We chat with author Nicole M. Wolverton about A Misfortune of Lake Monsters, which sees legend clash with reality when a teen girl, who has been secretly impersonating her town’s lake monster, suddenly finds a real monster in the lake who wants to eat its way through the populace.
Hi, Nicole! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Do you like to be scared? Because I do (from a place of safety, of course). I consider myself a fear enthusiast—so much so that I earned a masters degree in horror and storytelling. When I’m not writing horror and thrillers for young adults and adults or watching horror films, you might finding me just about to board an airplane to see things like a crypt entirely decorated in bones, the bodies of incorruptible saints, or reputedly haunted castles. Despite my penchant for the frightening and strange, my novels, short fiction, and creative nonfiction often have a comic element to them, mostly because life is too bonkers and absurd not to laugh whenever you can, even in the face of terror. I live in the Philadelphia area in a 100-year-old house with my husband, our rescue Labrastaffy pooch, and a sprawling vegetable and fruit garden that often threatens to disappear me in a cloud of weeds and vines.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
Storytelling was part of how I played as a kid, even before I learned to write—years ago my mom was sorting through her memory boxes and came across some crayon drawings I had done in my pre-K years. It was a series, all about stick-figure me and my imaginary friend Mona, going on adventures with my cat. Mona, it should be noted, was a little red-headed girl with knives for fingers, so I suppose I was predisposed to writing horror and the weird from a young age (Mona played a part in one of my first horror short stories that was published as an adult). And no surprise: my grandmother was fond of reading original, very bloody fairy tales to me as bedtime stories; we also watched a lot of Alfred Hitchcock together.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: The first book I remember reading by myself was a textbook for Reading class in the second grade, which I know sounds strange—I read that thing cover to cover, for pleasure. All sorts of short stories and poetry. There was a poem in the book whose name and author I don’t remember, but a line from the poem has embedded itself in my head: “Forget is a hider in a long black cape, something that happened that wants to escape.” I’m 52 years old now, and that line is as fresh to me as if I read it yesterday. It still gives me a cold, dark feeling that is forbidden and thrilling.
- The one that made you want to become an author: The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton. I think I was in the fourth or fifth grade, staying with my grandparents overnight. They’d taken me to the local mall and given me a few dollars to buy a new book at the B. Dalton Booksellers. I started reading in the car on the way home and was so engrossed that I needed to keep reading—it’s the first book I remember feeling that way about. Like if I stopped reading and didn’t find out what happened to Ponyboy and Johnny and Dallas that I’d die. My grandparents had a strict bedtime for me, but I snuck into the bathroom, stuffed a towel along the bottom of the door to block out the light, and read the rest of The Outsiders right there on the bathroom floor until about three in the morning. And when I finished, I cried my heart out and immediately started the book over from the beginning. From that moment on, I knew that I wanted to be a writer—to make people feel and to let them live lives outside the ones they know.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova. It lives rent-free in my head. Last year I went to Venice, Italy by myself for a few days, and I had randomly picked up Monstrilio before the flight. I knew nothing about the book. Normally when I’m walking around Venice, there are things I want to see or do (it’s one of my favorite cities), but this trip was fairly laid back. I was sitting at Ca’Pesaro museum with a glass of wine, at their little cafe that’s right along the Grand Canal, and had nothing on my itinerary for a few hours—so I fished Monstrilio out of my bag and started reading. I didn’t want to put it down! It’s a gorgeously written book about grief and family, really unique among any horror novel I’ve ever read . . . and weirdly perfect to read in Venice. Again, I stayed up late into the night to finish it and cried at the ending (a running theme with me). I recommend it to everyone I talk books with, whether they’re a horror reader or not, and I think about Monstrilio way more than is probably healthy
Your latest novel, A Misfortune of Lake Monsters, is out July 2nd! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Real monsters exist. Swim faster.
What can readers expect?
Readers can expect small town legends, family secrets, one lake monster too many, a little bit of dismemberment, and a sweet romance from A Misfortune of Lake Monsters—all packaged in a coming of age story that will appeal to a wide range of audiences. Early reviews, including someone who blurbed the book, say it has a Stranger Things-esque vibe.
