Title: Falling In Deep
Author: Listed below
Genre: Mermaid Themed
Publisher: Clockpunk Press
Release Date: 21st September 2015
BLURB supplied by Melanie Karsak
From mermaids to sirens, Miami to
Athens, dark paranormal romance to contemporary stories with steam to
folktales, the fourteen award-winning and best-selling authors of the FALLING
IN DEEP COLLECTION are bringing you mermaid tales like you've never seen
before.
Scales by Pauline Creeden
Ink: A Mermaid Romance by Melanie Karsak
Of Ocean and Ash by A. R. Draeger
Deep Breath by J. M. Miller
At the Heart of the Deep by Carrie Wells
The Mermaid’s Den by Ella Malone
The Water is Sweeter by Eli Constant
The Glass Mermaid by Poppy Lawless
An Officer & a Mermaid by Blaire Edens
How to be a Mermaid by Erin Hayes
Cold Water Bridegroom by B. Brumley
Immersed by Katie Hayoz
Siren's Kiss by Margo Bond Collins
To Each His Own by Anna Albergucci
More than 900 pages of mermaid tales by
award-winning and best-selling authors!
THE INDIVIDUAL NOVELLA BLURBS
SCALES
BY PAULINE CREEDEN
Verona is a bottom feeder. She is the one mer in her clan who is considered the ugliest and least intelligent. Growing up with the constant bullying and abuse wasn’t the worst of what her kind had in store for her. At seventeen years old, she must now endure “The Reckoning.”
The scales will measure her worth to her clan. Will she
endure thirty days as a land-walker to gather information and knowledge to
appease her clan and return a valued member? Will she wait three years, until
she is twenty, and find a mer of her kind to accept her and marry her? Or will
she suffer exile for the rest of her life?
INK: A MERMAID ROMANCE
BY MELANIE KARSAK
A mermaid princess destined to wed a handsome king…
It sounds like a fairy tale, but the
reality is far murkier.
Ink, Princess of the Florida Atlantic
mers, is slated to wed the ancient enemy of her tribe, the King of the Gulfs.
After years of war that led to countless mer deaths, as well as the genocide of
aquatic shapeshifters and the freshwater mers of Florida, Ink’s marriage will
bring lasting peace.
Or so it seems.
Mere hours before she’s supposed to
leave the ocean for her customary year as a drywalker, Ink meets Hal, an
alligator shifter who warns her that a storm is brewing. There is malicious
intent behind Ink’s marriage—and worse, meeting Hal has also caused a storm to
rage in Ink’s heart. Nevertheless, loyal to her tribe, Ink will put aside her
feelings and journey to Miami to marry the decadent King Manx.
Ink soon learns that her only hope of
surviving the crashing force swelling around her is to tap into a power deep
inside—a forbidden power that might destroy them all.
OF OCEAN AND ASH
BY A. R. DRAEGER
Of Ocean…
Cast into the sea at birth, human-born Ia found her adoptive
family among the merfolk. While her underwater upbringing was peaceful, Ia’s
blood-heritage and the strict societal rules of the merpeople lead her to
wonder of the world above the waves.
And Ash…
And Ash…
When a storm lands Ia ashore, she discovers her body has
transformed into the human she would have been. Taken in as property by a
callous plantation owner, Ia works alongside the slaves until she can make her
way back to the water. There is nothing Ia wants more than to go home, that is,
until she meets a handsome, troubled man named Matthias, who has a touch that
can be as kind as his tongue is harsh.
Torn between two very different lives, Ia must choose – stay
in his world and risk her life for a love untested, or return to the familiar
arms of the underwater world that raised her and risk losing what may be the
greatest love she will ever know.
Will Ia’s choice lead to her happiness or her destruction?
DEEP BREATH
BY J. M. MILLER
Before disappearing at sea, Marissa Pruitt’s father—a once
revered marine archaeologist—walked the line of insanity, claiming to have seen
a mermaid during an ordinary dive in the Gulf of Mexico. He abandoned his life
and career, completely obsessed with chasing the truth.
