the most frequently asked question
What’s with the name?
We know you’re wondering. This marvelously ridiculous name Nogginnose—whatever doth it mean? The answer begins with a bedtime ritual.
“Bedtime ritual?” you ask.
“Yes indeed,” we reply.
Once upon a time, the Houseal family’s oldest daughter was a wee thing. And she had a bedtime. And since all the children of Creation agree that bedtimes are bitter pills to swallow, her parents invented a bedtime ritual to ease her suffering with fun. The ritual was officially known as Noggins & Noses. It was forever thereafter performed with each of the Houseal children in the following manner:
Step One
Be sure one’s forehead and nose are not grimy, gritty, or soiled in any way. Proceed.
Step Two
Parents take turns touching their foreheads to the child’s forehead, making sure that neither parent nor child is at that moment giggling too hard (as might knock heads together in a painsome manner). Step two thus constitutes “Noggins.”
Step Three
Parents take turns rubbing noses with the child. Step three thus constitutes “Noses.”
Step Four
Nope, you’re not done yet. Parents and child each bend an arm into a roughly 47° acute angle and touch the others’ elbows with their own elbow.
Important: Though this step did not make it into the ritual’s name, it must not be skipped. Step four thus constitutes “Eblows.” (No, that is not a typo.)
Eventually, the Houseal children got older, and Noggins & Noses grew up with them. But its original purpose remained: to take humdrum moments and make them curious again.
To that maturing end, Noggins & Noses became Nogginnose Press. It’s gotten all growed up into a for-real-and-for-true publishing imprint, and its quest now extends far beyond bedtimes—reaching into forenoons and afternoons and predawn escapades! And we—the guardians of the Noggins-Noses-Eblows tradition—hope that our stories will be a setting for communal laughter, wholesome curiosity, and encouragement to seek and embrace truth.
Will you join us?