The 11 Finger Lakes have a magnetic pull for deaf author Kristen Sickler.
The glacially-formed landscape is the home of her creation, "The Siren of the Finger Lakes," which is now a book — and her first publication under her imprint, The Siren Current Press.
The story is family-friendly and narrated by 9-year-old Liv, a girl who grows up in the Finger Lakes region and pieces together what it is about this place that holds so much meaning within the land and the waters.
Sickler grew up in the area, graduated from the Rochester School for the Deaf, and now lives in Avon. She said the idea came to her last year on Sept. 30, her birthday and the anniversary of her mother's death nine years before. The book was published exactly one year later.
"There's something about all of that coming together on the same date that I hold incredibly close to my heart," Sicklerwrote in an email. " I genuinely believe my mother has been part of this journey in her own way."
Sickler said she has always loved the mysterious and unknown. But while this story touches those themes, she said it felt familiar from the moment she envisioned it.
"I'm surprised that the story hadn't already been thought of before," Sickler said in American Sign Language, speaking through an interpreter. "I'm like, 'How could I possibly be the first one who could concoct something like this?' It's almost strange."
The book is just 40 pages, accounting for short attention spans, Sickler said, while giving readers a sense of connection to a region that carries special meaning to her.
"I wanted to give people an easy and quick read, just to walk away feeling complete and satisfied without having to read a whole novel," she said. "Especially for those who are visiting the area. Maybe it's on a coffee table in a local coffee shop, and they can just read through it very quickly and know the whole story."
The publishing process, through the self-publishing book company IngramSpark, was rather straightforward with little to no access issues, she said.
"There was one time that I did meet with the IngramSpark representative. We did a video chat, and I let them know I was deaf and asked if we could type back and forth, and they were more than happy to chat with me via text."
An important aspect of the process was working with illustrator Jennifer Sullivan, a tattoo artist in Penn Yan
That collaboration, Sullivan said, was rooted in trust and appreciation for what each brought to the story. While Sickler grew up here, Sullivan had recently moved to the area.
"I had fresh eyes for it. But I also had so much appreciation for it already, and I was just like really excited to capture that because I felt so much like inspired by the area," Sullivan said in a phone call. "I want to do this right for the people that grew up here. I want them to feel like this is home and this looks like home for them."
The two are creating a second book furthering the myth of the Finger Lakes Siren, Sickler said.
"The Great Lakes and the Finger Lakes, they were all from the same Devonian Sea," Sickler said. "So really, it's all about when the glacier retreated and the Finger Lakes woke up for the first time, and then Lake Erie wakes up next."
