Ten years after a war between science and religion have reduced North America to a barren nightmare, seventeen year old Starseed begins questioning everything she has been told about the world. Moved by strange events and gripped by whispers of a utopia far from Shelter (the underground settlement she has lived in her entire life), Starseed defies the Watchers (the protectors who control Shelter) and begins a journey to find the mythic city that lives only in her dreams. Her quest forces her to challenge everything she believes and everything she has ever accepted. Including her very identity.
That is the plot of The Saints of the Paradise Valley, a dystopian science fiction novel by Ottawa based writer, actor, musician and teacher Cody Zulin. And if that little morsel peaked your interest, then you should know that Cody released the sequel to his debut work-Angels of the Paradise Valley-last month.
Originally from Cornwall, Cody’s own journey brought him to the nation’s capital to pursue his education. After studying English and Drama at the University of Ottawa, he earned his Bachelor of Education at Queen’s University. But even after conquering the halls of higher learning, Cody’s own path was chalk full of twists and turns. He worked at Indigo (selling books before writing them), he managed a clothing store and he’s been an executive assistant to both an Ottawa city councillor and a member of Parliament. But despite the challenges and obstacles thrown in his way, he realized his dream-his passion-for teaching English and Drama at the high school level.
In fact, teaching is what lead him to become a published author.
“I’ve always wanted to be a writer in some capacity since graduating high school,” he says. “Only at that time, I was focused specifically on writing music. I spent my whole undergrad year writing songs and getting better at performing.” But despite all that time and energy, Cody realized music wasn’t destined to be his chief artistic outlet. “When I moved away from Ottawa for my first year of teaching, I found myself playing less and less – not because I stopped enjoying it, but because I found it harder to commit the time into creating a well-crafted song.”
And so the career of an independent author was born. An independent author with a mission. “I decided to start writing books shortly after completing my teaching degree with the goal of creating something that my future high school students might actually enjoy – not that To Kill a Mockingbird or Catcher in the Rye are bad books by any means, but they haven’t aged in a way that connects with teenagers in the 21st century.”
But what is it about dystopian fiction that attracts him as both a writer and an educator?
“My genre of choice is dystopian as I thoroughly enjoy the process that goes into predicting the way the world may look based on some of the changes affecting us today. I fell in love with the Hunger Games series from the moment I first read them – the strong characterization and grounded realistic dialogue amidst an otherwise fantastical sci-fi setting/plot are things I definitely wanted to pull from. And movies/TV shows like The Matrix and Black Mirror certainly contribute to the darker, more spectacular, visual elements in my storytelling.”
As he continues to explain though, both the genre and the the Paradise Valley books have deeper significance.
“The books were inspired by my own upbringing in the Catholic school system, never quite feeling like I belonged. As an LGBT teenager, you’re often told that things will get better after high school and that a whole world is waiting for you. But what you aren’t told is that first you have to navigate a whole maze of folks with different ideologies about the way you should live your life, especially when it comes to religion. In the end, finding your path isn’t going to be easy but accepting the delicate balance between truth and wonder is key for living a happy life.”
And navigating personal journeys through a world in upheaval is a common theme in both of his books. While Saints examines the changing life of Starseed as she seeks to escape from Shelter, Angels of Paradise Valley tells the same story through the eyes of her best friend Avery.
“Angels of the Paradise Valley carries on where Saints leaves off,” he explains. “Except this novel follows the narrative of her best friend and love interest, Avery. Avery grew up believing in the traditional customs of his parents so he has trouble accepting Starseed’s shift in character. He would much rather stay in the sand daydreaming, but a new threat makes that impossible. Avery must confront his own shortcomings to be the hero he is expected to be and along the way learn that love, true love, is much more complicated than he once believed.”
Indie book publishing is a journey fraught with both peril and failure. Ask any writer who has tried to get anything published through the traditional means and they’ll tell you they would have had an easier time herding cats high on meth. Publishing something independently cranks the frustration and difficulty meters up about a hundred notches. So why go the indie route?
