A word of warning: Don’t start reading Jeff Vande Zande’s new gothic horror novel before going to bed. You’ll stay up late trying to uncover what happens next, and you’ll end up with nightmares.
Vande Zande, a writing and film professor at Delta College in University Center, borrowed the book’s scary title, “The Dance of Rotten Sticks,” from a piece by the late poet Theodore Roethke, who grew up in nearby Saginaw and set much of his Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning poetry there.
The line “wake me, witch, we’ll do the dance of rotten sticks” should clue readers in on where Vande Zande’s otherwise quotidian book is going to end up.
Isaac Fletcher, a single father whose wife died in a bizarre automobile accident, struggles with raising his three young children as he gradually descends into alcoholism. The family takes a trip to a mysterious fictional island for a vacation they hope will help them recover emotionally from their loss.
This is the point where readers will yell, “Don’t go!” because you know for sure there will be a macabre, violent ending complete with witches, potions, poisons and terror. When the family gets to the island, eerie things begin to happen, and the children start to have strange dreams and apparitions.
“I kept trying my best not to write it. I’m not a reader of horror, and I looked snobbishly down my nose at the genre,” the author said. “Several times while reading the book, I scared myself and had to quit writing. The book also caused me to quit drinking entirely. As Isaac was dealing with drinking, I was confronting it myself.”
When Vande Zande began writing, he knew he wanted a portion of the book to take place on an island, which had to have an abandoned orphanage, and he wanted to incorporate the monstrous sea lamprey and fly fishing. It almost goes without saying that there’s no cell phone coverage.
“I thought it was important to get the family back to nature,” the author said.
He enjoyed the experience of writing a horror novel so much that he’s 40,000 words into a sequel, which is set in northern Michigan’s Pigeon River State Forest.
Other book news:
Amos Paul Kennedy Jr., one of the nation’s leading artistic letterpress printers and a Michigan Notable Book award winner for his 2024 book, “Citizen Printer,” will visit Michigan State University at the end of the month for an artist residency sponsored by the Arts Living-Learning Community, the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities and the Department of Art, Art History and Design.
The printer will lecture on his work at 6 p.m. Tuesday (Jan. 28) at South Kedzie Hall. He’ll participate in a demonstration of letterpress printing with Arie Koelewyn, proprietor of the Paper Airplane Press, at 6 p.m. Jan. 29 at the RCAH Art Center in Snyder Hall. Both events are free and open to the public.
The public is also invited to a pop-up exhibition of Kennedy’s work from noon to 3 p.m. Tuesday (Jan. 28) at the Main Library and a reception for “Type, Set, Press,” a group exhibition of letterpress work, from 10 a.m. to noon Jan. 31 at (SCENE) Metrospace in downtown East Lansing.
Kennedy’s book, which features more than 800 reproductions of his printing work, will be available for purchase at the events.
Chloe Crawford, a professor in the Department of Art, Art History and Design, noted that despite letterpress printing being an almost extinct art form, it’s the foundation for basic design.
“It’s a very process-based art form,” she said.
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