It’s been years since his death, and Marissa is still
tormented by countless unanswered questions. When she finds dive coordinates
and a stone pendant hidden in her father’s things, she asks for help from his
old protégé and sets out to give her father one last goodbye and maybe find
closure for her troubled heart. Instead, she finds the truth he’d been searching
for all along, with a life and love she never could have imagined. But there’s
a price to see it all, one set by betrayal and paid with an anchor at her feet
and salt water in her lungs.
AT THE HEART OF THE DEEP
BY CARRIE L.
WELLS
Oceanographer Luke McAllister races to figure out why the
ocean depth is changing off Florida's Treasure Coast. But before he and his
crew discover what’s transforming the deep, he stumbles upon an even greater
mystery. Leagues below the waves, he swear he sees…a mermaid?
Anya isn’t allowed to get close to humans. But when a
golden-haired researcher gets too close to her island, she can’t afford to stay
away.
Together, this unlikely pair will seek to discover what’s
causing shifts in ocean floor. While their new alliance is forbidden, Anya will
risk everything to save her beloved ocean. The only problem is, she’s not sure
what’s really luring her in, her love of the sea or the tempest Luke has
stirred in her heart. Either way, Anya knows that the dangers facing the sea
are nothing compared to what will happen to her when her father learns she’s
broken the merfolks’ most sacred law.
Can Anya and Luke discover what lurks at the heart of the
deep before it's too late?
THE MERMAID’S DEN
BY ELLA MALONE
Laura and Tom Flynn married after she
fell for him hook, line, and sinker — literally. Finding Laura in his fishing
net had been a shock for Tom, but one he came to embrace as they quickly fell
in love. For fifteen years, they have lived and worked by the sea, and Laura
hasn’t thought once of what she left behind when she chose to marry Tom. She
doesn’t regret giving up her mermaid form. It wasn’t a sacrifice. It was a good
decision, and one she made to survive.Now, with Tom missing at sea, Laura faces a decision she swore she’d never consider. In order to search for Tom and his crew, she must become a mermaid again and face the demons of the deep that she eagerly dodged when trading in her tail. Or she can stay on land and continue her life, but without Tom.
Does she enjoy her future alone, without
the man she loves, or face her fears and her past in the ocean? Either way,
nothing will be the same for her again.
HOW TO BE A MERMAID
BY ERIN HAYES
All Tara ever wanted was to be a mermaid.
So she takes a year off between high school and college to
don a fake tail and tour aquariums across the country in a professional mermaid
troupe.
Everything's great until she meets a gorgeous real-life
merman named Finn. Suddenly, what she thought was a dream turns out to be a
nightmare -- she's turning into a mermaid herself. For real.
Yet when she returns to the sea to seek out Finn and reverse
her transformation, she finds herself in the middle of an impending war between
the land and sea. Tara may have always wanted to be a mermaid, but now it's
sink or swim. In order to survive, she has to learn how to be one, too.
THE GLASS MERMAID
BY POPPY LAWLESS
Kate
I'm the last mermaid.
I’m back on shores of Lake Erie, but the cold waters are
silent. There is nothing here for me but ghosts and the beach glass that
litters the rocky shore. Long ago, I lived below the waves. Now, I am the sole
survivor, and at long last, my mermaid glamour is leaving me.
Every day, I walk the beach. Every day, I wonder what
happened to my people. The little pieces of colored glass that wash ashore give
me simple pleasure. They are gifts from the lake, reminders of home. I fashion
them into trinkets: necklaces, earrings, bracelets. They are beautiful things.
The humans seem love them.
Every day, I walk the beach. Nothing ever changes, until the
day he says hello.
Cooper
I’m dying.
It’s not a question, it’s a fact. The cancer is eating me
alive. They told me I have six months to live, maybe less. I came home, back to
Chancellor on Lake Erie, to die. The sunsets are vivid there, and I will relish
every one.
