Meet the Editors

The series Ixodia is the work of Gene de Paule, a Lyme survivor, and Zo Viya, his partner and caregiver, both professionals in the editorial and creative fields.

We hope that the holistic picture drawn by the series offers patients and their loved ones, as well as the general public, a broader understanding of the tick-borne illness epidemic — one that may evoke compassion, enhance healing, and lead to greater awareness about prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment options.

Zo Vija

Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Zo grew up in rural New Hampshire. She received a BA in English literature from Bard College and has copyedited dozens of books for The History Press on local history and folklore. In 2021, Zo created an editorial business, ^SM Author Services, offering a full array of services to fine art galleries, filmmakers, memoirists, magazines, and premier higher-educational institutions.

When her partner, Gene de Paule, was diagnosed in 2020, Zo delved with him into the “Lyme world,” discovering an unsuspected labyrinth of controversies, enigmas, and stigmatization. As Gene began to heal, they decided to share their learning by editing the stories they wish they could’ve read before Gene’s tick bite: Ixodia: The Lyme Chronicles.

Gene de Paule

For over 20 years, Gene de Paule has worked in various creative fields, including music, photography, nonfiction writing, and developmental editing. He is fluent in three languages and many art-related technologies. Since 2022, Gene has collaborated with Zo Viya on Vocarium Author Services’ editorial projects. He is also a Lyme disease survivor.

Gene was born in Mexico in 1979 to a family of academics and spent most of his formative years in Jesuit institutions. Extracurricularly, he studied music, operatic voice, theatrical voice, and other vocal techniques, eventually developing and teaching his own vocal training program. He is passionate about music, the written word, discovering world cultures, and his practice of Siddha Yoga.

After spending time photographing nature on the East Coast of the U.S. in 2019, Gene experienced a monthslong cascade of debilitating ailments: myalgia, dermatitis, arthralgia, and finally, carditis and cognitive impairment. A year later, in Mexico, serological and PCR tests confirmed his dreaded suspicion: while in the U.S., he was bitten by ticks carrying the spirochete that causes Lyme disease.

During a year of antibiotic therapy in Mexico, many symptoms gradually faded. But the disease continued to progress, affecting the depths of his mind. Day after day, Gene’s thinking and speech slowed down; night after night, hypersensitivity, sleeplessness, anxiety, and an uncontrollable temper grew darker. He looked to the East Coast of the U.S. for more specialized treatment.

After two years bedridden, Gene’s first thought when deciding to get back to work was: “We must write about all this, raise awareness, join forces with others in this fight, and do all we can to make sure that not one more person suffers from these awful tick-borne diseases.”

Read more about Gene on his personal website: swchps.art