The Invasion of Marcia Lake - Tapa blanda

The Invasion of Marcia Lake purports to be a fable that is told to a Naturalist from the United Kingdom who, nearly at the same time, chances upon two life-altering discoveries. The first is finding the whereabouts of the definitive ancient Volume on Taxonomy, "The Taxonomic Compendium of Eighteen Thirty-five", a huge tome, illustrated with hundreds of line engravings, and containing the most complete listings of all known Science pertaining to Nature from that time period. The second is that he soon meets and is able to speak with a group representing Nature and its many dozens of different species. The T.C. of 1835 is in the hands of a Naturalist living on a houseboat in Florida, who has contacted our narrator-translator in the "Scilly Isles", a man who is himself a famous Scientist/ Naturalist/ Linguist named Dr. Carlton Lyme, of Cornwall, England. He is related to both Charles Darwin and Carl Linneaus, and he arrives in the States to review the authenticity of the T.C. of 1835. While there, he explores the wildlife in the nearby swampy marshland by rowboat, (he is at heart a Naturalist), and makes the startling discovery that his linguistic research specialty, that of the ancient Cornish language is spoken by a Community of Inhabitants, as he refers to them.

Victor Valla is an artist-educator who has been involved in publishing for over 30 years. His experience illustrating stories and book covers for many different genres and ages has included providing accompanying artwork for almost all of the major Hardcover and Paperback Book Publishers as well as many Magazine Publishers, mostly based in the New York area. His initial chosen vocation, that of combining the written and illustrated word, together with a lifelong love of writing itself, has finally and logically resulted in his present concentration on the equally fascinating career of creating his own written material. That step reached an important turning point when he was commissioned by the Postal Commemorative Society to research and help write the text for a collection of one-hundred of his own original historical paintings entitled: Milestones of the American West: A Pictorial History. He has also been a professor of Art, Art History and Graphic Design, and has taught full-time at many Art Schools and Universities, including the Rochester Institute of Technology, (where he also graduated with his BFA), and Syracuse University, Kean University in New Jersey, and the University of the Arts, in Philadelphia. His Masters of Fine Arts degree was earned at the University of Illinois, in Champaign-Urbana. He was then awarded a Tiffany Foundation Grant to live and work as a post graduate in Paris, where he studied Printmaking at the famed Atelier 57. While living abroad, he travelled widely, and further developed his early career in Fine Art, Illustration and Graphic Design. He is of French and Danish heritage and is married to Justine Armanini Valla, a Textile Print Designer and Craftsperson.