I've never seen anything more beautiful than a Lake Erie
sunset until I see her.
All life is as fragile as glass.
What would you sacrifice to save the one you love?
AN OFFICER AND A MERMAID
BY BLAIRE EDENS
Dylan, a twenty-first century Coast Guard Officer, has sworn
off love for the sea. When a wave throws him overboard, Syreena uses her amulet
to ward off the sharks and save his life.
With Syreena and Dylan stranded on a remote cay in the
Caribbean, Dylan has the know-how to build a raft and navigate but his
near-drowning has made him terrified of the water. Syrenna will use every charm
she has to convince Dylan to take her home.
Even if it means falling in love. . .
Even if it means falling in love. . .
THE WATER IS SWEETER
BY ELI CONSTANT
When the land becomes a desert, the water will quench your
soul
Orphan Lena McMillan used to think that what she shared with
Truman Kent was real. Now she sees their relationship for what it really is-
controlling and abusive.
She has to choose to die slowly from ‘love’ or say goodbye to
the family she’s always desired. Leaving scares her though, so much so that dying
seems like her only option.
But fate won’t let her quit life and Truman won’t let her
quit his love. Not without a fight.
Under the layers of a lonely childhood and an adulthood
romance gone wrong, a starfish holds the key to Lena’s parentage and the answer
to the mesmeric ocean dreams that haunt her.
If she can find the strength to leave the only life she
knows, Lena will discover the truth. And she will find a new world, one that
will cleanse her of the memories of false love and abuse.
One that will finally lead her home.
COLD WATER BRIDEGROOM
BY B. BRUMLEY
Having grown up in San Francisco, Calder Brumen is drawn to the ocean, and he's spent his life trying to capture the beauty of the Pacific on canvas. Over time, he has become obsessed with painting the image of a dark haired mermaid named Gaire, and Calder struggles to explain his devotion to these portraits to his best friend. When Calder finds sandy footprints leading to the edge of his bed, he suspects that the haunting siren is real.
Pursuing the truth, Calder is dragged into a murderous,
underwater plot that could destroy them all. And he must choose – is the
possibility of a lifetime with Gaire worth risking death for himself and
everyone he loves?
IMMERSED
BY KATIE HAYOZ
Forget petticoats and demure female behavior. Melusine Doré prefers armored corsets and knives and slays evil creatures for a living. The grim and gruesome don’t frighten her; she’ll take on a cyclops or a dragon and not even break a sweat. But when her rival, the charismatic Levi Cannon, comes to town, all her buried fears begin to surface. Melusine realizes she is in danger of something much more horrifying than facing blood-thirsty beasts – she’s in danger of falling in love. Because love alone has the power to reveal a secret terrible enough to completely shatter her world.
Set in the muddy streets of 1850s steampunk Chicago, Immersed
by Katie Hayoz is a dark yet romantic fantastical romp. It is a stand-alone
novella, the first in a series of adventures that follow Melusine on her quest
to rid the world of monsters…and her struggle to come to terms with every
monstrous facet of herself.
SIREN’S KISS
BY MARGO BOND COLLINS
Her kiss might save the world . . .
Unless his kiss kills her first.
It's been almost two thousand years since the mer-shifter
Skyla walked the streets of Athens—not since her heart was broken by a human
man and she exchanged the land and sky for the ocean depths. Ever since, she
has lived in the underwater ruins of Atlantis, studying with the priestesses of
the goddess Amphitrite, refining her mermaid powers and ignoring her human
half.
But her studies are interrupted when she is called upon by
the god Poseidon himself to investigate rumors that the world above is being
polluted by the magic of creatures from another realm—and worse, that the ocean
kingdom of the mer-people might be next.
When her inquiries in modern-day Greece lead her to an
American detective asking similar questions, Skyla realizes that the magical
problem she's been sent to research is bigger than she anticipated—and that one
human's kisses might be more dangerous to her, and her world, than she ever
could have imagined.
