What is Mercy, Maine, and Me?
Working class Maine in fiction and essay.
Mercy is scheduled to begin weekly release in January, 2025!
I was born in Sanford, Maine. “Skankford,” some people, including my own students, call it. I thought it was an ugly place until, in my early twenties and without car or a license, I started walking through town to my minimum wage job every day, 45 minutes each way. It didn’t exactly become beautiful, but it did become interesting, especially the mill buildings and the history behind them. I had lots of time to think on those walks, and I came up with a character, a sort of combination mystic/monk that lived in the mills. Ten years later, I started writing a book, Mercy, about him. The better I know him, the less mystical he is; the more I write, the further into the fringes the ghosts and fantastic elements go, but, I hope, something true is emerging. The stories are NOT about Sanford, but they are the fruit of being from here. They are not about real people; sometimes they are similar to real places, creative license fully in use. This is working-class Maine through my eyes. I always meant to write something beautiful; instead, I’ve written this. In the words of Leonard Cohen, I hope to “show you where to look between the garbage and the flowers.” And that’s where I think you’ll see Mercy.
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I try to post twice monthly during ordinary time (short stories, poems, essays) and once a week when serializing a novel. If you subscribe, these will be sent directly to your e-mail inbox.
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When a novel is being serialized, I will unlock one chapter a week for free, but paying subscribers will be able to read ahead several chapters.
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All that being said, free subscribers are valued 100% as much as paid, and there are free ways that you can support artists as well—every time you like, comment, or share our work, it’s incredibly valuable. But the biggest thing that keeps me going is knowing that my words have been meaningful to people. So if they have, let me know, and we’ll call it even.
Who is Jennie Robertson?
I am an introvert. I am interested in almost everything, for varying amounts of time. I think nature is beautiful but I have major sensory issues with it and I have the skin of a vampire, basically. It shrivels in the sun. I love fairy tales and am fascinated by the intersection of folklore and reality. My husband and I think of our home as a lab for curiosity and creativity.
I have been in love with books since my earliest memories of being surrounded by them in my Dad’s used bookstore. I made a few early efforts in crayon and construction paper that he put in the front window, becoming my first and best patron. I went through school being made kind of a big deal for my writing, only to emerge into the world and find that you have to shout really loud to be heard, and that’s not really me. (Many writers feel this way; turns out it’s hard to pick out a whisper among a billion other whispers, too.) I’ve struggled to develop my craft while raising two children, homeschooling them, and, intermittently, working various jobs. For awhile, I was making good pocket money writing for a blog, but when it changed hands, I discovered I’d have to sell my soul to keep at it. I’ve had short pieces published in a couple of anthologies and a couple of magazines.
People who know me in person may wonder why I am using my original surname. Well, I like it. I use my husband’s last name legally and at school, but my maiden name is tied to my identity in different ways, so I like to use it for my writing.
What is SelkiePub?
Just another of my ideas that hasn’t really taken off. I liked the idea of a local literary magazine and made some attempts to do it using SelkiePub as my imprint. “Selkie” in reference to a mythological creature I identify with and Pub is short for publishing and a good place to tell stories (in a public house.) I haven’t entirely given up on the idea.
I turned to zines (“a noncommercial, often homemade or online publication usually devoted to specialized and often unconventional subject matter”—Merriam Webster Online) when I got tired of the game of getting things published and just wanted to write. I’ve made assorted zines, including two on the gig economy (What We Do, Issues 1&2), two on fairy tales (Everyday Epic Issues 1&2P), and one on the struggle to be a responsible consumer (A Consuming Passion.) Making zines is a lot of fun and reflects some personal values.
You can find printable SelkiePub zines on Etsy and Ko-Fi (free or name your price) and follow it on Instagram (although right now, I mostly just post my Substack posts there.)
