#skyhorsepublishing

People of the Lake by Nick Scorza

"'Names don't really get at what they are, but even so, they don't like to be talked about.'"

Year Read: 2019

Rating: 3/5

Context: I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Skyhorse Publishing. Trigger warnings: death, death of a twin, violence, gore, body horror, severe injury, hospitals, guns, drowning, trauma, grief, depression.

About: When her mother's loathsome boyfriend moves in with them, Clara exiles herself to her dad’s small, lakeside hometown for the summer. Redmarch is weirder than she ever imagined, and the oddly superstitious townspeople keep outsiders at a cool distance. Things haven't been the same for Clara since her twin sister, Zoe, drowned when they were eight. When a body is found in the lake shortly after Clara arrives, she's suspicious about the circumstances. Then she discovers a note written in the language she invented with Zoe when they were young. Who's murdering townspeople and covering it up, and what does her sister have to do with it?

Thoughts: People of the Lake has a spooky premise that pays off completely in atmosphere. Redmarch is one of those quiet, Wicker Man towns where you wouldn't be surprised to learn all the townspeople were in on ritualistic murder. Scorza excels at descriptions of an unsettling lake and the eerie woods at night, where every crack of a twig makes you wonder if you're being followed--nay, stalked. It's amplified by the wall of silence put up by the unfriendly townspeople and their willful ignorance toward anything strange that happens.

It's not quite as strong in other areas. Clara is a pretty average heroine and Hector a pretty average sidekick, though I enjoyed Clara's gradual friendship with a girl she was initially at odds with. Girls hating each other for no apparent reason is one of my least favorite tropes, and Scorza does a lot to counter that over the course of the novel. Plotwise, it's very slow and then very fast, a little bit of horror and then suddenly ALL the horror, and it made the pacing a little odd. Clara doesn't have any answers for so much of the book, and when they come, it's a lot at once with no room to take a breath.

Holly Chisholm is the artist of Just Peachy comics, which Booklist has called "thoughtful and poignant." Her popular Instagram account for Just Peachy comics was her compromise between drawing and journaling; it helped her record how she was feeling at the time of being diagnosed with depression and work through some of the darkness. At first it was scary to put her deepest thoughts and fears out in the open, but the responses and messages of support from droves of fans made Chisholm realize how much it was needed to talk about mental health. After about six months of making these comics, she decided to quit her job and freelance part time so that she could dedicate more time to making and promoting Just Peachy. In the future, Chisholm is hoping to make another book, and would love to be able to do this full-time, while raising awareness about mental health and her personal struggle with depression.

What do you feel the comic book arts medium of storytelling affords the author/illustrator?

About two-thirds of communication is non-verbal so being able to express what's happening visually can sometimes tell a richer story than if it was just written down. Since my comics are about depression and mental health, the medium of comics made sense to me as a way to better convey how I was feeling, even when I couldn't fully explain it in words.

Are there any comic creators or graphic novels that were of influence to you in creating your illustrated book, Just Peachy? For instance, Adulthood is a Myth and Hyperbole and a Half seem to come to mind.

Yes! Hyperbole and a Half's Adventures in Depression was a real awakening for me. I felt that the story perfectly described what it is like to be depressed, but was able to also make me laugh out loud while I was reading it. Another great comic is @obtuseengel on Instagram. His comics often have very few words and somehow perfectly expressed some of the exasperation and tiredness that comes from being depressed. His comics are what inspired to me to start sharing my work on Instagram.

“Just putting pen on paper helped me feel less lousy...”

What was your personal inspiration behind your Just Peachy comics?

I had recently been diagnosed with depression after a pretty terrible breakup. I was living alone in Los Angeles at an incredibly stressful and toxic workplace, and felt like I was slowly falling apart. I finally went to a therapist and psychiatrist. Around the same time, I discovered Josh Engel's work on Instagram, and was inspired. I had been drawing for as long as I can remember but had fallen out of the practice. I decided I was going to hand-draw a comic every day as a way to get through some of the tougher emotions I was going through. Just putting pen on paper helped me feel less lousy and seeing that people liked my comics as my following began to grow made me feel like I was doing something important.

The Mental Healthy Fairy character in your book is reminiscent of an overbearing parent or guidance counselor. Where did you inspiration come from, and why is it so hard to take the Mental Health Fairy seriously?

Mental Health Fairy was basically inspired by a lot of blogs and articles I read when I was searching on how not to feel like a giant pile of garbage.

