Hi there and welcome to another edition of the Brave Rider Podcast. I'm Noah

your host and with me is Julie Bogart, Brave Rider CEO and and a special guest, Melissa Wiley, author of a bunch of books, including

The Prairie Thief, which is featured in the most recent Arrow.

Upcoming Arrow. upcoming error.

Yes, the October issue.

Yes.

So welcome, Melissa.

Thank you.

I'm excited to be here.

Yeah. I'm thrilled to have Melissa with us.

Anyone who isn't yet familiar with her, I think by the end of today's

podcast you will eagerly dash off to her blog,

you will buy her books, and you'll become as big a fan as I have

become in the last seven years that I've known her. Melissa and I met in 2005

online. We started a mutual admiration society. She's a fabulous homeschooling

mother of many kids. I'm going to let her tell you about her family. But also

she is a remarkable author and has written the prequels to the Little House books.

Some of you may have seen those. She'll share a bit about those.

But today's special focus is her most recent published book and it came out in August and it's called the prairie thief.

And we're going to talk some about that, talk about Melissa's experiences as a homeschooler,

and also as just a fabulous example of a natural writer

and someone who fosters a love of poetry and literature

...