OU alum provides art for mythical read

Alexandra Shostak is a 2011 Ohio University graduate with big dreams for her writing. However, her claim to fame as of now is the illustrative work she has done for a new young-adult science fiction book, "Tangled Tides," written by Karen Amanda Hooper.

"Its a funny story, actually, how I ended up doing the artwork," said Shostak, who grew up in Athens and still lives here. "Karen is a good friend of mine, and she wanted royalty-free images for her book by the next day — it was really last minute. So for eight hours I worked on them. I drew them out by hand first, then put them into Photoshop."

Shostak is not responsible for the cover art of "Tangled Tides," but illustrated three images that are shown at the beginnings of each chapter, and which indicate to the reader a shift in the narrator. The drawings serve as "animal representations of the characters" that the chapter will revolve around.

There are four illustrations total, but only three of them — a selky, a gorgon and a fish (representing merfolk) are included in the book. The fourth illustration, of a siren, was just for the author's blog launching the book's publication.

The sci-fi book tells the karma-like tale of a girl who didn't believe in sea monsters until she became one, and becomes trapped in an underwater world of merfolk and selkies. She is believed to be the key to opening a sealed gateway in their realm, and the two groups battle over how it should be done.

Shostak knows Hooper as a critique partner, so she was able to read the book in its entirety before it had even been sent to a publisher.

On Shostak's blog, she writes about her creative processes, concerns about daily life, and the Young Adult genre, but does not discuss a passion for illustration.

"Writing is really my main career goal right now," Shostak said.

According to Shostak's blog, she hopes to have one of her novels queried by an editor before the first half of 2012 is over.

When asked about any specific upcoming plans for her writing, Shostak declined to answer, saying her writing is a topic very personal to her.

While illustrating is not something in the forefront of Shostak's career goals, she has been given yet another opportunity to provide the cover work for a new novel by Hooper.

"Karen is releasing another story completely independent of 'Tangled Tides.' She's self-publishing it, and it will be available for sale under Amazon Kindle," Shostak said. "I'll be designing the cover work for that, but there won't be any illustrations within the text."

The local gal will be uprooting herself from the Athens area and moving to Florida soon, where she will likely continue to work on her writing. She has no plans for graduate school as of now, but may consider taking classes to further her illustrating skills.

"I might look into taking some classes in graphic design so that I can get better," Shostak said. "We'll see what happens."