In the end, he admits that he wasn’t eager to see his final vision mangled by the corporate machine. “I originally thought about going the traditional publishing route, but the more I read about it the more I realized how corporatized the whole process of creating art had become. A writer in Canada needs to apply to literary agents and wait months on end just to hear nothing back, while of course most agents also suggest not applying to multiple other agents while waiting. And then, if you’re lucky, an agent will then represent you to a major publishing company who will then ask you to change aspects of your work to make it more marketable, and by the time your book is on a shelf, the writer becomes so disconnected from their work that I didn’t see the point.
“I just wanted to publish a book so I could see the end product of my art, and share it with those who wanted to enjoy it. I didn’t want to have to wait for years on end just so I could see the potential of making more money from selling it. To be absolutely clear, artists *deserve* to be paid fairly for their work, absolutely, but inversely, if you’re making art just for the sake of making money, I’m not sure you’re making art for the right reasons.”
But just getting to the point of publishing had its struggles. And Cody faced some serious obstacles in getting to the finish line of both books before publishing and marketing was even a concern.
“Working full-time certainly presents challenges as far as writing a novel goes. It’s tricky to commit the mental focus to continuing where you left off when all you have are Saturdays and Sundays with five days of real-world stress in between (and that’s if you’re lucky enough to not have plans that weekend). Oftentimes, I found myself struggling to just get a page down in a session because my train of thought was cut short. Other times, I would leave it for months at a time because I lost interest in overcoming the writer’s block I trapped myself in. While the Covid-19 quarantine period was a nightmare in many ways, the one benefit was that I had long periods of uninterrupted creative thought which allowed me to tackle much deeper challenges than I would have otherwise.”
And time it did take. It took about three years to complete Saints of the Paradise Valley (which was released in 2016) while took him another four to finish its sequel.
But just in case writing, self publishing and independently releasing an original novel wasn’t enough of a Herculean task, 2020 threw Cody another giant sized curveball in the form of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Unable to have a release party or any sort of in-person event to celebrate the release of Angels of the the Paradise Valley last month, Cody unveiled the next chapter in his literary journey to the world virtually.
“I had a great time and I heard some very positive feedback,” he says when asked how the event went. “I was worried a bit about potential technical problems occurring mid-session or just a lack of engagement, but at a certain point you just kind of need to put yourself out there and trust that your friends and family members will be supportive when you set time aside to talk about your passion project of the last seven years.”
So what’s ahead for Cody and his dystopian world? Well he’s already hard at work on the third (and final) instalment entitled Martyrs of the Paradise Valley and is also hard at work on a super hero series entitled Compound (he is coyly keeping details about that last project under wraps for the time being). And he’s set his own professional sights on Canada’s political arena.
“As we move toward the next provincial election, I will be seeking candidacy for the Green Party of Ontario in the Carleton riding. Writing this book made me reflect on a lot about what is happening in the world today as far as our attitudes toward existential threats like climate change and political corruption. This is going to be a unique opportunity to come up with some creative solutions to these problems that take honesty, empathy, and integrity into consideration. Feel free to follow me on Facebook to keep up with that journey.”
Independent author. Teacher. Musician. And possibly even elected official. That’s a quite a resume for the guy who started in Cornwall a few years ago. And you can bet there is a lot of story still waiting to be written. His books about a teenagers exploring and defying the imposed boundaries of their world could turn out to be the reflective calling card of a much bigger, much grander journey of his own.
Anyone interested in purchasing Cody’s books can e-mail him at sopvbooks@gmail.com (both titles are available in softcover with a single book costing only $20 while you can get both for 35. He’ll even deliver). Both titles are also available as e-books for Kobo and Amazon. Interested fans can also join his Facebook page and follow him through Twitter.
Image by artist Patrick Lepage
