Guest Post: Ksenia Anske, author of Siren Suicides

by SofiaWren May 30, 2014

It’s time to return to our normal Monday Guest Post program. October writers are joining Wren Doloro to discuss the topic of “Magic.”

Ksenia Anske joins us today to talk about magic and her labor of love, Siren Suicides.

–Ksenia Anske–

Magic. It’s something that didn’t exist in my 80’s Soviet Union childhood. It’s something that I’ve created in my head to escape into. Colorful, fantastic, otherworldly. Complete movie-stories.

Everything from fairy tales about Baba Yaga, to One Thousand and One Nights, to Alice in Wonderland, to, later, Stanislaw Lem, Vladimir Nabokov, Mark Twain, and Chekhov. That was my magic, private and tucked away into a little pig-tailed head.

Throughout the years my own stories tried to get out. I wrote diaries at 15, switched to poems, penned a few flsh fiction pieces. Wrote a screenplay, attempted at directing a feature movie that turned into a short seen only by the crew and the actors. Even dabbed in animation.

Then in 2008 on one pre-Christmas weekend I asked my 14 year old daughter if she could suggest anything to read. Something light. She handed me Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.  ”All my friends have read it, it’s light and romantic, and it’s got vampires.”

“No, not a teenage flick. Anything else?” I turned the book in my hands.

“You asked, so I gave you what you wanted.” She stomped down the stairs.

“Ok, I’ll try it. Thanks for advice!” But she slammed the door two floors below.

I sat down to read and couldn’t stop until I finished it, at 4 in the morning. I felt embarrassed. A teenage vampire novel got me crying, longing, and feeling.

Feeling something I haven’t felt before, something that made me look back at my life and wonder why I wanted to commit a suicide at 16. Suddenly I wanted to write a book too. That book became my white rabbit, and down my memory hole I went.

I wrote a synopsis. Shelved it. In 2009 a trip to Lake Crescent led me to reading the legend of the Lady of the Lake. That stirred memories of rusalkas and prompted me to write a few chapters more. In 2010 I’ve written another 30,000 words and shelved it again. This year my friends who knew about the story, talked me into finishing it. The 4th time proved to be it. The story started singing.

THAT is my magic – allowing myself to accept the fact that I’ve been a storyteller since I can remember reading, quitting my career to write full time and finally letting myself be.

SIREN SUICIDES is my first novel. It’s a young adult urban fantasy set in Seattle about a teenage girl who lost her mother, hates her father, and decides to escape reality via suicide. Her name is Ailen Bright, and she is a dreamer and a believer in all things magic.

She gobbles up stories that her friend Hunter feeds her while they hang out in the bathroom, stoned out of their minds, because the bathroom is the only room in Ailen’s house that locks and has a window. Ailen is mesmerized by water, it calms her down, so she decides to go by way of drowning, because, she says, “I have to be calm to pull the plug on my life”.

Photo by Marco Leone

Instead, she turns into a siren, finds out that her friend is a siren hunter, and dives into an adventure akin to Alice in Wonderland, except it’s all things water, rain, songs, and magic that’s both dark and fantastic, like stories that I used to conjure up in my head. I plan on finishing the novel by the end of 2012. Here is a 600 words excerpt.

Magic. It’s how stories are created. Snatched out of thin air, literally. That’s how SIREN SUICIDES came to life – I talked about it to my friends, who finally pushed me into doing it. They kept asking and asking, and the story started taking shape in the air, in that world that I like to call my private la-la-land, where anything can happen. It wouldn’t be here if not for those who listened. That’s magic.

Before I go too far (and you would have to yank me back to reality), here is the nitty-gritty: I don’t know yet if I’ll go via traditional publishing route or choose to self-publish. My main focus right now is to finish the novel by the end of 2012. I’ve planned a few more books to make SIREN SUICIDES into series, but I want to listen to my readers. If they fall in love with the main character, then I’ll write more.