Nadja Maril’s prose and poetry has been published in literary magazines that include Change Seven, Lunch Ticket, Thin Air, and The Compressed Journal of Creative Arts. She is the author of Recipes From My Garden, a chapbook published by Old Scratch Press that includes both poetry and creative nonfiction prose. Author of two children’s books illustrated with paintings by her father Herman Maril, as well as Who IS Santa? for which she did her own illustrations, Nadja is also the author of two reference books on antique American Lighting, published by Schiffer. A former journalist and magazine editor, Nadja has an MFA in Creative Writing from the Stonecoast Program at the University of Southern Maine. To read more of her work and follow her weekly blog posts, visit Nadjamaril.com https://nadjamaril.com/
Writers and poets are complex individuals. They are not afraid to take risks. They reveal their innermost thoughts in their poetry and prose and they also like to have fun.
How well do you think you know the members of the Old Scratch Press Poetry and Short Form Collective and how well can you judge someone by their outward appearance?
Can you match these poets: Robert Fleming, R. David Fulcher, Dianne Pearce, or Virginia Watts with the correct fun fact?
Dianne Pearce
Robert Flemming
R. David FulcherVirginia Watts
A. They met their spouse through a personal ad placed by their dog.
B. They performed as Frankenstein at the opening of the movie “Gods and Monsters.”
C. They once pursued a career as a folksinger and they have an original song available on the internet.
D. Their favorite Xmas Eve story is about a character named Giant Grummer who lived in a house of limburger cheese consuming pickles and vinegar.
THE ANSWERS
“I guess you could say that I met my spouse after my dog posted an ad in the Personals column of the city paper, looking for a daddy to join us on walks, ” says Dianne Pearce.
In 1998, Robert Fleming performed as Frankenstein at the opening of the movie Gods and Monsters and here is a photo to prove it!
Want to check out the movie itself. Here is a link to the trailer.
Perhaps the plaid shirt and the beard is a giveaway, but R. David Fulcher describes himself as a “wannabe folksinger.” Take a listen.
And last but not least, check out What Virginia Watts has to say about her favorite Christmas story. featuring Giant Grummer.
Play the game next week, when we’ll have more fun questions and photos to share. Don’t miss a post, sign up to follow us on WordPress and Facebook. Thank you for reading.
Do you find that your work as a translator influences your approach to writing original works?
A:
I can safely say I learned how to write from translating other people’s work. Translation has been a school to me. In a way, it’s like those painters you see reproducing great works at art galleries. They’re learning through reproduction. Translation is like that too. Translation means taking a text in one language and rewriting it in another. But literary translation is about taking an author’s text in one language and transferring it to another language in that author’s style. So it’s reproduction of content and form, to the extent that that’s possible. You learn a great deal from doing that. And it was through translation that I finally acquired those other competencies I mentioned before—planning, discipline and patience. It’s great training for a writer.
Gabby Gilliam, a fellow member of the collective who like myself lives in the Greater Washington D.C. region which encompasses Northern Virginia and Maryland, recently posted a link on social media about the Second Annual Short Poem Edition just published by the nonprofit Washington Writers Publishing House.
The three-line poems posted, immediately drew my attention and got me to thinking about the power of short poetry. Gabby will be the guest poetry editor for the Winter “Cooold Turkey” themed issue of the literary magazine Instant Noodles. Get more information here.
Short poetry has power. Thank you for reading and if you’d like to share a favorite short poem, please send it in via “comments.” Remember to also follow the Old Scratch Press Facebook page and check out what people are saying about our first book release A Break in the Field by Ellis Elliot.
Looking for a terrifying horror read to get you through the weekend?
Check out the DRUMMING FOR THE DEAD series by Gabby Gilliam!
CHECK OUT SOME OF THESE REVIEWS:
Just like vampires cannot live without blood and a place to lay-low during the day, authors cannot live without reviews on Amazon. So read the books and give Gabby those five stars you know she deserves!
You can get both books in the series right now for less than the price of a Starbucks, or a McDonald’s anything, and have great horror for your whole weekend. It’s too freaking hot to go out anyway. Stay inside and read something scary!
Leave Gabby a review, and I’ll send you a PDF of the Gravelight book of your choice!
A hot weekend full of zombies. In the words of Walter Sobchak, “If you will it, it is no dream.”
Congratulations to Anthony Doyle, whose dystopian sci fi novel was chosen for inclusion in the August Kirkus Reviewsmagazine!
To have a book chosen by Kirkus for their magazine means that they think the book is worth your precious reading time.
Could Anthony Doyle be the next George Orwell?
Have you bought your copy?
We have a few ways to get you that copy you want!
first option (and to get a FREE copy):
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second option (includes pre-order sale price & special collector’s item!):
During the month of August, order Hibernaculum at the pre-order price and receive a free copy of the Hibernaculum Spa brochure! A collectors item, signed by the author, that you won’t want to miss!
And, just as an FYI, I read this book when it was submitted to us, I read it to edit it, and I read it a few more times after that. I was captivated by the book every single time. If you, like me, loved1984, A Clockwork Orange, Brave New World, you will also love Hibernaculum. It’s just that good.
Instant Noodles is on online literary magazine. Part of the Devil’s Party Press family, Instant Noodles is the opportunity that brought the majority of the authors to Old Scratch Press. It is ALWAYS free to read, and free to submit to.
