Falling Marbles Press a local publishing house with national reach
The September publication of the novel “Toward the Bad I Kept on Turning” marks the apex of a busy summer for a young local publishing house started by a young local resident.
Stewart Berg, 32, of Granite Shoals founded Falling Marbles Press four years ago. With a growing stable of authors and a list of published works, the small press, located in Marble Falls, is building momentum. Since June 14, it has released four novels, with a new one due this month and another in October.
The books are all fiction and include new takes on old folktales, a philosophical murder mystery, and comedic satires on society’s bureaucratic underpinnings. The lineup is eclectic and engaging.
“American literature is on the rise,” Berg said. “I’m trying to get as many authors as I can to be part of this wider experience.”
His authors are not new to publishing, just new to fiction. Andrew Bacevich wrote “Ravens on a Wire,” which was published in July. A professor emeritus at Boston University, Bacevich has around a dozen published nonfiction books. He has a Ph.D. in history from Princeton University and taught at West Point and Johns Hopkins University.
“Ravens on a Wire” is set on the West German border in the 1970s, where an incident “spirals into a confrontation with Vietnam’s dark legacy,” reads a website blurb.
Bacevich served in the U.S. Army for 23 years, with postings in Germany and Vietnam during the ‘70s.
“I thought I’d give fiction a chance,” he said. “The process has been refreshing and stimulating, and I’m really pleased I took the project on.”
Two other Falling Marbles books were released in August, one by Berg, “The Early Prose.” He also put out “The Early Verse” in June. Both are collections of his verse and poetry over the past 10 years.
“Not Just a Job” by Michael Long was released in early August. Like Bacevich, Long’s military background is reflected in his novel. He was a Navy quartermaster in the 1970s, which is also the time period for his story about a young man who signed up for an adventure in naval navigation that turned out to be much less than expected.
“I hope that this story that I’m telling is a faithful rendering of a time and place,” Long said of his book. “And I hope it gives people a few laughs. I hope they find it humorous. That’s the best I can hope for right there.”
Berg chose the novel for release because of its authenticity and ability to tickle funny bones.
“It’s a classic adventure-slash-Navy tale,” he said. “(Long’s) scenes in the South Pacific were really good. He had some military humor I really liked, and he may get technical at times, but you can tell it’s bonified. He knows what he’s writing about, and he makes it interesting.”
The two upcoming releases are both from Stephen Paul Foster, whose 2023 book “Fatal Friendship” is one of a couple of bestsellers from Falling Marbles Press. “Toward the Bad I Kept on Turning” releases on Sept. 12. Its sequel, “After Harry Met Sally,” will be out on Oct. 10.
Foster recently retired as a librarian at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. He is a world traveler and a philosopher with a Ph.D. from St. Louis University. He calls “Fatal Friendship” a philosophical novel about a man who discovers that his best friend—someone he considers to be of good character—has committed two pre-meditated murders.
“Toward the Bad I Kept on Turning” recounts the life of a protagonist whose character devolves from good to bad.
The title is taken from the lyrics of Merle Haggard’s hit “Mama Tried”:
“Despite all my Sunday learnin’
Towards the bad, I kept on turnin’
Til Mama couldn’t hold me anymore.”
“After Harry Met Sally” is the story of that same man’s son as he searches for the father he never knew.
“At this stage in my life, I like writing fiction,” Foster said. “I find it stimulating.
He, like the other authors, praised Berg and Falling Marbles Press.
“Stewart has been terrific,” Foster said. “He really wants to do a good job, to publish things that will make an impact on the literary world.”
Berg graduated from Burnet High School in 2010. He lived in Buchanan Dam for most of his life and now calls Granite Shoals, where his father is on the City Council, home. Centering his book business in the Highland Lakes was important to him.
“That’s why I named it Falling Marbles,” he said. “I wanted to be on the ground floor with a business in a rising area I consider home.”
Falling Marbles Press has no brick-and-mortar address, but that’s hardly necessary in today’s world of internet access and online publishing. Berg has advertised in print publications, like Harper’s, and even plans to someday publish a print journal to further promote his authors and the growing, modern American canon of literature.
He has a passion for older works now in the public domain. One of the bestselling books on the Falling Marbles website is his take on “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale,” one of 24 stories in Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales,” circa 1400.
“I used a translation from 1890 and changed it around a bit and added to it,” Berg said. “And then I wrote a sequel.”
“Two Tales of the Fox Family Reynard” is a compilation of two Berg novellas, “The Everything Fox” and its sequel “Reynarlemagne.” In the second novella, Berg creates a new character, Reynard’s grandson. Reynard tried to make the world a better place but only made things worse, Berg said. You’ll have to read the book to find out if Reynarlemagne fares any better.
Berg is deciding on his next writing projects, which might include adding brothers to the American folktales about Paul Bunyan, a giant, mythical lumberjack who legend says created Puget Sound, the Grand Canyon, and the Black Hills with a few swings of an ax.
The idea is not new. He credits the late Arvid Clementson, the mayor of Fosston, Minnesota, until his death in 2006, with concocting a younger, smaller brother for Bunyan known as Cordwood Pete. Berg wants to create a third brother for what will be his “Full Story of the Brothers Bunyan.”
“I want to uplift this mayor and what he was doing to connect his story with his town,” Berg said. “I love the idea of getting him noticed and highlighting high-quality folklore that is being forgotten in American history.”
Berg has a long list of similar ideas, including merging little-known stories written by Stephen Crane, most famous for “The Red Badge of Courage.”
“I’d like to take the two short stories, ‘Maggie: A Girl of the Streets’ and ‘George’s Mother,’ which overlap and are both about the Bowery of New York, and mash them into a novel called ‘Crane’s Bowery,” Berg said.
Right now, he is too busy getting other authors published, but he promises to be spinning his own tall tales again soon.
You can learn more about Falling Marbles Press and browse a list of published books at fallingmarbles.com.