The book is told from two rotating points-of-view—Lemon Ziegler and Troy Ramirez, one of Lemon’s best friends. Lemon wants to escape rural Devil’s Elbow, Pennsylvania to attend college―but that’s impossible now that she’s expected to impersonate the town’s lake monster for the rest of her life. Her family has been secretly keeping the tradition of Old Lucy, the famed (and very fake) monster of Lake Lokakoma, alive for generations, all to keep the tourists coming. Without Lemon, the town dies, and she can’t disappoint her grandparents . . . or tell her best friends about any of it. That includes Troy, who has been covertly in love with Lemon for years, afraid to ruin their friendship by confessing his feelings. When a very real, and very hungry monster is discovered in the lake, secrets must fall by the wayside. Determined to stop the monster, Lemon and her friends are the only thing standing between Devil’s Elbow and the monster out for blood.
I think of it as fun, almost cozy horror.
Where did the inspiration for A Misfortune of Lake Monsters come from?
You can blame A Misfortune of Lake Monsters squarely on two things: 1) I grew up in the rural hinterlands of Pennsylvania (similar to Devil’s Elbow, the book’s setting), where there is generally not much to do except daydream, and 2) I hate washing dishes by hand, which was my daily chore as a kid. Oh, and a third thing: about a mile behind my childhood home, there is a small lake . . . and it’s visible from the kitchen window I stared out while washing dishes. When you’re bored and doing something you loathe, you have to come up with ways to make your own fun—which for me was daydreaming that terrible, horrifying things might be lurking below the surface of the lake.
The idea stayed with me long after I moved away to Philadelphia (to attend college). Ideas for short stories and novels hit me out of the blue a lot, but the idea that involved my childhood fantasies about lake monsters wasn’t so unexpected. Being a fake lake monster impersonator, on the other hand, that was a new twist!
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
Lemon’s grandfather, Ike Ziegler, is not a particularly likeable character—but it’s important when writing that even the most unlikeable character have some kernel that you like or admire . . . and so I decided to base Ike’s personality and speech patterns on my late grandfather. That’s not to say my grandfather was a jerk . . . just that he was a gruff man of few words until he had an opinion. He also had a very particular way of speaking that took time to perfect for Ike’s dialogue. It really lent a different dimension to writing A Misfortune of Lake Monsters because it was like having my grandfather in my head. In some ways, it was like living with his ghost, and that was certainly unexpected—but lovely.
What’s next for you?
Every time I say I’m going on tour, I feel like I should yell, “We’re getting the band back together!” For the second half of this year, I’ll be doing quite a few book events (full list available here)—while also looking forward to two short stories that are coming out next year in anthologies. My story “Everything In Its Place” will be out in the Tyche Books anthology Hauntings and Hoarfrost, and the second anthology hasn’t been announced publicly yet. What I can tell you is that it was inspired by my deep fear of my teeth falling out or being knocked out. There are also two creative nonfiction pieces and one essay coming out over the next year. I do like to keep busy while working on my next novel!
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed so far this year and are there any that you can’t wait to get your hands on?
The sheer abundance of amazingly great horror and thrillers coming from debut writers this year has been fantastic! K.T. Nguyen told me I was the first person to review You Know What You Did who wasn’t family or part of her publishing circle—I ate that book up with a spoon! Sami Ellis’ Dead Girl Walking was great and super spooky (I’m doing a panel discussion with Sami and the awesome middle grade writer Mo Netz in August at the venerable Philadelphia staple A Novel Idea). And oh—The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim . . . which left me hungry and feeling disgusted about it. Jaq Evans’s What Grows In the Dark is so, so good, as is Matteo Cerilli’s Lockjaw and Crystal J. Bell’s The Lamplighter.
Outside of debuts, I’m dying to get my hands on Amelinda Bérubé’s new book, The Ones That Come Back Hungry—which comes out the same day as A Misfortune of Lake Monsters!
