Going Home Again...

One of the major premises of my novel - Snot Rag & Cheese Whiz - is returning home again.

As I prepared for the book's release, I found myself feeling a longing for my own childhood home in South Florida.

My story is a unique one: I lived in my birth place in South Florida until December of 2022, when I decided to relocate Northeast Florida.

It was the only home I had known for nearly 43 years.

The home was updated before we moved, which was difficult to watch. The brown, 1980's carpeting on the stairway was torn up and replaced with wood plank flooring. The familiar paint colors were replaced with white walls. The concrete porch was paved.

I knew, logically, these were improvements that were desperately needed but, so much of who I am was tied to these things.

But, I guess it was helpful being able to participate in the remodel - to help make choices and experience the change. It became another way my identity was woven into the bones of the home.

This was the backyard I grew up playing in. Originally, the fence was red and there was grass and a pool. Over the years, it changed and grew with us, hosting friends and family and numerous parties. My father built the tool shed with his own hands, and it was strong and sturdy - just like him.

I know it wasn't glamorous...but it was my home.

When I moved, we sold the home to a lovely couple with two small children...and it helped knowing that the home now belonged to another family who would appreciate it and watch their children grow within it's structure.

I left them a binder with pictures of the homes construction and a letter wishing them as much love and fond memories in the home as I had. I hoped one day their children would love that home as deeply as I did.

But - overcome with homesickness, I decided to look up the house online - to look at pictures of the home I left behind.

I expected nostalgia...but only found grief.

The family who bought the home made additional upgrades before reselling it...and although I can appreciate the improvements - my heart hurts.

The home I remember is now forever changed. The way I left it lives on only in my memory, and the only connection I had to it's future has been severed.

I think, maybe, that's why I write the kind of stories I do.

I want everyone to feel like they can go home again. Like they can return to the front porch where they took pictures before the first day of school. Where they recognize the familiar carving of initials in a tree.

I was so very, very fortunate to have been able to have lived in one place for such a long time. To have had a place that always felt like home.

If my stories can share that experience in some way...if readers can feel the love and joy and warmth I carry in my heart for my birthplace...then I feel like I've achieved what I set out to achieve.

If you've been thinking about picking up Snot Rag & Cheese Whiz, I hope you'll give it a chance. Beneath the humor and romance, it's really a story about going home again...and discovering that sometimes the place changes, but the things that matter most don't.

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Author H.R. Burkett writes fiction about messy people, complicated relationships, and beautifully imperfect lives.

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