TO EACH HIS OWN
BY ANNA ALBERGUCCI
Douglass McGrail is a Scottish water horse—his clan the
deadliest in the British Isle. When the shifter chooses to save—rather than
eat—a young lassie, he never expects her innocent face to mark his memory so
strongly.
Months later, he stumbles onto a perceived attack in progress
and plays the hero once more. He’s shocked to find the victim is the same lass
who haunts his dreams.
Jinny Fairchild is an English miss who’s come to the
Highlands to live with her last remaining family. She is pursued by her
handsome older cousin, Lachlan Brockhouse, but he has a dark side that lands
her in the path of the mighty Douglass McGrail.
Douglass wants Jinny for himself, yet discovers she is
connected to the attacker she denies knowing. He’s determined to find the
truth.
Jinny loves Lachlan, even with his dark side. And she loves
Douglass, even with his dark secret. Her heart is torn, but one thing is
certain—no matter which of these men she chooses, she will be choosing a
monster.
A SENTENCE ABOUT EACH AUTHOR
Pauline Creeden, author of SCALES, is an award-winning author, horse
trainer, & overall book ninja.
Melanie Karsak, author of INK, is a steampunk connoisseur, white elephant
collector, & zombie whisperer.
A. R. Draeger, author
of OF OCEAN AND ASH, resides in rural Texas with her husband, Josh, & son,
Logan.
J. M. Miller, author
DEEP BREATH, writes Young Adult & New Adult romance novels.
Carrie Wells, author
of AT THE HEART OF THE DEEP, crosses genres, writing everything from newspaper
editorials & textbooks to paranormal romance novellas.
Ella Malone, author
of THE MERMAID’S DEN, is a lover of all wonderful things: cherry blossoms, red
lipstick, city skylines, the finest chocolate, a man's hands, a woman's back,
vodka, & high heels.
Eli Constant, author
of THE WATER IS SWEETER, writes characters that are real--light and dark and
everything in between, and makes her readers truly think.
Poppy Lawless, author
of THE GLASS MERMAID, is a counselor in the field of mental health & is a
trained herbalist. This is her debut work.
Blaire Edens, author
of AN OFFICER & A MERMAID, loves iced tea with mint, hand-stitched quilts,
& yarn stores
Erin Hayes, author
of HOW TO BE A MERMAID, is a sci-fi junkie, video game nerd, & wannabe
manga artist Erin Hayes who writes a lot of things.
B. Brumley, author
of COLD WATER BRIDEGROOM, is an award-winning freelance writer. She lives with
her husband, five kids, & three dogs in West Texas.
Katie Hayoz, author
of IMMERSED, lives in Geneva, Switzerland with her husband, two daughters,
& two fuzzy cats.
Margo Bond Collins, author of SIREN'S KISS’spends most of her free time
daydreaming about heroes, vampires, ghosts, werewolves, & the women who
love (and sometimes fight) them.
Anna Albergucci, author of TO EACH HIS OWN, puts inspiration to paper,
weaving her stories into deeply passionate characters that live lives the rest
of us only dream about.
Falling in deep Newsletter Link: http://eepurl.com/bdRtbD
EXCERPTS
Marissa inhaled her first breath from
the bailout bottle, hard and deep, and held it as she jerked at the chains for
escape. Holding a breath while diving was not the best idea. It led to more
recovery breaths, wasting more air. But, with a limited capacity bottle, she
had to take the risk. She needed more time.
I caught sight of his cut, thought a
moment, and swam away. He floated there, treading water and wondering what
would happen next. At that point, his face conveyed the pain in his side. I
watched an intense sting replace what I knew of the original burning sensation
of a coral abrasion, and the open wound spilled into the ocean at a steady
pace.
