Of Making Many Books, Part 1

An introduction to Muddy Creek Press and our family's books

A funny thing about books is how they accumulate.

Every serious reader knows how they increase in number on nightstands, bookshelves, and coffee tables, but the truth is they also accumulate as you write words again and again, and they accumulate in a writer’s collection of published work. One day you first get the idea for a book. When you finally hold it in your hands, a bound and printed entity, it is in a small way like giving birth.

And just as a family forms with one baby or adoptee after another until you have a houseful, so with an author’s books. One day you go to a book fair and display your one precious book on the table, filling out the extra space with business cards, free bookmarks, and a dish of candy. A few years later, you have to crowd your allotted table space to make room for all your books.

As Ecclesiastes 12 says, “And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.”

This post is about books I’ve written on family life. The following post will cover another book of mine as well as the ones that I’ve printed and distributed through Muddy Creek Press, our little publishing company. I hope they contribute to refreshment of the mind more than weariness of the flesh.

For many years, I wrote newspaper columns about family life, then I gathered them into books. Eight of these titles are those collected essays. Ordering information is below each book. You can also contact me directly at dorcassmucker@gmail.com, especially for bulk or bookstore orders.

1. Ordinary Days: Family Life in a Farmhouse

   

   
   In this book, our oldest was a teenager and our youngest a baby. This was my first book published by Good Books, which was later bought out by Skyhorse and is still available from them.
   I have it for sale here.
   Shop at Skyhorse here.
   Shop on Amazon here for both paperback and e-book.
   

2. Upstairs the Peasants are Revolting: More Family Life in a Farmhouse. Another collection, also published by Good Books/Skyhorse. The last fifth of the book details our time in Kenya in 2003-04.
   
   The title comes from a story about my new porch. I sat there like a queen, sipping tea, while the peasants revolted upstairs.

   

   You can order it:
   From our Muddy Creek Press website.
   From Skyhorse.
   And from Amazon, again in both paper and Kindle editions.
   

3. Downstairs the Queen is Knitting. I randomly chose this as a working title while I assembled the book, and Good Books decided to keep it. It’s available from Skyhorse, Amazon, and Muddy Creek Press.

   
   This book is bursting with teenagers and action along with lots of travel, letting go, and dealing with grief and sudden loss.

   

   Ordering options:
   Muddy Creek Press
   Skyhorse
   Amazon
   

4. Sunlight Through Dusty Windows. About five years ago, Skyhorse Publishing decided to combine my first three books into one. My sister Rebecca suggested the title.
   
   So this book is Ordinary Days, Upstairs the Peasants are Revolting, and Downstairs the Queen is Knitting, all under one cover. For those who appreciate bargains, this is definitely a good buy.

   

   You can find it here:
   Muddy Creek Press
   Skyhorse
   Amazon
   

5. Tea and Trouble Brewing
   

   Lots of transitions and change in this book—a big old oak tree falls, the dog dies, and the cat has kittens. Life is busy with harvest, slumber parties, camping, and a family reunion. Through it all, I sip tea.

   
   With this book, I ended my relationship with Good Books and tried self-publishing through a little company I named Muddy Creek Press. I had help with the design from Tom Penix who worked for the same newspaper I did and who would later be my son’s father-in-law.
   
   I soon decided self-publishing was the way to go and did seven more books in the next ten years.

   

   
   You can get Tea and Trouble Brewing at these sites:
   
   Muddy Creek Press
   Amazon

6. Footprints on the Ceiling
   
   This was another collab with Tom Penix, and in a strange twist of fate, it’s his daughter Phoebe’s footprint on the cover. At the time, Phoebe and I had never met, and neither of us had any idea she would someday marry our son Matt. All she knew is that her dad needed a footprint, so Phoebe painted the bottom of her foot and stamped it on a paper, all while in her pajamas and laughing hysterically, she says.
   

   The title of this book is based on the story of how Paul and I met and includes a story of strange little orange dots on the ceiling. Meanwhile, Jenny learns to bake, we pick blackberries, and I try to downsize our huge collection of books

   

   You can buy Footprints on
   Muddy Creek Press
   and Amazon

7. Fragrant Whiffs of Joy
   In this collection, I touch on a trip to Thailand, communication, feeding lots of people, the Fourth of July celebration in Harrisburg, being a minister’s wife, and much more. The title comes from a chapter on feeding a large family.

   

   It’s on the Muddy Creek site.
   And on Amazon.
   

8. Coming Home to Roost
   
   My final collection of newspaper columns, plus a few other chapters, this book is about growing older, adult children leaving and returning, chickens, and travel. The title has a triple meaning:
   —my chickens coming home to roost, literally
   —my children coming home briefly before moving on
   —my life choices “coming home to roost” as your grandma used to say

   

   Writing for the newspaper ended when the paper was sold to a giant corporation which was right about the time all the children were adults and asked that I not write about them any more. So that’s why I consider this the final book of a series.
   
   Margie Yoder illustrated the cover.

   
   You can buy it from
   Muddy Creek Press
   Amazon
   
   Check in tomorrow for a post covering another book of mine plus books by my daughter Emily and my dad, Amos, with a few bonus books in which I contributed a chapter or two.