By Elle Curtis
Adina King, a Windham High School English teacher and author is celebrating the release of her novel "The House No One Sees."
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| Windham High School English teacher Adina King shows a copy of her new novel "The House No One Sees' during a publishing event last fall. COURTESY PHOTO |
King received a Master of Fine Arts degree in writing for children and young adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, where she studied with authors A.M. Jenkins and Shelley Tanka among others, but made sure to make time for her other passions as well. What was at first all about the idea of rollerblading quickly became a serious sport for King, who traveled all over New England under the rollerblading name of Schrödinger’s Catfight.
"The House No One Sees" is the story of Penelope Ross, a girl who must walk through her past to save her present. Forced to confront her mother’s opioid addiction to mend her fractured story, Penny wanders between present and past, prose and verse, unsure if her childhood home is guiding her out or leading her further into its memory maze.
The novel's inspiration began as rage poetry after King stumbled upon a news article about a former student who had died from an overdose. It had been years since they’d seen each other, but that didn’t change their connection.
“About a week after this article, I was stopped at a traffic light staring at a house on a corner. I’d sat at that intersection more times than I could count, but this was the first time I’d noticed the house, its windows cracked, paint peeling, and perched too close to the road," King said. "I thought about how houses are a shelter. Houses are memories. Houses can be places to hide. When the house spoke in my mind, I knew its voice; when it came to life in Penny’s story, it was both familiar and strange. Because of this, the parallel between the structure of the house and Penny’s emotional arc made me walk through some of my own parallels -- a journey that further connected me to both Penelope and the house.”
At first, the book was pure poetry. King felt as if the poems were all over the place, voice-wise.
Determined to add a structure to the story for which the poems could fit, King decided to add the house as a larger metaphor. However, it still felt as if something was missing, and that was the main character, Penelope’s reality. This is where prose came in.
“Prose allowed me to craft parallel timelines that would show Penny’s path to healing. When the poems finally caught up to the prose at the end, Penelope had discovered her way out, allowing the surreal to join the tangible,” said King.
The writing process though came with pressure and struggle.
“I had to marathon write Penny’s story in order to protect my own mental health," she said. "This meant I could only work when I had time to sprint from exposition to conclusion. It was difficult to walk in Penny’s shoes.”
But King didn’t let the challenges interfere with the messages she strives to convey through her novel. Throughout the writing process, a particular scene stuck with King.
“Without giving away too much, it was the basement scene where Penelope is searching for the thing she’d buried. It was such a strong metaphor for life, for trauma," she said. "It was like I was there with Penny, digging at that dirt basement floor with my hands, trying to save a childhood symbol of hope.”
King says "The House No One Sees" aims to create a space that readers can feel is theirs.
“I hope my readers take what they need and leave behind what they don’t," she said. "There are many ways to feel like a house no one sees, but there is always light. It’s okay to walk through yourself to find yourself. It’s okay if it’s messy. Keep going. Be the light.”
King will be doing a book signing for "The House No One Sees" from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 24 at Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shop in Windham. <
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