Old Scratch Press is curating the December 2023 issue? The theme for the December edition is “Cooold Turkey.”
Please take note, we’re shortening our word count. Can you take the challenge and keep it brief by making every word count? For our Winter issue we’re asking our writers to limit their poetry submissions to 2 poems (up to a combined total of 500 words). Prose writers, we’ll be only publishing work that is 500 words or less. (If you need to finish a sentence, we’ll cut you a little slack). Remember, we only publish writers over the age of forty and it’s important to submit work that is somehow related to the theme. Guest Editors for the Winter issue include: GABBY GILLIAM: Poetry, R.DAVID FULCHER: Fiction, ALAN BERN and DIANNE PEARCE: Art, and NADJA MARIL: Memoir/Creative Nonfiction.
The issue opens for submissions August 15, 2023. Submissions close on October 15th.
Thanks to Annette Tarpley for choosing to highlight Ellis on her program! Ellis reads some of her book and has a nice long chat with Annette. Stop by and watch!
NM: In your notes about the book, you mention wanting initially to tell the story of Jonah and the Whale. How do you see that story relating to the plotline of Hibernaculum?
AD: The Jonah story has always held a particular fascination for me. Both the Christian and the Islamic versions are so rich in symbolism and psychological truths that I could go on writing about them and never get bored (though the reader probably would). Hibernaculum was originally intended as part of a triptych called Three Jonahs. The other installments are a recently-finished novel called Jestor, and a poetry chapbook called Jonah’s Map of the Whale (which is currently with Old Scratch Press). Each work explores the Jonah story from a different angle. In Hibernaculum, I imagined the process of hibernation and the hibernaculum dome itself as a “whale” that swallows the sleeper. Instead of 3 days, this descent into the underworld lasts 3 months or more. Jonah had plotted his course: he was going to board a ship at Joppa Port and sail away to Tarshish (Gibraltar). That was his plan, but it wasn’t the right one (he was supposed to go to the city of Nineveh). We have our plan, our course, collectively and individually, and it doesn’t seem to be the right one either, and sooner or later we’re going to be tipped out of our own boat and forced to reconsider. That’s what Hibernaculum is about: a society forced to reconsider its “course”.
Hibernaculum began life in Kindle Vella, but KV does not have the whole story. If you began reading it there, you’ll want to get your hands on the book, to see what happens at the end, when the dystopian becomes…. Orwellian.
Anthony Doyle is an amazing author, and while Hibernaculum is his first published novel, it will not be his last. I highly suggest you follow him to follow his career, especially if you like deep books that challenge our modern world. And, in his current post, he has an extra Hibernaculum story posted that you won’t want to miss!
As his publishers, we feel incredibly lucky that we are the ones to publish this book, and we’re looking forward to getting a chance to sit down with the print book and enjoy it all over again. The journey the book takes the reader on is…. unexpected, and when you think you’ve seen behind the curtain, there is more to know, and more secrets revealed. And, if you enjoy fiction that is also culturally relevant, this is the book for you. Like the best sci fi, it is a prescient book, and when you read it, and realize it was written before any hint of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, you’ll think that Anthony is a seer, and it will shock you to realize exactly where tough climate choices could take our children someday. No, you will not be able to put Hibernaculum down! But don’t take my word for it. Listen to the experts:
“Thought-provoking SF delivered in an intriguingly panoramic form.” KIRKUS REVIEWS
“Doyle has hit on something rare: an original approach to climate fiction.” BOOKLIFE REVIEWS
“Gripping, revealing, and frightening.” MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW“The contrast between notes and experiences of those who navigate this world are exceptionally well done, and will lend to book club discussions and sci-fi reader delight. Libraries and readers seeking a futuristic exploration which examines sleepers of the world and the social and political truths and realities that underlie their motivations will find Hibernaculum replete with a growing horror of realization that awakens, at the end, into a nightmare of manipulation and truth. It will leave readers thinking long after the story’s final startling revelations.” DONOVAN’S BOOKSHELF
In an imploding world, time is money, time is trouble, and time is risk. For those who can neither afford or bear to exist 24/7, 365 days a year, time is also a solution.
In Anthony Doyle’s startling debut novel, you’ll step into a world where global voluntary hibernation facilities provide a way out, a chance to step off the status quo carousel. Hibernaculum takes you into the before, during, and after of this strange new process and posits the question: Do things really look better after a good, long sleep?
A compelling, unsettling glimpse into the world of tomorrow.
And see what the readers thought who read the abbreviated version on Kindle Vella:
Yes, we’ve been recommending Anthony’s book for some time now, but it’s finally here! And you know that in a few weeks you’re going to start shopping for Christmas presents or Holiday gifts, and why not give your friends and loved ones not just another “thing,” a tie, socks, etc., why not give them an entire week of great reading? People love and remember experiences more than things, and no one will be able to forget this book, or put it down.
DO YOU RUN A BOOKSTORE? ARE YOU A LIBRARIAN? DO YOU HAVE A PODCAST?
Anthony is a warm and engaging human, and he is free, willing, and able to Zoom with you and your guests to talk about his book, or climate change, or sci fi that predicts the future, or how to write and publish your debut novel, or any number of other topics.
OLD SCRATCH PRESS 