About Homeostasis Press


Brothers Bill (left) and Ted Merrill, founders of Homeostasis Press

A brief history

Homeostasis Press began as a collaboration between brothers Ted and Bill Merrill. Ted had recently retired from his lifelong medical career, and Bill was years retired from a teaching career in public schools and university, with a PhD degree in geography. Both were published writers with a lot more to say.

As parents, both Ted and Bill told their children stories about their childhood adventures along the Salmon River, and those stories remained warm, lifelong memories for their adult children. This inspired Ted and Bill to collect those stories, and in 2002, after nearly 10 years of passing the manuscript back and forth and correcting or confirming each other's memories, they self-published that collection in a book titled River Runts. It sold out quickly and went to a second printing the following year. In September 2005, the brothers added photos and drawings as River Runts went to a third printing.

By that time, each of the brothers had another book in the works, so Ted started Homeostasis Press to provide a consolidated publishing channel. He began a relationship with Lightning Source, a print-on-demand company associated with the Ingram Content Group, and published the third edition of River Runts in 2005. Homeostasis Press then published Ted's I Only Dress the Wounds in 2005 and Bill's Wisdom of the Tools in 2006. Also in 2006, Homeostasis Press published Woodspurge, a memorial book of poems by Bill's wife Jo, who died in 2002. In 2009, Homeostasis Press published two books: A Quiet Calling, a book of poems written by Bill's son Tim Merrill; and The Best of It by Ted's daughter Valerie Stein, which intimately chronicles her experiences surrounding the 1983 death of her mother.

Transition

Bill Merrill passed away in October 2010, and Ted died in February 2013. At the time of his death, Ted was on the verge of publishing what he felt was his most important book, Lessons from pond scum, an ecological examination of Earth and its limitations through the simple metaphor of the "Miracle Whip Microcosm" (also known as an Eco-jar).

With Ted's passing, Homeostasis Press was handed down to his daughter, Valerie Stein. Valerie is a retired librarian and teacher who now adds "publisher" to her collection of hats. Valerie’s interest in serving teachers with Pacific Northwest history resources led to the creation of Gather Here: History for Young People, now connected with Homeostasis Press. Her experience in all those areas makes her an inspired and inspiring choice to manage Homeostasis Press, and she can be reached at books@homeostasispress.com.

Ted's eldest son David, who designed and maintains this web site and provided editorial and technical assistance to Ted over the years, completed posthumous editing and design of Ted's ecology book Lessons from pond scum and his wood and woodworking book Heartwood. David is a freelance programmer, web and database designer, editor, and print designer under the name Clarient Solutions. He has collaborated with Valerie to update and nourish the Homeostasis Press brand and web site, and you can reach him at dmerrill@clarientsolutions.com.

David consults often with his brother Richard who, besides being an extraordinary graphic designer for both print and web, seems to know quite a lot about an awe-inspiring range of subjects. Richard owns and operates the server on which this site is hosted. His current enterprise is 3Hawk Design, and his email address is richard@3hawk.com.

Kendra Stein, Ted’s granddaughter, is a copy editor certified through UC San Diego. Besides editing curriculum documents for the school where she works, she provides copy editing and other services for Homeostasis Press and can be contacted at kendra.m.stein@gmail.com.

The Homeostasis Press web site initially identified the company and its catalog as solely Merrill family products, but as Valerie says, "The future is an open book."