Today we’d like to introduce you to Thomas Peacock.
Hi Thomas, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My wife and I are both retired faculty of the U of Minnesota Duluth’s Department of Education, where we taught for years. As a tribal member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, I did most of my academic writing while at UMD and other universities about Ojibwe history, culture and Native education. After our retirement, we talked about how we might continue to give back, and we decided to begin a Native publishing company with a focus on producing Native children’s books written by Native authors and using Native illustrators.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
The COVID pandemic was a real struggle because we couldn’t get out there and market our books. So we built an online presence using FaceBook, Twitter and using Native listserves.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’ve always enjoyed writing, and began by doing poetry while in college. As an academic, I co-authored several texts on teaching Native students, which became popular with Native educators. Then I saw the need for Ojibwe history and culture books and did a number of them. Several won Minnesota Book Awards. One took a Multicultural Children’s Book Award.
When I retired, I decided to write fiction and published a number of novels and a book of short stories. One of them, The Wolf’s Trail, was the 2020 Independent fiction author winner by the Mn Library Assoc. Recently, it has been selected (2023) to be the One Book Northland selection of the Duluth area.
What would you say has been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
I think you have to believe you have a story that is worth reading. Sometimes your writing is rejected by publishers, and you want to give up on it. I just keep trying. I’ll send it to another publisher. I’ll rewrite parts of it. I just think you have to keep trying until the right person takes it on as a project.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.blackbearsandblueberries.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Nativepublisher