The Glass Mermaid by Poppy Lawless
Chapter 1: Kate
The
surf lapped over my feet, sea foam tickling my toes. It
was early summer, but the lake water was still icy. I closed my eyes and felt
the cool waves. In the deep of winter, when the lake would freeze, we always
sheltered on one of the small islands that dotted Lake Erie. The humans in
those days had called us lumpeguin. Sighing deeply, I opened my eyes and looked
down at the rocky shoreline.
“There you are,” I whispered, bending to
pick up a piece of green beach glass. I lifted it and looked at it in the
diming sunlight. It was tear-shaped and worn smooth from its time in the water.
A soft white sheen coated the green glass. That made seven green pieces, five
light blue pieces, eight white pieces, and seven amber pieces. Not a bad haul.
Alas, no red. I rarely found red anymore. The lake had stopped giving up her
most beautiful treasures. If I wanted, I could swim down deep to the troves of
wave-kissed glass. But I hadn’t been below the surface in nearly three hundred
years, and I certainly wasn’t going to ruin that stretch over some sparkly
bauble, even if all my customers begged for red beach glass.
I tucked the green beach glass into my
satchel, pulled my long, straw-colored hair back, and then bent to pick up my
sandals. I looked out at the lake. The sun was dipping below the horizon. There
was nothing more glorious than a Lake Erie sunset. Shimmering shades of rosy
pink, orange, and magenta illuminated the sky and reflected on the waves.
Breathing in deeply, I tried to inhale the scene. The briny scent of the fresh
lake water was perfumed with the lingering smell of snow and flowers. Not for
the first time, I wondered what my old home looked like now. Forgotten under
the waves, the eerie sea kingdom had been left to be ruled by ghosts and
memories.
I sucked in a breath and turned to go. I
wouldn’t cry. Mermaids’ tears were, after all, a special and rare commodity.
They carried life itself, and I didn’t have much of that magical spark left in
me. A single tear could spell my end, sapping out the last of the gift from the
deep. No, I’d managed to live for over three hundred years. It wouldn’t do to
weep over an amazing sunset, a nearly-forgotten past, nor the realization that
I was truly alone. It was what it was. I couldn’t change the fact that I was
the last mermaid.
How to be a Mermaid by Erin Hayes
“What is this?” a
rough, intense voice demanded.
I swam out of
unconsciousness, an uncomfortable experience that revealed my entire body
aching, my head most of all. It was so dark, and a strange feeling had
overtaken my body. Like I was floating. I tried touching a hand to my head,
only to find that I couldn't.
What the-?
My hands were tied
behind my back with what felt like...kelp?
The realization hit
me and I thrashed about trying to free myself, and I finally opened my eyes.
I paused for a
moment, unable to grasp exactly where I was.
I was...underwater?
Air bubbles popped
out of my mouth in a flurry when a scream escaped my throat. A thousand
thoughts filled my head, none of them making sense except for the overwhelming
dread that I was somehow underwater with my hands tied behind my back. From
what I could tell, there was no way I could get air to breathe. I'd lost a lot
of air when I screamed.
Oh my god, I was
going to drown.
My mermaid necklace
was thrust in front of my vision, momentarily disorienting me.
“What is this? I
demand you to tell me now!”
“What?” I asked out
loud. A sharp pain zigzagged across my head from where I'd hit it on the rock.
I was trapped underwater and this man wanted to know...what exactly? What my
necklace was?
The necklace came
even closer to my face, so much that I'd have to go cross-eyed in order to
focus on it.
“Where did you get
this? What is it?” the man demanded.
“It's my...” I was
unsure and still terrified of my situation. “It's my necklace.”
Immersed by Katie Hayoz
Chapter One
LEVI CANNON BACK IN CHICAGO. NO NEED TO
FEAR THE BOGEYMAN shouted the headline of the newspaper spread out on
Melusine’s dresser. A skilled drawing of
Mr. Levi Cannon stepping on a monster with one giant eye was directly
underneath the headline. Below that was
a quote that made Melusine fume: “Miss
Melusine Doré is now free to learn flower arrangement and make social
calls. There is a man in town to do a
man’s job. I promise you all that the
beast found hunting here will be gone in a matter of days. Unlike Miss Doré, I do not take precious time
to see if a monster has a heart of gold or not.
