Walk into my home and the first thing that stands out is books. Bookcases line the walls of my living room and bedroom, which incidentally has been taken over by my office. One bookcase in particular is devoted to my own writings. There are manuscript boxes stacked one on top of the next containing stories that date back some ten years to when I was a youth listening to the words that would come through when I leaned my ear against the wall of my soul and listened.
In 2002 I made the decision not just to write but to be a writer. It was around that time a wisp of a dream began forming within me that of one day I might establish a publishing house. These dreams manifested themselves; at the bottom of my working manuscripts I began scrolling “Homebound Press,” the name I had chosen for the publishing house I aspired to create. This dream seemed the far off longings of a bright-eyed youth. After eight years of writing and submitting my work, I had all but given up on my dream to publish let alone found a press, when after a string of rejections, miraculously a manuscript proposal I sent in was accepted and I broke into the industry with the publication of my poetic series through Little Red Tree Publishing. Six months after I was offered my book contract I was approached by Hiraeth Press and asked by press Founder, Jason Kirkey to come on board as a partner to assist him in his expansion the press.
One of the first matters I discussed with Jason was my desire to publish fiction titles. Hiraeth Press being a publisher of poetry and non-fiction, this would mean the launch of an imprint, which cleared a place for me to plant the seeds I had long been carrying. I am pleased to announce that over the past months Homebound has been woven into reality. To complement Hiraeth Press’ poetry and non-fiction titles, we have decided to launch Homebound as an imprint devoted to fiction.
Karmatically enough, Jason’s vision of Hiraeth and my vision of Homebound complement enough other nicely. Even the meaning of the names of the presses are kindred to each other. The meaning of the word Hiraeth roughly translates to, “a longing for something your soul once knew.” So many times our individual emotions of hiraeth manifest themselves in a longing to return home–be it to a childhood solace or the place we resided before entering this life. Linking into the meaning of Homebound (bound for home.)
The changes of the past year have brought new opportunities and an insane amount of work. Rushing from task to task, juggling countless projects at once, the accomplishments of the last year have not yet hit me—I was starting to question whether they ever would. However, yesterday morning, while out walking early in the morning, the significance of the events of the past years finally settled into me. As I walked out into a morning storm churning in the sky above, I experienced a full circle moment in my life. I thought I would share with you my journal entry for the morning:
“I walked out into a turbulent sky at dawn feeling that once again that they walked with me. Charged within my heart by the belief that there are fated things, as I was in my youth.
We spend months, years—decades diligently tending the garden of our hopes. Waiting with bated breath for some small flowering—a dream transitioned into reality. The anticipated moment of our harvest lapses into weary waiting and we despair at the bleak scene of our life. When surprisingly, years later, whilst puttering lost around the garden that is now overgrown with the strangling vines of doubt, a single white bloom brings us back our youth, reminding us that all things are possible.”
Come Visit Homebound’s website at: www.homeboundpublications.com
