Hello, good people! I’m Rivers Houseal—lover of hymns, fiddles, bagpipes, Celtic languages, vintage books with just the right amount of foxing, and good stories that light a fire in your belly.

I was homeschooled from kindergarten through twelfth grade (though for all that schooling I still don’t understand why “twelfth” is spelled the way it is). At some point in kindergarten, I wrote a story on the schoolroom whiteboard. My story was 34 words long and concerned the losing and finding of Farmer Brownlee’s cow. (The plot moved very quickly . . . and can you believe the originality?) Nevertheless, my parents were thrilled, and that made me want to tell another story. I started half a dozen books during my early childhood—each one of them destined to be my magnum opus, of course—but most of them never even got a complete first sentence.

But when I was just beginning my twelfth year of life, a young Lacter Tibbak joined the gaggle of imaginary people living in my head. I began to put Lacter’s story on paper, as I had for my many other imaginary people, and I worked at it off and on until . . . I did something new. 

I finished. The manuscript for Of Nature and Kings was my first finished story, my first book; I was fourteen, and I had officially figured out what I wanted to do with my life. 

In 2020, my family and I did something marvelously ridiculous and founded Nogginnose Press. We keep ourselves quite busy crafting books to help you cultivate your patch of the kingdom. 

Through Nogginnose, my body of work has grown to include three more books—

The first was Credo, a compilation of 25 documents of Church history. I was privileged to edit this volume, and write introductions to set each document in its historical context.

The second was Hidden in the Hymns, my long-dreamed-of project to help children understand and appreciate the old hymns. 

The third was The Thing Is, a collection of five short stories about things I find fascinating. (This one is even illustrated, y’all.)

We are most like our Father when we’re doing as He does, so here’s to nourishing one another with good stories that proclaim the winning ways of Christ’s Kingdom.

Will you join me?

–Rivers