It’s a monster, after all, and if its heart happens to be gold, well
then, I shall rip it out and sell it for a fortune.”
Grabbing her fountain pen, Melusine
inked warts onto Levi’s nose and cheeks, and filled in the area between his
eyebrows. She gazed down at his lifeless
face and grunted. Warts and all, Levi
Cannon still looked good. Too good.
Once a year or so Levi would come into
town, challenging Melusine, leaving a trail of dead monsters and smitten women
in his wake. But she never rose to his
dares and instead stayed out of sight until he left.
He was too dangerous, for so many
reasons.
Deep Breath by J. M. Miller
Marissa inhaled her first breath from
the bailout bottle, hard and deep, and held it as she jerked at the chains for
escape. Holding a breath while diving was not the best idea. It led to more
recovery breaths, wasting more air. But, with a limited capacity bottle, she
had to take the risk. She needed more time.
A lock fastened the chain tight around
her ankles. She hooked her fingers into the links and yanked, but there was no
way to slip the chain off. Still falling deeper, dread and panic twisted her
insides and knocked her heartbeat loudly inside her ears. Fear overrode every
bit of calm, crushing it like a tin can.
Another
breath.
The anchor hit bottom. Her bare feet
followed a moment later, colliding with its metal and the sand below, kicking
up a cloud of sediment. She didn’t bother to look around. Her focus was only on the chain,
but that didn’t keep her brain from wondering what was around her. The light
from the surface was weak, dispersing through the water with only a faint glow.
It was some reassurance that there were fewer predators around to smell the
blood from the cut on her head. That light and reassurance would be gone soon
enough, though. She wouldn’t last to see it go completely dark. She’d either be
topside or dead.
Exhale.
Inhale.
Pull.
Her heartbeat pounded on, a clock
counting down to her fate. It screamed for her the words she couldn’t speak. It
screamed for the air she couldn’t freely take.
At the Heart
of the Deep by Carrie L
Wells
I caught sight of his cut, thought a
moment, and swam away. He floated there, treading water and wondering what
would happen next. At that point, his face conveyed the pain in his side. I
watched an intense sting replace what I knew of the original burning sensation
of a coral abrasion, and the open wound spilled into the ocean at a steady
pace.
Conceivably, I had underestimated the
severity of the cut. Maybe the coral cut deeper than I thought. The blood
clouded the water surrounding him, and now the problem remained of how to take
the injured man across the reef without doing further damage. We still needed
to cross at least two miles and climb a rocky beach. Or did we?
Before he had time to contemplate any
other option, I approached him from below. I swam up to him slowly, and he did
nothing. He didn’t
dive to meet me or attempt to swim away. He hung vertically in the water,
waiting.
He must have felt me before he could
clearly see me. The water shifted as I neared, my physicality changing the flow
of the ocean around me. He knew I was there, but he didn’t dive below. Was
he afraid? Too hurt to move? Instead, he stayed still, moving as little as
possible, allowing my approach, and keeping the blood loss at a minimum.
I moved below him and then up, along his
body, until my head emerged from the inky blue water and he stared into my
eyes. He let out a fast gasp and quickly sank below the surface.
Scales by Pauline Creeden
TO KEEP FROM
SCREAMING, I bite hard on my lip. The copper mixture of blood and saltwater
mingles on my tongue. Mer claws rake against my back. The barnacles on the post
to which I’m tied stab me in the chest. Pain sets my body on fire. Everything
burns. I squeeze my eyes shut tight and keep my silence.
“Ugly.”
“Repugnant.”
“Unsightly.”
“Ignorant.”
“Bottom Feeder.”
