About Us

The word “osmyrrah,” which is pronounced to rhyme with “last hurrah,” is a coinage that combines two Greek words, osmee, meaning to smell, and smurna, meaning to mingle with. Joined, they create a word the conveys the sense of “a mingling of pleasant aromas.”

The story behind this word belongs to Noah Adams. In an NPR broadcast, Adams described taking a walk and popping out of the woods onto a hilltop where he was suddenly enveloped by a number of aromas. Lacking a word to describe the sensation, Adams asked his NPR audience to help him find or coin a word. He received a number of responses, and osmyrrah is the one he liked best. We liked it, too.

It's a nice story, but a terrible business name. Having a name that's as difficult to pronounce as it is to spell is a handicap to say the least. Still, we press on.

Osmyrrah Publishing dates back to the early 1990s when it brought out a few books on relationships and self-awareness. That venture did not survive to enter the current millennium. The new Osmyrrah considers fiction its niche.

Our calendar for the months ahead is full, and we are accepting no queries or manuscripts at this time.

Please should you need further information.

Osmyrrah Publishing
Apple Valley, Minnesota

Book of Mercy by Sherry Roberts

BOOK OF MERCY

A funny novel about a serious issue: censorship.

by Sherry Roberts (author blog)

Antigone Brown has trouble reading road signs, keeps a stone in her pocket to help her remember right from left, and despairs of ever being a good mother to her unborn child. As she is quick to tell you, she is not hero material. She runs a deer farm and vegetarian cafe in Mercy, North Carolina, where textiles—not tourism—is king and where Irene Crump and the Mercy Study Club run the show.

But then Antigone takes in a homeless boy against her husband's wishes and the Study Club forces her best friend, the school librarian, to remove “undesirable” books from the school's collection. And soon Antigone finds herself challenging the controlling Irene and fighting for the very things that have made her life a misery—books. The dyslexic Antigone starts her own library and sets in motion a series of events destined to change Mercy forever.

ISBN: 978-0963888044 (print edition)

  • Read an excerpt
  • Kindle version ($3.99)
  • Nook version ($3.99)
  • Order Paperback from Osmyrrah Publishing ($10.00)
    (Use discount code NFTZCYFG to save 10%)
  • Order Paperback from Amazon ($10.00)
  • Order Book of Mercy / Maud's House Combo ($15.00)

    • "If you are a book lover, you will love this book!"

    — Faith Sullivan, author of Gardenias,
    The Cape Ann, and The Empress of One.

    "It's a serious topic—book banning—but handled in a responsible, fun way with quirky characters, and so-real dialogue. Author Sherry Roberts manages to fit marriage, pregnancy, binge driving, hubcap sculpture, homelessness, vegetarianism, and ESP into this homespun tale with characters that keep coming to mind long after the last page has been read. Librarians will cheer for the plucky heroine, Antigone Brown who stands up to the town bullies with the help of her oddly talented friends. Well-researched, well-written, a delightful read!"

    — A librarian

    "Everyone who cares about books should read Book of Mercy. And especially, read it if you like your books to be engaging, fun, and of literary merit. I don't know how the author, Sherry Roberts, does it, but she makes you care deeply about a wide range of characters, while reinforcing an important literary message. I loved it, and I'm telling every reader I know about it. From a tiny town in the south, to the dark alley where trouble lurks, to the mean streets of New York City, the characters and personalities in Book of Mercy run the gamut of human experience. I was sorry to see the book end. I loved every minute of it!"

    — Lois West Duffy, author of Zillah's Gift

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. -Groucho Marx

Maud's House by Sherry Roberts

MAUD'S HOUSE

by Sherry Roberts (author blog)

"We live for momentous sparks. For nanoseconds of invulnerability. But we are loved for the little things, the way we wear green suede cowboy boots, the way we see potential in an old gutted van in a field of trilliums, the way we help a neighbor stack his woodpile." — Maud Calhoun

As a brilliant child artist, Maud Calhoun put Round Corners, Vermont, on the map with paintings that covered every inch of her house. Now, pressured to paint a mural for her small Vermont home town, she searches for the inspiration that has eluded her for fifteen years. With humor and warmth, Maud struggles to reclaim herself and her creative muse as her tightly knit community unravels.

Welcome to Maud's House, where the good struggle is played out by an endearing group of locals and a woman who remembers a time when pictures "trickled from my fingers like blood." There's always beer in the refrigerator and country music on the radio, and everyone is sure to butt into your business.

And if you draw on the walls — maybe just your initials tucked into the corner of the bathroom above the heating vent — no one will care. Everyone in Round Corners knows how it is: how you can have these uncontrollable urges to leave your mark. The problem comes when the muse flies the coop and you're stuck, and sooner or later, everyone in Round Corners becomes stuck.

Creativity lost. It's as ugly as mud season in Vermont.