By Judy Carmack Bross
Emma Noyes
Assuring her multitude of Young Adult Fantasy fans that she will be back in 2025 with a new series based on Norse Mythology, Chicago author Emma Noyes will be reaching a whole new audience with How to Hide in Plain Sight, a novel debuting September 10 in which the key character deals with obsessive-compulsive disorder just like Noyes herself.
Noyes, who told her mother she wanted to be an author when she was six, grew up in Wilmette and attended Harvard University, where she studied history and literature. She started her career at a beer company, but left because she wanted to write about mermaids and witches, then publishing The Sunken City, a trilogy of pirate tales set in an underwater kingdom where magic exists, evil brews and a pirate princess takes charge. In her latest novel, targeted for adults, the protagonist also takes charge of her life as she decides to stop letting her secret condition cut her off from others.
“I am so nervous and so excited to release How to Hide in Plain Sight. It’s a love story, and the main character has the same type of OCD that I do. It’s been my lifelong dream to help those that suffer from this little-known, but incredibly common, version of the disorder, “ Noyes said.
Not only does her novel provide a realistic account of what it is like to live with this type of OCD, it also shows how it can affect a person’s relationships with those closest to them.
Noyes told us recently:
“I knew at age 11 or 12 that I was very different. Through movies and TV we have seen examples of one type of OCD and we tend to think of people having to wash their hands all the time because they are afraid of germs or using a handkerchief to open doors. But there are many subtypes of OCD and mine was a little harder to see. I’ve never seen the type that I have represented in any media, ever.
“Many people sometime have thoughts that are pretty taboo, however, they can say ‘that was pretty weird’ and move on. People with my type of OCD get stuck on that thought. For many years I suffered in silence, being so afraid of my thoughts, but have been so fortunate to get the gold standard of care.
“Everyone’s pathway is different, but I have received a variety of therapies such as Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and have learned to be more mindful. Now, I want to post more [about my type of OCD] on social media, such as TikTok and Instagram, to reach others like me. Becoming a voice and an advocate is truly important to me.”
In addition to providing a very real account of what it’s like to live with OCD, Noyes’ new novel explores the different ways in which the disorder can attack a person’s relationships, both familial and romantic.
In How to Hide in Plain Sight, the heroine Eliot Beck is a young copywriter who attends a four-day wedding celebration, set on a remote Canadian island, where she was determined to keep her OCD a secret. At the events she encounters her best friend Manuel to whom she slowly begins to open up. “It is a romance but also it is about vulnerability and finally self acceptance,” Noyes said.
“I want to become a voice and an advocate for all of us suffering from OCD, a condition that is often hard to talk about. Telling the first couple of people is the hardest,” Noyes, who currently is doing more and more podcasts on the topic, said.
Although her fantasy series is about magic and how you access it, it is also about self acceptance which is key to knowing how to move through life. “I wrote Sunken City partially as an allegory to when I was in the thick of my OCD. I want all of my readers to access their own magic and face their darker selves in order to thrive.”
Noyes in a fantasy costume created for her by a fan.
Noyes recently married her Swedish husband and the couple lives in Chicago with their Pomeranian, whom she describes as “accident-prone”. She told him about her OCD on their second date.
Her huge YA fantasy following plays out in many ways. “I received a dress covered in sparkles and starfish, lace and pearls, from a designer which was worthy of a forest fairy wedding. I wore it to my rehearsal dinner and returned it to the designer’s studio with many thanks, so that other people can rent it from them in the future. There are many fantasy galas and I wanted others to enjoy it.”
Noyes, who makes sure to write everyday but not on a specific time schedule, told us about her YA fantasy novel due out next year.
“It is set in a fictional town on Lake Michigan, modeled after Saugatuck. I had traveled to the Viking Museum in Stockholm with my husband and, while walking around there, decided that a story rooted in Norse mythology would make a really good book. It’s about a normal town where strange things happen. I often say that it’s The Vampire Diaries meets Norse mythology.”