Each word cuts as
deep in my flesh as the physical wounds my clan inflicts. It can’t last long. I
can endure this. As soon as the sharks catch scent of my blood they will come,
and the Mer will scatter.
The world spins
around me like a whirlpool. My breaths come quick and shallow, my heart pounds
faster in my ears. Each second is an eternity, until I realize fresh wounds are
not adding to the burning in my skin.
The elder’s sharp
tongue whispers in my ear. “Now you will be measured.”
My wrists fall free
of the post as he cuts the ties.
Exile. My Reckoning
has begun.
I
made my choice quickly and left in the middle of the night. I swam south,
feeling the water warm slightly as I approached the Massachusetts coast.
Familiar with the area from years of fishing there, I knew Southern Point and
slid myself onto the rocks. I sat there in the cool, late-summer air, feeling
the briskness of the sea breeze and a slight sting of the spray against my
newly formed legs.
Summer was waning when I was born, marked
by the heat leaving the waters and the nights growing longer. My family wanted
to migrate with the rest of their people, but they waited for me in the
stillness of the waves, keeping an ever-watchful eye.
The Mermaid’s Den by Ella Malone
I
made my choice quickly and left in the middle of the night. I swam south,
feeling the water warm slightly as I approached the Massachusetts coast.
Familiar with the area from years of fishing there, I knew Southern Point and
slid myself onto the rocks. I sat there in the cool, late-summer air, feeling
the briskness of the sea breeze and a slight sting of the spray against my
newly formed legs.
Developing
legs was always a sensuous experience to me. I watched my scales turn from
their bright, inky blue to a honey color as they bleached before my eyes. Then
they slowly turned smooth moments before my ankles separated and my toes lost
their webbing. I felt supple and exotic as a human. I held a mystery that no
one else knew or shared.
Legs
also reminded me of Diana. We would find a beach free of humans and lie
together, kissing and touching in the sand as our bodies transitioned from mer
to human. Our tails would slowly change from beautiful fins to strong, elegant
legs.
Diana
moved slowly with me. None of her rapid, curt movements existed in our
meetings. Those motions belonged to her royal self, not the one we shared. With
me she lingered in her own skin, her hands in mine, our lips caressing necks,
shoulders, and breasts.
Of Ocean and Ash by A.
R. Draeger
Summer was waning when I was born, marked
by the heat leaving the waters and the nights growing longer. My family wanted
to migrate with the rest of their people, but they waited for me in the
stillness of the waves, keeping an ever-watchful eye.
Mother heard the wails of the fisherman’s
wife the night the woman discovered she carried me in her womb. The fisherman
and his wife lived next to the water in a small, dilapidated shack made of
rotten wood and leaky thatch. They had six children before me, although Mother
knew not in what mixture their genders numbered. All but two were taken away at
birth. The couple had too many as it were for a meager fisherman and his wife,
and I was yet another mouth to feed.
The fisherman’s cries of mercy woke my family
the night I was born. My arrival was sooner than expected, his wife not having
carried me nine months in her womb. I was tiny, frail. My left leg was
misshapen, my head oblong.
Mother watched him from beneath the
surface, saw his tanned sailor’s skin, ebony and white streaked hair, and
grey-whiskered face. He looked down at me, the fragile bundle cradled in his
arms, and cried out through parched lips and crooked, black teeth:
“Forgive me, O God! Have mercy on her. I
leave her to your care.”
He
dropped me in the water with a small plop.
AUTHORS Q&A
Interview
with Melanie Karsak
Author of Ink: A Mermaid Romance
What
is your favorite mermaid story or myth?
When
I was a teen, I fell in love with the Slavic/Russian novels written by C. J.
Cherryh, including her work Rusulka. Rusulka is the story about a drowned girl
who becomes a haunted spirit. Rusulka are prevelant in Slavic myth. They are
often depicted as spirits, but sometimes they appear as nymphs or water
sprites. I was really inspired by Cherryh’s Rusulka character.
