“Read not to contradict and confute . . . but to weigh and consider.”
—Francis Bacon
Weighed Words seeks to publish writing that make readers think, that leads them to weigh and consider the words long after the book is closed.
Writers are often told to follow where the story takes them, to be let it grow organically, and that seems to be the case with Weighed Words. It started because I wanted to make an anthology for anybody who likes a good read. Hokey though it may sound, I wanted this book to be something positive and more than just a product. And finally I realized that I should publish it myself. Now this route seems the natural path.
Weighed Words was established in the spring of 2010 and named in playful reference to my father and mother, John R. Wade and Catherine Mahoney Wade. My mother inspired my love of books. During my childhood, every two weeks or so, she would go Hild Library on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago (which is now the site of the Old Town School of Folk Music) and unload a shopping bag of books only to walk the fiction and mysteries stacks and fill it up again. My father, who had a sixth grade education, worked for decades as the foreman in the mailroom at a medical supply plant. He loved to play a good joke (he could take off his thumb and make you believe it) and along with this sense of fun, he had the innate talent to see how things worked; he could fix anything broken.
My mother’s appreciation for the written word and my father’s playful yet practical sensibility have influenced my life in general, and my writing. And it’ll be the same for this publishing imprint. Weighed Words will seek to publish books for everyday people—men and women, workers and dreamers, readers and handymen (and women), commuters and stay-at-home moms (and dads). The focus will be on writing that is down to earth and smart, compelling and honest. Since I think good writing appeals to readers whether it is in the form of a poem, story, or essay so Weighed Words will focus on publishing multi-genre anthologies like Solace in So Many Words.
Weighed Words is an imprint of Hourglass Books, whose mission is to pluck stories from the specialized world of literary journals and bring them to a wider audience of everyday readers. Hourglass focuses on the anthology — short stories from different authors, with each book assembled around a common theme.
Titles available are: Falling Backwards: Stories of Fathers and Daughters, The Long Meanwhile: Stories of Arrivals and Departures, Peculiar Pilgrims: Stories from the Left Hand of God.
For more information on Hourglass and its titles, visit: www.hourglassbooks.org