I think it is really hard to understand mental illness from the outside looking in. A lot of the advice these articles give like, "Exercise every day," and "Hang out with family and friends," can sometimes sound like "Just climb Mount Everest on a unicycle" to a depressed person.

The dark and faceless character of Depression in Just Peachy reminds me of the figure featured on the cover of Osamu Dezai’s No Longer Human, another book that deals with depression, anxiety and loneliness. Why is it fitting that the character of Depression should be depicted in this way?

Weirdly enough I had been drawing this character for a long time before I was diagnosed with depression. I think I must have recognized some sadness in me that I couldn't quite identify in my teenage years, and I would draw him as a way to personify the sadness. The circle where his face is supposed to be is actually hollow, which for me is how depression feels; a big hollow feeling in your chest, that makes it seem like nothing matters. He changes in height and size in some of my comics to show how heavy my depressive feelings were at the time. He is dark with no discernible features because depression feels like something scary and shapeless that I can't seem to escape

“I hope that people suffering from mental illness will feel less alone because of my book...”

It seems that we’ve all suffered from depression and anxiety at one point or another, or at least know people who have… Do you think that people without depression and anxiety can still enjoy Just Peachy? What do you hope readers will take away from reading your book—is there a light at the end of the tunnel?

I hope that Just Peachy can help explain what depression and anxiety is really like for people who haven't experienced it, or who have a loved one going through it. I hope that people suffering from mental illness will feel less alone because of my book, and maybe even be able to laugh a little bit at how silly depression and anxiety can be at times.

How did you find your current literary agent and go on to get published?

Someone from Bored Panda reached out to me and asked if they could feature my work on their front page. I agreed, and the post was very successful. A few days later, you, a literary agent from Trident Media Group reached out and told me you thought my comics would make a great book. You helped me put together a book proposal and it was picked up by Skyhorse Publishing.

What have you learned from the book publishing experience as a debut author?

I have never actually had to draw my comics on a deadline so this was a first for me. I had to take a more methodical approach to writing the comics, as I knew I couldn't wait until the last minute to finish them. It forced me to be a lot more organized.

“It helps to have an audience of people who you think you would be interested in a book before you go out and try to find a publisher.”

Do you have any wisdom to share with writers hoping to become published authors?

It helps to have an audience of people who you think you would be interested in a book before you go out and try to find a publisher. Thankfully, now with Instagram and Facebook, this is a lot easier than it was a decade ago. I would also suggest finding a literary agent who can submit your book proposal for you because they already have the connections and relationships to publishers and have knowledge of what publisher would be a good fit.

What might we be able to expect in the next book from you?

Tina LeCount Myers is a writer, artist, independent historian, and surfer. Born in Mexico to expat-bohemian parents, she grew up on Southern California tennis courts with a prophecy hanging over her head; her parents hoped she'd one day be an author. Tina lives in San Francisco with her adventurer husband and loud Siamese cat. The Song of All is the first book of the epic fantasy trilogy The Legacy of the Heavens. Her latest book from the trilogy, Dreams of the Dark Sky, publishes February 2019 from Night Shade Books.

The Song of All and Dreams of the Dark Sky reads more like "Shakespeare" fantasy than "X-Men" fantasy. Do you see the series as leaning more toward literary fiction, or fantasy genre fiction—or can they be read by both audiences?

Of course, my hope is that my books appeal both to readers of literary fiction and genre fantasy fiction. The two readerships are not that mutually exclusive. Readers of Shakespeare and X-men are likely interested in the same things: complex characters, a rich, detailed world, and great storytelling. The relationship between Magneto and Xavier feels very Shakespearean to me. One of the things that I tried to do in writing these two books was give equal attention to both language and fantasy elements. My hope is that readers will find a turn-of-phrase or description as compelling as a sword fight and vice versa.

What do you feel the fantasy genre of storytelling affords you as an author writing closely to that medium?

When I describe The Legacy of the Heavens series to people, I say, “The story is about two ancient warring tribes in the Arctic tundra, and a flawed man who is trying to save his son. It also includes parallel worlds accessed by song, psionics, sequential hermaphroditism, reindeer, and epic sword fights.” Where else but fantasy can a writer have that kind of latitude to explore such diverse elements? Anything is possible in fantasy storytelling.

“...I was equally interested in exploring how to layer mythology over science.”

In addition to your familial history, what drew you to the setting of your novels in the frozen northlands with characters drawn from Scandinavian mythology?

