Kevin Krauskopf
St. Joseph News-Press
On Twitter: @stjoelivedotcom
 
Photo: Eric Keith/St. Joseph News-Press
Julie Casey home shools her children Todd and Jack in the kitchen of their rural Union Star home.

For the first two years of her oldest son’s life, Julie Casey was a working mom. And she was miserable.

“I was always exhausted, always stressed out, never had enough time to spend with Andrew (or) do the things that I wanted to do with him,” she says.

Many moms thrive balancing their professional and personal lives. Julie, though, decided it wasn’t for her. She left her job as a computer programmer and started a home day care center to continue bringing in an income.

Julie L. Casey of Union Star, MO, sat down at her computer and her fingers began to fly over the keys as she penned what would very soon become her fourth book, entitled, “How I Became a Teenage Survival- ist”. This book has grabbed the attention of Hollywood, and set events in motion to film a trailer this past weekend.

Julie, the wife of South Holt High School science instructor Jonn Casey, began fulfilling her aspirations to write just a few years ago when she wrote her first book, “Stop Beating a Dead Horse”, a book that addresses the public school system. Her second book, “In Daddy’s Hands”, was based on a humorously true life family experience. Both books were self published within months of each other in early fall, 2010. Since those first works, she has written two more novels, “Holt: Guardians of Hope”, and the latest, “How I Became a Teen- age Survivalist”.

Scout Pictures of St. Joseph has received an award for Best Western film from the 2012 Bare Bones International Film Festival in Muskogee, Okla., for the film production company’s latest film “Reckoning.” The film was produced in 2011 at Western Frontier Adventure in Easton, Kan.

Many local filmmakers from the St. Joseph area were involved with the project headed up by Jim Conlon, who co-produced along with Larry Culbertson of Western Frontier Adventure. Conlon also edited the film. The film was directed by John Morris of St. Joseph. The film stars Stan Rippey of Mound City, Mo., Justin Rother of Craig, Mo., Julie and Jonn Casey of Union Star, Mo., and Joey Culbertson and Carol and Vane Huggins of Easton.

The announcement came April 22 during the festival’s gala awards ceremony at the Roxy Theater in Muskogee. Three other western films were also nominated in the same category. “Reckoning” also was nominated in the Best Costuming category.

Scout Pictures has won awards for previous projects including “The Scout” (2001), “Scout 2” (2004), “St. Joseph, Days of Civil War” (2007), “Days of the Pony Express” (2009) and “Hell Hole” (2009). A “Reckoning” trailer is available for viewing at the Scout Pictures website at www.scoutpictures.net. For more information on the Bare Bones International Film Festival, visit www.barebonesfilmfestivals.org.

Read more here: St. Joseph Film company receives award

The crack of iceOne morning in 2007 we awoke to an eerie silence interrupted by what sounded like cracks of gunfire. We ran outside and saw an incredible scene: Every surface was coated with a half-inch layer of ice, and the elm and maple trees were sheared off like a tornado had passed by. Power lines lay limp on the ground, and every few minutes another limb broke off with an earsplitting crack. We had to live with my mother-in-law for a week until our electricity was back on. We made it a vacation for our boys. We still have not burned all the firewood we collected from the trees damaged by that ice storm.
Julie Casey, Union Star, Missouri

Read more here: Living the Country Life Magazine - "Worst Weather - The Crack of Ice (Slide 2)"

March 20, 2012
Only 500 of 10,000 entries (5%) advanced to the quarterfinals (see the list here). Here is what the Amazon and Publishers Weekly Reviewers had to say about the novel:

ABNA Expert Reviewer          
          Bracken is a most appealing narrator. The author has provided great insights into his character--his teenaged boy's reaction to Silky's short sweater, his resentment of his brother Alex--and leavens the seriousness of his predicament with a bit of humor. 
          I particularly like that the author set this story on a Midwest farm. Post-apocalyptic cities have been done to death and IMO, a rural community has much more story potential in the circumstances than endless garbage piling up on city streets.
          Sometimes this type of story can get tedious and depressing, but this author seems to have given Bracken a lightness of tone that promises a fresh and down to earth perspective on appalling circumstances.
          This is a very good beginning to a post-apocalyptic tale. The hero/narrator has a fresh, appealing voice, and the author allows the reader to discover the parameters of his predicament along with him. This reader looks forward to his further experiences.

ABNA Expert Reviewer
          The strongest part of this excerpt are the interesting twists on a semi-familiar "doomsday" scenario. It also helps that the main character is dynamic and can carry the story from the beginning.
          Overall this is a very interesting twist on the "doomsday" scenario. There are dynamic characters and the writing is very successful in sounding like a teenage boy. It is a story that pulls you in and makes you want to read more.

ABNA Publishers Weekly Reviewer
          In November 2012, the Midwest is hit with a solar superstorm, and 15-year-old Bracken and his family must figure out how to survive without electricity. “There are no phones, no TV, no video games, no lights to read by at night, not to mention no refrigeration, no microwave, and no cars after the gas ran out.” The story builds and is engrossing, and the situations are realistic. ... The appeal of this story is its simplicity and pacing.

How I Became a Teenage Survivalist previously published by Pants On Fire Press, now published by Amazing Things Press

Local mom makes it easy for parents to find resourcesSylvia Anderson
St. Joseph News-Press
On Twitter: @SJNPAnderson

When Julie Casey started home schooling her children 11 years ago, it was a trend still considered on the fringe and resources were hard to find. But these days home schooling is almost mainstream, and thanks to her new website, resources can be easily found by clicking a mouse.

The website, www.theconnectedhomeschool.com, includes information on everything from home-school laws to a kids’ page full of educational games. And it comes at a time when home schooling is the fastest-growing area in education, she says, increasing an estimated 20 percent a year. Exact figures are hard to come by since Missouri does not require home-schools register with the state. But individual groups are watching numbers going up.