 

Then Laura began explaining what they wanted--they wanted
one BIG book, and they wanted it in 6 months! And they were
going to call it The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling. “Really,” I
said, ‘ you want me to write something you can call The
Ultimate!. ‘ Sure, and with a bright yellow cover – folks won’t be
able to resist it. 

My fate was sealed when the contract arrived. Here it finally
was. I have had a lifetime ambition to write books, and here in
my hand was my very first contract from the largest Christian
publisher in the world. Was I going to say no? Or was I going to
try and write The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling ? 

Next time, I’ll tell you how I did that, obviously by the grace of
God. In the meantime, check out our Web site or your local
Christian retailer if you’d like to see what that project looks like 4
years later. And don’t be surprised if you think you can see some
of my sweat stains on the pages. 

In His Sovereign Grace, 

Debra 

Part II

This article originally published at Crosswalk.com