Winterpast is made of stucco and wood. She sits on the vast high desert plains of Northwestern Nevada, where the sky stretches wide and the wind always seems to have something to say.
Last year, she got a facelift. New paint. Fresh sparkle. A little polish for an old friend. At the moment, she is slowly undressing for winter, letting go of summer one leaf, one bloom, one chilly morning at a time.
And I love her.
Winterpast is home.
But these days, Winterpast is much more than that. Somehow, without ever applying for the job, she has become a publishing house.
Winterpast Publishing began as a little joke, much like Winterpast Honey. A name. A smile. A pretend business attached to a very real place. But somewhere along the way, this little name grew legs.
Inside these four walls, GrievingGardener.com was born. I sat here in my own horrid grief, trying to make sense of a life I no longer recognized. At first, the words were only for me. They were a way to breathe. A way to sort through the broken pieces. A way to find my footing when the ground beneath me had disappeared.
Slowly, those words brought me back to life.
Then the words became a blog.
And the blog helped birth a book.
Now Winterpast is on the brink of becoming the home of a real published book: Widow: A Journey Toward Life.
Is the garage full of printing presses and employees?
Nope.
Are there workers in aprons stacking pages and binding covers?
Nope again.
There is just me. HHH. One small dog. Our brains. A computer. A printer that behaves most days. A dining table that often looks like an office supply store exploded on top of it. And a whole lot of determination.
That is the part I want you to know.
You do not need a fancy office to begin. You do not need a staff. You do not need perfect equipment, perfect timing, or perfect confidence. You need a story. You need paper and a pen or pencil. Or a computer with a few helpful apps. Most of all, you need the will to get started.
If you have lived a little, loved a little, lost a little, laughed a little, and learned a few things the hard way, you already have material.
This week, I want to share a few things I have learned along the way. Not because I have become an expert. Far from it. I am still learning every day. But I have learned that ordinary people can do extraordinary things one small step at a time.
A blog can begin with one paragraph.
A book can begin with one memory.
A publishing house can begin in a stucco house on the high desert plains, with one woman brave enough to write the first sentence.
And sometimes, new life begins with words.