Welcome.
Welcome to Scarletta Press. We take time and attention to find new voices and opinions missing from the publishing world. As a small press we can nurture those authors overlooked by bigger companies. Yet through our partnership with PGW/Perseus, we are part of the largest independent distribution group in the U.S. Discover why our books are better.
News
Back in Print:
A Celtic Childhood and Scotland Is Not for the Squeamish
Scarletta Press is putting Bill Watkins’ first two books back in print with never-before-read intros and chapters. These books will be available in e-formats and POD. For some darn good yarns about misadventure and merriment, pick up these memoirs Fall 2011. And don’t forget about the final book in the trilogy, The Once and Future Celt.
E-books!
We aren’t giving up on traditional publishing—we think it’s still worth the effort to connect with our readers who prefer pages to screens. But we do understand the perks of offering our books electronically. That’s why we are now utilizing PGW’s Constellation services to offer many of our books on the Apple iPad, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, eBrary, OverDrive, Sony Reader, and many more. Check out our “books” page to pick up your electronic copy today.
FALL 2011 — Now Available!
Lost in Lexicon
An Adventure in Words and Numbers
Lexicon Adventure Series Book One
By Pendred Noyce
Illustrated by Joan Charles
When thirteen-year-old cousins Ivan and Daphne go on a treasure hunt in the rain one summer day, they never expect to stumble into a whole new world where words and numbers run wild.
With new friends, strange meetings, baffling concepts, and deepening perils, the cousins must find a way to solve the mystery of the dancing lights in the sky and return the lost children of Lexicon to their homes.
“… Lost in Lexicon breaks new ground in the adventure genre. This rollicking, often tongue-in-cheek novel will appeal to young readers who need a break from their computer games and long to journey into the woods of learning.”
— ForeWord Reviews
“It’s the setup to many a great story. There’s a secret portal in the barn and it leads to a strange and beautiful world of grammatical and mathematical troubles.”
— Teresa DiFalco, Parents’ Choice
A Celtic Childhood
Once and Future Celt Trilogy, Book One
By Bill Watkins
The lyrical narrative of a gifted and animated storyteller, Bill Watkins weaves a wonderful tale of misadventure and merriment.
A Celtic Childhood vividly portrays his eccentric and richly colloquial Celtic family. The fleádh nights with his family bring forth a rich understanding of young Bill’s place in Celtic history. The tales of Watkin’s boyhood as a good-natured miscreant find him disrupting weddings while dressed as a gangster, illegally operating a ham radio, and getting kicked out of Ireland for “vagrancy” while on a minstrel trail in search of his Celtic spirit and manhood.
“Deserves to be read for its own brilliance … laugh-out-loud funny … Watkins’ tales make for pure reading pleasure.”
— Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
Scotland Is Not for the Squeamish
Once and Future Celt Trilogy, Book Two
By Bill Watkins
The lyrical narrative of a gifted and animated storyteller, Bill Watkins weaves a wonderful tale of misadventure and merriment.
Rich and colorful, Bill Watkins deftly mingles Celtic poetry, history, and song with true and tall tales of his high-seas adventures and explorations of the Scottish highlands. After realizing his childhood dream of becoming a wireless operator at seas, Watkins takes his readers to the places he visits, the people he meets, and the work and predicaments he gets into.
Tackling his rugged surroundings with humor and smarts, Watkins recounts the magic of his younger years of soul-searching exploration in animated detail, giving Scotland Is Not for the Squeamish the rare quality of equaling its predecessor.
“Stuffed full of mischief and yearning, and all manner of whimsical absurdity that bedevils the soul of the dispossessed Celt.”
— Erin Hart, author of Haunted Ground, Lake of Sorrows, and False Mermaid
Spring 2011
Hassie Calhoun
An Adventure in Words and Numbers
A Las Vegas Novel of Innocence
In this first book of a coming of age trilogy, lovely and talented Hassie Calhoun arrives in a male-dominated Las Vegas to make it as a singer. Her beauty immediately opens doors at the Sands Hotel, but that same beauty draws her into a dangerous relationship with her brooding lover, Jake, and attracts the attention of the powerful Frank Sinatra.
With her innocence and identity on the line, the road to stardom puts Hassie in several compromising situations. Cory offers a deceptively sophisticated look into the life of an ambitious young woman during the era of the Rat Pack, whose very passions impede her dreams in a way that many women could secretly relate to. The rest of the trilogy follows this engaging character through New York and London as she endures trial and error.
“ … This poignant novel is a down-to-earth rather than idealistic glimpse of a vulnerable heroine learning how to succeed ... and unfortunately, how to stop trusting people.”
— ForeWord Reviews
“This page-turning, in-your-face story explores how a good woman must reach depths before she can understand herself.”
— Masha Hamilton, author of 31 Hours
“Nostalgia takes it on the chin in Cory’s overdramatic but atmospherically pleasing debut … Cory’s alternately gritty and sudsy depiction of early ’60s Sin City transports the reader back to a time when the Rat Pack ethos ruled.”
— Publisher’s Weekly