introducing the new book from jayne martin
The Daddy Chronicles
New video!
See Jayne Martin read for the South Florida Poetry Journal —->
Also, see Jayne Martin discuss The Daddy Chronicles on FMLTalk:
Support indie presses and order direct from the publisher, Whiskey Tit!
(But if you must, you may also purchase from Amazon or Barnes & Noble)
Order from the publisher
One out of three women in the U.S. identify as fatherless. An absent father who occasionally appears to bestow his affections only to disappear again leads a daughter to seek out others like him—men who are charismatic, but emotionally unavailable—throughout her lifetime.
In this emotionally-charged memoir written in cinematic vignettes, Jayne Martin fearlessly bares the parts of her that were broken when her father left the family upon her birth and, in doing so, leads the reader on their own journey toward wholeness and healing. Whether you are a fatherless daughter or are someone who loves one, The Daddy Chronicles will tear at your heart and open a world of understanding.
Advance Praise
“The primal longing for wholeness is at the heart of The Daddy Chronicles, whose mosaic structure reflects Martin’s fragmented family upbringing. Like too many, Martin grew up with an absent father. Brutally direct, hauntingly poetic, this memoir’s emotional center is its compelling honesty and vulnerability.” —Sue William Silverman, How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences
“Disarming in its honesty, fierce in its longing, The Daddy Chronicles is the story of a girl without a father and the cost of unmet hunger. In a series of written snapshots, Jayne Martin provides a kaleidoscopic view into her childhood and grips the reader with raw and unflinching prose.” —Sonja Livingston, Ghostbread
“Don’t let the length of the short stories in The Daddy Chronicles fool you. Martin poignantly captures the heart of a fatherless daughter through the many stages of loss that happen in a fatherless daughter’s journey. The initial gut punch of grief in her words grab you, but it is her strength that keeps pulling you in. She, like all fatherless daughters before her, is a warrior who rises through the ashes and gives the reader the blueprint to follow suit in their own exploration of understanding and healing. Welcome to the tribe.” —Denna Babul, The Fatherless Daughter Project and Love Strong
“In a series of poignant and poetic vignettes, this memoir delivers the complexity of an entire lifetime on the head of a pin. While unflinching exploration of loss and longing drives the narrative forward, the destination is, ultimately, a place of reclamation–of memory, of agency, and of self. Martin’s spare images crackle and resonate not only with the energy and impact of her experiences, but also with the quiet wisdom she has gleaned from them.” —Jeannine Ouellette, The Part That Burns
“This collection of priceless memories not only made me reflect on my own stories, but heal and grow from the beautiful words on the page. Everyone will relate to different parts of this poetic masterpiece.” —Gabrielle Stone, Eat, Pray, #FML
Jayne Martin Reading
and don’t miss
Tender Cuts
Description
If Joy Williams and Raymond Carver had a love child that was often left in the care of Lydia Davis it might grow up to be Jayne Martin. Martin’s writing evokes the literary DNA of those who have influenced her most, while in a style and voice that is uniquely her own.
In these 38 tiny tales, everyday people do their best to manage the wounds life inflicts on all of us: A six-year-old beauty pageant contestant strives to please her demanding mother; a woman marries a 1985 Buick LeSabre; in a laundromat bored wives fall under the romantic spell of a lobster; a grown woman is still being fat-shamed by her deceased mother via a Ouija board; a widow carries her husband’s ashes around in Baggies.
With pathos and humor, these and all of the characters in this collection will speak to the reader’s own wounded heart.
Publication date: November 4, 2019
Genre: Vignette Collection | Flash Fiction
Paperback: ISBN-13: 978-1-925965-24-7
ePub: ISBN-13: 978-1-925965-25-4
Page count: 92
Available from:
Look for these story snippets around the site:
Tender Cuts
“Julie-Sue’s hair cascades in golden ringlets past tiny shoulders. The “Little Miss Soybean Pageant” pays $150 to the winner and Mama says they need the money.”
People Are Saying
“Jayne Martin’s gift for conjuring moments of emotional betrayal is fearless, as is her keen eye for the everyday surreal. Dark, unflinching studies of fragility, identity, and the spirit’s fight for survival, these masterful stories delight the reader with their generous, unconventional honesty.”
–Meg Pokrass, author, “Alligators at the Gate,” and founding editor of New Flash Fiction Review.
“Read the first line of any Jayne Martin story and I dare you not to keep going. A masterful storyteller, Martin’s characters are funny, smart, wounded, and brave. These thirty-eight stories linger and satisfy. She does the work of a novel in a few pages with skill, grace, and power. A badass writer if ever there was one.”
–Kathy Fish, author of Wild Life: Collected Works from 2003-2018
“Here are stories that crackle with tough truths and meaningful reveals. It is remarkable with what agility Jayne Martin traverses such multi-various and rugged terrains. These pieces, though short, are expansive beyond all borders: bold, impactful, and thoroughly captivating.”
–Robert Scotellaro, author, “Nothing Is Ever One Thing,” co-editor of New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fictions from Norton Press
“Looking at the wounds and small triumphs of her characters from an often oblique angle, Jayne Martin examines moments in the lives of weirdoes and misfits, mutts and beauty queens. This is a collection that explores everyday drama, laying bare the tensions between anguish and resolution.”
–Michelle Elvy, author of “the everrumble” from Ad Hoc Fiction
“Tender Cuts is about seeing and not seeing, what we are blind to and what’s right in front of us. In this debut flash fiction collection Jayne Martin’s writing is compact, dense, often heartbreaking, always illuminating, and woven with a strange nostalgia; she has a way of reconciling the child with the adult, the pain with the beauty of tragedy, the tragedy still seeded with hope.”
–Nancy Stohlman, author of Madam Velvet’s Cabaret of Oddities, professor of creative writing University of Colorado.
“Jayne Martin traces lives punctured with regret, lost love, and dashed hopes. Surreal and real at the same time. A reader will leave these stories with a sense of healing, though, for Martin’s storytelling knife is sharp with honesty and deft with insight into the vagaries of the human soul.”
– Grant Faulkner, Executive Director National Novel Writing Month; Co-founder of the literary journal “100-Word Stories.”