The Mushroom Whisperer
Lisa Kuznak talks her debut novel and real life horror!
Honored samurai, ruthless ronin, wayward vagabonds, shadowy ninja and helpless villagers... welcome.
Opening Volley
Back in May, I dropped a review of Pallas back in the newsletter and it seemed to resonate with readers, so on the “eve” of the novel’s launch (Amazon CA link, please modify for your local) I’m returning with an interview with author, Lisa Kuznak!
Main Event
Tell us a bit about yourself and the type of fiction you write?
I’m a housewife, a film school dropout, I used to teach sewing, I can spin wool and carve spoons, I’m a bit of a history dork, I wanted to be Morticia Addams when I grew up, and I once wrote a “book” when I was 12 years old entirely on stolen school papers. It was fantasy, and I still write fantasy, as well as science fiction and other genres, (I’m always switching things up!) and most things I write have a bit of an experimental bent.
That’s wild. Morticia as film school spoon-sewer... Hmmm. And a rogue pilferer of post-graded pulp-paper papers.
Pallas, your debut novel, launches on July 18th (just a few hours behind this post). No doubt the launch has consumed every thought you have at the moment, but, I got to ask... What's next?
You’re seeing it here first! My next novel is The Highwayman Kennedy Thornwick, a literary fantasy. I’m hoping for a late 2023/early 2024 release. It’s very different from Pallas, not just in genre but in tone. It’s like a character-driven Snatch-meets-Barry Lyndon, but with magic. After that, I have a couple other novels in different drafting stages, one scifi and one fantasy, but it’s still very early for both of them.
Excellent. Much to look forward to then. But before we get too far ahead... The creeping, slow-burn horror of Pallas is difficult to leave behind. It really digs into you (see spoiler-free review link below), because it is essentially about our own humanity and the horrific things that we can do. What drove you to horror in the science fiction genre?
Pallas came from several ideas that had been floating in my head for a while. The horror element actually started as a thought: “is it possible to write folk horror in space?” The book veers a bit from that initial idea and became a different thing—a more unsettling, existential thing. A lot of horror in scifi tends to lean toward the existential—something about the unfathomable vastness of space, maybe. But Pallas is very contained, or even claustrophobic, and I think that comes from my thoughts surrounding what it would actually be like to live in space. Contained and vulnerable. Without getting spoilery, science fiction lends itself very well to the examination of real-world ideas and issues, and so that’s what I did.
So Pallas is rooted in personal experience somehow?
At first, the concept was entirely different, as I said before, it initially began as a vague "folk horror in space." It became way different over time, to the point where the first draft is practically unrecognizable.
I'm a big fan of mushrooms and stuff. But there's so much more to fungi than just the edible varieties. The science in the book regarding the potentials for utilizing fungi in the future is based on technologies and ideas that already exist. There are 3D printers out there that can print mycelium, for example—but also a lot of clickbait pop-sci articles that like to exaggerate the results of studies, like if you eat a bunch of reishi you'll live forever, or "Can mushrooms talk to each other?!" or "Are mushrooms from outer space?!" (And, apparently, spores might be able to survive out there—and let's face it, mushrooms are pretty weird!)
I do believe mushrooms can be used medicinally, and will be important if we want to have a more environmentally friendly future—mushrooms that eat plastics, or clean up oil spills, for example. But, I couldn’t help but think of the "what-ifs." I don't like the idea of utopias, because what's utopian for one could be dystopian for another. And, humans have a good track record of screwing things up.
Also, a very specific inspiration came from a soil fungus found in my area that can make people really sick. My dad caught it (blastomycosis) when he was doing blasting for highway construction when I was a teenager. It literally ate through his body and almost killed him. So that's pretty scary if you ask me!
Okay, that was really unexpected. Can I just say, zoinks!, especially considering the hit game and TV series The Last of Us?
When did you first start writing? Were you younger or into adulthood? Do you still write in the same genre?
As I said above, I’ve been writing since I was a kid. The first thing I ever remember writing was a story about fairies rescuing a unicorn when I was maybe 6 years old. I suppose that falls under fantasy, so yeah, fairies and unicorns and stuff are still pretty cool in my opinion. The first thing I wrote that I remember getting complimented on was a story about alien abduction when I was 9 or 10, my teacher really liked it. I think I was a bit inspired by the X Files. My love of scifi literature started with reading A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle, but other than that one abduction story I didn’t start writing scifi until much later.
Who are some of your favorite authors?
Jack Vance, Gene Wolfe, Cormac McCarthy, Thomas Pynchon... Honourable mention to Stanislaw Lem, who wrote one of my favourite science fiction novels, Solaris, which was, in a way, influential in my writing of Pallas.
Are you a sit down and jam it out in big chunks kind of author, or do you take a lot of small notes, scribbling here and there, piecing together your first draft kind of author? Or somewhere in between?
Start at the start, end at the end. If scenes come to me out of order, then the story is told out of order, or I save the idea for when I need it. I’m a “pantser,” I start with nothing but ideas, and spill it all out. “Fix it in post” as they say. My first drafts are pure word vomit at times. When I first started taking my writing "seriously" the thought of editing was intimidating. Now I've learned to love it, for what my stories turn into after a spit shine.
In what medium do you like to record your notes? Pen and paper? Email? Desktop computer? Voice recording device? Blood?
Pen and paper, especially if I’m researching something specific. But most of my “notes” are in my grey matter. I figure if I forget something, it was probably a stupid idea. The good ones tend to stick.
How about the actual novel?
I’ve since (re)adopted the typewriter, but at the time, way back in 2019 and all the edits since, I wrote Pallas in Scrivener. I love that program. Makes it very easy to draft and edit. Alas, computers are very distracting, which is why I’ve gone back to old-school tech recently. Clack clack clack, ding! I still edit in Scrivener, though.
Anything else you would like to share not covered above?
Big thanks to Made in DNA for the chance to talk more about my books, and for being the first to give Pallas an official review!
Along with updates regarding my novels, I also have a serial, Pull Me Under, that I’m posting on my Substack, as well as short stories (mostly SFF but other genres too) and poetry. I can also be found on Instagram, @mechanical.pulp, if you want to see what I’m reading!
Cheers!
You're quite welcome, Lisa. Thanks for the opportunity to read/review, as well as for your time and in-depth answers as I know how busy you must be right now.
If you haven't read my Pallas review, click the link below, or you can read the Goodreads version here (same review).
The book drops within the next few hours (give or take a timezone or four), please don't miss out on it. Help Lisa make it a fantastic launch.
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PALLAS
Amazon.ca: https://a.co/d/fDUoFM9
Amazon.com: https://a.co/d/6fMYsuV
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/pallas-4
We never meet without parting
Next issue... Marge Simpson — homemaker, brutal assassin, and THIRST TRAP!
Until then!
Made in DNA
https://campsite.bio/madeindna
Personally I'm fond of Terrence McKenna's (wildly unsupported) theory that human evolution was spurred by the consumption of psychotropic mushrooms, which are of extra-terrestrial origin.
Cool premise. I love mushrooms as a food, but cordyceps are scary. If someone harnesses their ability to consume and the hive mind we could be in a lot of trouble 😵💫😬