Part of the decision I made in world-building was predicated on the initial debate, and subsequent bet, I had with my husband, to write a fantasy story with science as a foundation. For me, that meant looking at the world I live in and that humans evolved in to find an other-worldly location. I chose the Arctic tundra because of its harsh climate. To survive in the cold with very little sunlight in the winter suggested the possibility of interesting adaptations due to evolution. This region also has a rich mythology to draw inspiration from. So, while my Finnish ancestry played a role in the setting of the story, I was equally interested in exploring how to layer mythology over science.

How did you go about obtaining literary representation and then go on to get published?

The Song of All went through seven edits, including two professional editors, before I thought it was ready for submission. Then I turned my attention to the synopsis, which I still think is one of the hardest things to write. I rewrote the synopsis ten times with the help of one of my beta readers. The query came next. I used every available resource out there to craft my query letter. I researched literary agents both in the Guide to Literary Agents and online. I did Twitter pitches, through #PitMad, to hone my logline (Twitter was still 140 characters then). I also attended writers’ conferences that featured literary agents and book editors. It just so happened that at my second writers’ conference, the San Francisco Writers’ Conference, I pitched you. You were my last literary agent of the day. The "time’s up" bell rang about a minute into my pitch. I was so flustered, but you weren’t phased at all. You asked for the full manuscript and a couple of weeks after that you took me on as your client. If I remember the timeline correctly, you sold The Legacy of the Heavens trilogy within three months of going out on submission.

The Jápmemeahttun—or what I consider akin to "dark elves"—from your novels are unique, in that they can change between male and female—at will. While sequential hermaphroditism does indeed occur in nature among species such as the clownfish, what inspired you to write that aspect into your characters?

The Jápmemeahttun were my way of thinking about and talking about "elves" without ever using that term. I was curious about what living a couple of centuries might look like. What might some of the problems be? What might some of the possibilities be? In particular, I wanted to consider what a social group might look like if individuals experienced both genders, in terms of their physiology and gender roles. So, I did look to nature for examples of hermaphroditism, in particular the sequential form—male to female and female to male—and how it might be evolutionarily advantageous. But while there are some species that change sex at will, the Jápmemeahttun go through a very specific biological process that allows them to transition from female to male in their lifetime.

“The learning curve for me as a debut author in the publishing industry was steep, and I was certainly grateful to have a knowledgeable literary agent...”

Now that you have published your second novel within The Legacy of the Heavens series, what have you learned from the book publishing experience?

The learning curve for me as a debut author in the publishing industry was steep, and I was certainly grateful to have a knowledgeable literary agent, like you, who was open to questions. With the second book, I am discovering that the learning curve is getting even steeper, particularly in terms of balancing my time between, promoting the first book, while preparing the second book for publication, while writing the third. I was raised to be self-sufficient, but I am now seeing the importance of building a team and getting help for things that I just don’t know how to do.

Irjan, the lead character of your first novel, goes through some tremendous character development in the story. What is the driving force behind his drastic change of character and what drew you to that particular literary device?

Irjan’s character development in The Song of All centers on a crisis of conscience, and what happens when the life of revenge and violence that he had relied on no longer served him. In particular, I wanted to explore the consequences of Irjan’s choices, both in his life and in the lives of the people he loved. I think a crisis of conscience or a life crisis is something that most people can relate to. How we handle it also ripples out, maybe not a dramatic as in Irjan’s case, but I do believe that actions have consequences, both intended and unintended.

The audiobook edition of The Song of All, narrated by Ulf Bjorklund, is particularly unique, given that he has a Swedish background and the novel is set in the Saamiland of Norway, Sweden, and Finland. What was it like working with Bjorklund on the pronunciations and character voices of your audiobook edition?

It was an absolute pleasure to work with Ulf and director Max Bloomquist, and the entire team at Brilliance Audio. Max’s background is both Swedish and Finnish, so it really was a Scandinavian production. Max and Ulf also worked with Thomas A. DuBois, the Halls-Bascom Professor of Scandinavian Studies, Folklore, and Religious Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to make sure they had the correct pronunciation for the Saami words. I always go and listen to the audiobook before I give a reading to make sure that I have the correct pronunciation. I think Ulf really captured the essence of the characters, and I hope to work with him again in the near future.

“You have to love your story before anyone will.”

Do you have any advice for writers out there, aspiring to become published authors?

I would say, write for yourself first. You have to love your story before anyone will. Then, be clear on why you want to be published, because that will inform your decision-making along the way. After that, I think persistence, combined with a positive attitude, is crucial.

Can you give us a sense of what’s to come from The Northern Ones, book three in The Legacy of the Heavens series? Please, no spoilers!