About Julie Bogart

I spend a lot of time writing. A lot. In fact, a good day for me is one where I've figured out what I want to say and then punch it out on the keyboard. When I get that burst of imagination or insight, I'll happily skip lunch, ignore laundry and neglect the dog. I go to sleep happy on those days.

You see, I grew up writing. There's this half-collapsed box in my closet that holds a lifetime of journals. They've traveled all over the world with me. The oldest dates back to fourth grade and my first crush. One time in a fit of housekeeping, my husband Jon suggested we toss that box figuring the diaries had served their purpose. Why cart them from here to North Africa and back? I tactfully reminded him that his vows included until death do us part and I didn't think he wanted to die just yet.

I come from writing too. My mother just published her 55th book. She's taught adults to write for thirty years. She taught me the magic of the opening hook, the power of dialog to break up tedious prose, the importance of personal experience to magazine writing. It's not an overstatement to say that my mother was my first and best writing coach.

I married into writing. My husband is a writing and literature professor. He's taught freshman composition to college students for 18 years. He has his MA in English and has worked as a magazine editor and textbook editor in addition to teaching. (Yes, we're no fun at dinner parties: How about that surprise reversal thesis statement? Knock me out!)

And yet I didn't major in English. I got my Bachelor's in history at UCLA. I chose that major because I happen to heart academic writing. I like the cool discipline, the yards of research, the ship-shape structure and the happy tangle of ideas. I became especially effective at timed essay writing in college.

After I graduated, I kept up the search for one good writing venue. I meandered through missionary letters to our supporters at home, articles for La Leche League, and a women's newsletter. Jon and I started an editing business where we revised dissertations for D-Min students. I ghostwrote for the founder of our denomination, I acted as senior editor of a quarterly music publication, I became a contributing editor for a national magazine and I've edited multiple collections of articles for themed books. 

I got good at working with non-writers to produce writing worthy of publication. I loved coaxing words and ideas out of people who wanted to reach their constituencies. It was about then that my homeschooling friends asked me to do the same for them and their kids. Brave Writer was born. That story can be read here.

I love to teach writing, as well as write. Professional writers and editors know things about writing that educators don't. It's been my special joy to unlock the mystery of writing for homeschoolers using the techniques and methods of that I used as an editor who worked with non-writers. I like even more helping mothers to become writing coaches for their children.

Today, I still write every day for multiple venues. I'm in graduate school where I get the chance to hone my academic writing skills every week. I'm a weekly columnist for an online news organization where I write about religion and spirituality. I write articles for homeschool magazines. I contribute to books when asked to (both homeschooling and non). I keep blogs for Brave Writer, my personal life, and our homeschool.

Writing is the primary way I know my world and find my place in it. It's also my best means of connecting to the families who embark on this risky business of developing brave writers in their families. As we raise these writers, the most generous gift we can give them is the right to write—to say what's true, right then, to put it down gently with courage and to stand by it for as long as it speaks. It's what I aim to do for all the young writers I have the joy to coach. It's what I hope I can help you learn to do for your children. It's what I do every time I write.

Brave Writer began in January 2000 with a class of twenty families. Today, we have ten staff members and thousands of families whose children are getting published, entering college, creating blogs, writing stories, taking essay tests, crafting academic essays, and posting reviews. Their parents have discovered the secret to nurturing their young writers.

We look forward to serving you in the same way.

If you have any questions about me or my background, feel free to email me.

Julie Bogart, creator and owner of Brave Writer Online Writing Services