Lemony Snicket author visiting Bellingham to discuss memoir, from ‘Bad Beginning’ to now

In his new memoir about his journey to becoming the children’s literature writer with the pen name Lemony Snicket, Daniel Handler describes how he cultivated his cheerfully ghoulish and comically demented imagination.

But it’s much, much more — disclosure of being sexual assaulted, stories his father told of escaping the Nazis, reading Edward Gorey as a child in a San Francisco bookstore while his parents were on stage at the nearby Opera House. And there’s discussion about accusations from a decade ago that he made inappropriate comments in the company of women writers.

“And Then? And Then? What Else?” is described as an “honest look at mental health, finding one’s way in the world as a reader and writer, and channeling inspiration through a variety of sources,” his publicist told The Bellingham Herald in an email. Release date for the book is May 21.

In a phone interview, Handler told The Herald that it was time to tell his own story.

“I felt ready to say some things about my life that I hadn’t talked about before,” he said from his home in San Francisco, where he’d just returned from a nine-month stint at the University of Oxford.

Handler is possibly best known for his 13-volume “A Series of Unfortunate Events” collection for young readers, and the movie and TV series it spawned. He’s also the author of seven novels and has worked in music and theater.

In his latest book he discusses instances from his childhood that helped him develop the macabre sense of humor that made his tale about the unfortunate Beaudelaire children so clever — such as seeing a graphic painting of a shark attack or obsessing about the story of Abraham and Isaac in the Torah.

“My father and I would take those walks to the library, and I would wonder if he would sacrifice me, if God — or G-d, as it was written in some of the Jewish books we had around the house, the word to me an unfinished game of hangman — asked him to? Would he tell me about it, as Abraham told Isaac, or would it be a surprise? Would anyone stop him and explain it was just a test, or would I just get finished off, when we got to that clump of bushes, or the empty swingset in the park, still and spooky?” he wrote.

Handler told The Herald about how he likes to play with language, using puns and alliteration to engage readers. Every title in the “Series of Unfortunate Events,” starting with “The Bad Beginning,” uses that style of repetition.

“To a certain extent, this just came naturally,” he said. “If you’re young, you respond to sound like it’s music. When you’re a writer, you’re just playing around with words.”

On the topic of being assaulted, Handler said he just needed to stop the secret from controlling him.

“It was a time when being silent about it was more oppressive than keeping it to myself. That’s how secrets can feel. (Sexual assault) is pretty common among men, and we’re not particularly encouraged to write about it” in the way that female writers have made such disclosures, he said.

Handler appears from 7 to 8 p.m. May 19 at the New Prospect Theatre, 207 Prospect St., as part of a Village Books series. Whatcom County musicians Louis Ledford and Norah McLaughlin open for the event. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Tickets can be reserved online at EventBrite.com. Admission for one person is $37, including a copy of “And Then? And Then? What Else?” Admission for two people is $47, including one copy of the book.