"Hotel of the Siren" by Antoinette Carone

Scantic Books is proud to publish Hotel of the Siren, the richly textured debut novel by Antionette Carone. 

In the late twentieth-century, before cell phones and the internet, Lucy comes home from work and finds her artist husband Jon slumped over his easel. Some days later, Jon dies. At his funeral, Lucy watches a lady in a green scarf linger by his grave. When Lucy later finds the green scarf carefully placed over Jon’s grave, she begins to suspect Jon may have been having an affair. Lucy collects Jon’s life insurance, sells her house, and moves to Naples, Italy. She takes the scarf with her. There, she changes her name to Lucia, meets new friends, enjoys running along the bay, and begins a love affair of her own with Antonio. Unbeknownst to Lucia, Antonio is The Lady of the Green Scarf’s cousin. Hotel of the Siren tells of lovers and a city where reality can differ from appearance and expectations can be overturned.

 

You can order Hotel of the Siren here:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09V34QY2Q 

"Ways to Read the World" by Robert Scotellaro

Scantic Books is proud to publish Ways to Read the World, the new collection from flash fiction master, Robert Scotellaro. 

There's an old saying that postulates there are two sides to every story. Scotellaro goes one step beyond with these triptych tales. These three-part stories present three unique and interconnection literary explorations, giving readers three distinct ways to consider each character, relationship, event, mood, theme. In short, over and over again, Scotellaro expertly packs three stories into one with the skill of someone packing for three separate sojourns in one compact carry-on bag. Join him on his journeys and discover a multitude of ways to read the world in what author Meg Pokrass calls, "mini-marvels of diamond-cut prose." Author Michael C. Keith calls this book, "A triple delight and triumph," while author Robin Stratton notes that, "No one--no one--does flash fiction better than Robert Scotellaro."

 

Order Ways to Read the World here:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TYSFMSS

Ways to Read the World is another masterwork by a brilliant weaver of the compact tale. Robert Scotellaro’s ability to compress whole worlds into a few sentences is singular and always profoundly entertaining and illuminating. As with the author’s previous short-short fiction collections, this new effort challenges the reader’s complacency and imagination––a sudden turn of phrase and the train is off its tracks and bound in unexpected directions. The innovative triptych format in Ways to Read the World works to marvelous effect as well, expanding and enriching the motifs and themes of its luminous prosetry. Scotellaro’s incomparable artistry, wit, and insight are all on exquisite display in this wonderful new volume. A triple delight and triumph. – Michael C. Keith, author Insomnia 11 and Quiet Geography.

 

Ways to Read the World is a dazzling collection of stories so beautifully written and so powerfully sad that your heart will break over and over. No one—no one—does flash fiction better than Robert Scotellaro. Is there such a thing as a perfect book? This might be it.  – Robin Stratton, Some Have Gone and Some Remain           

In Ways to Read the World, Robert Scotellaro’s head-of-the-pin triptych stories are miniature wonders. This author’s great gift is his power to condense human experience into mini-marvels of diamond-cut prose.  – Meg Pokrasss, author of Damn Sure Right and The Dog Seated Next to Me

Robert Scotellaro’s work has been included in W.W. Norton’s Flash Fiction International, Maryland Literary Review, Gargoyle, Matter Press, New World Writing, Best Small Fictions 2016, 2017, and 2021, Best Microfiction 2020, and elsewhere. He is the author of seven chapbooks, several books for children, and five flash fiction collections. He was the winner of Zone 3’s Rainmaker Award in Poetry and the Blue Light Book Award for his fiction. His flash collection, What Are the Chances? (Press 53), was a finalist for the 2020 Big Other Book Award for fiction. A new chapbook of flash and micro stories, God in a Can, is scheduled for release in 2022 (Bamboo Dart Press). He has, along with James Thomas, co-edited New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction, published by W.W. Norton & Co. Robert is one of the founding donors to The Ransom Flash Fiction Collection at the University of Texas, Austin. He lives in San Francisco. Visit him at www.robertscotellaro.com.