A Holiday Reflection on Home: Is it where the heart is?

Home Is a Feeling, Not a Destination ✨🌿✨

When people talk about “home,” they often mean a place.

A house.
A town.
A return address.

But as the holidays approach and the year begins to soften at its edges, I find myself thinking about home differently—not as somewhere we arrive, but something we recognize.

Home is a feeling.

It’s the quiet exhale when you step into a space where nothing is required of you.
It’s the warmth of being understood without needing to explain yourself.
It’s the moment a story lands in your hands and feels like it has always known you.

Yellow Brick Road Publishing Co. didn’t begin with a business plan or a destination in mind. It began with a feeling—the sense that stories could be both a place to wander and a place to rest.

That stories could guide you outward into imagination, while also gently leading you back to yourself.

We named this imprint after a road, not a building, because the road is where change happens. It’s where questions are asked. Where courage is practiced. Where curiosity gets a little lost… in the best way of course.

And yet, every meaningful road has one thing in common:
it eventually brings you home.

Not always to where you started—but to who you are.

This time of year invites reflection. It asks us to slow down just enough to notice what we’ve been carrying, and what we might finally set down. It reminds us that “home” can look like a familiar voice, a shared meal, a handwritten note, or a story read aloud when the world feels loud.

At Yellow Brick Road Publishing Co., we believe publishing is more than producing books.

It’s about creating spaces where readers and writers alike feel held.
Where imagination is welcomed.
Where meaning is allowed to unfold at its own pace.

Whether you find home in a children’s story, a novel meant for grown readers, a quiet nonfiction reflection, or a letter sealed with intention—our hope is the same:

That something we make helps you feel a little more grounded.
A little more seen.
A little more at home.

As the year turns and the holidays draw near, may you find home not just in where you are—but in the stories you carry, the people who listen, and the paths that continue to unfold before you.

Wherever this season finds you, we’re glad you’re here.

—

Chelsea E. Mazurek
Founder, Yellow Brick Road Publishing Co.