What
was the inspiration for your mermaid novella?
I
moved to Florida about five years ago, and I was really inspired by all the
sights on the coast. We’ve taken trips to Miami on a few occasions. I enjoy the
architecture, but dislike the vibe of the city. It’s the same vibe Ink feels
when she is there (sorry, Miami). I live on the Space Coast, not far from NASA,
and I love this area. We are close to Cocoa Beach which has the feel of a
“once-happening” place. There is a quaint charm to its faded, sea-side glory. I
adore Cocoa Village, a quaint downtown area. There are lovely little shops and
old oak trees with Spanish moss. It was the perfect setting for Ink’s eventual
rendezvous with a good friend.
Cast
your characters. If your novella was made into a movie, who would play your
main characters?
Ink
is hard to cast, but I would probably choose someone like Megan Fox.
For
Hal, I would definitely cast Jason Momoa. Because, well, Jason Momoa.
What
was most challenging thing writing about mermaids?
The
world building! Oh my gosh, it took me forever to figure out just how “under
the sea” functioned in terms of a society. There was nothing to go from so I
just made it all up! It took a lot more time and brain-power than I expected.
Ursula
or Ariel?
Ursula’s
attitude with Ariel’s looks. Ariel is too “I need a man” for me. Ursula is too
“I need power” for Ink. But they both have good qualities.
I
actually really love cecaelia, mer-octopus like Ursula. They play an important
role in Ink.
What
else should we know about your novella?
There
are alligator shifters and nyotaimori (Google it). I now know way more about
alligator mating calls than a normal person would find useful. Don’t judge me
by my Google searches.
Interview with Eli Constant
Author of The
Water is Sweeter
What
is your favorite mermaid story or myth?
It’s
funny; I mean, I grew up with the traditional Hans Christian Anderson version
of the Little Mermaid and it always made me sad. Each sister before the
littlest mermaid waited patiently until she was old enough to experience the
world above the water. They each came back with beautiful stories, but they
always came back. They returned to their home after witnessing wonderful
things. The littlest mermaid was impatient, as we all are- wanting to grow up
and then once we have grown up, wanting to return to the novelty of youth- and
when her time comes, she’s built this amazing vision in her head of what the
dry world is like.
And
then she saves a prince. And she is willing to give up everything to be with
him, because if he loves her enough, more than anything else in the world, she
gains a soul. So she abandons her mermaid’s tail and her long life span, even
though she is warned that it will bring her nothing but sadness.
But
I always thought that the sea was the little mermaid’s soul. And she gave that
up, devoted every ounce of her being to winning the Prince’s hand, who would
never love her.
And
then she’s faced with killing her Prince or dying.
She
chooses death, but finds life again in the sky.
How depressing is that?
So,
I hate the traditional Little Mermaid. But, wait, I was supposed to say what
was my favorite mermaid story or myth?
Well,
I sort of liked J.K. Rowling’s interpretation of mermaids… Yeah, they were
cool. Of course, I did ascribe to the happier version of a mermaid in The Water
is Sweeter to balance out Lena’s suicidal mindset.
What
was the inspiration for your mermaid novella?
Freedom.
I’ve
been a certified diver since the age of 14 (thanks, Dad!) and I always found
that being in the water diving helped me separate myself from things that were
going wrong in my life. I took that concept and I expanded on it, which makes
The Water is Sweeter a deeply personal piece. At its core, it’s about an
orphaned woman who realizes her fiancé is abusive, but she desperately clings
to the idea of family. When she tries to kill herself, she finds that she’s
plunged into an alter-reality beneath the waves.
Cast
your characters. If your novella was made into a movie, who would play your
main characters?
An
actress playing Lena would 1) have to look great with maroon hair and 2) be
adept at playing ‘beautifully broken’. I think my top pick would be Rose
Leslie. She has a fierce strength, but is wonderful at deep emotion. For
Truman, I’d want someone who could play the pretentious, entitled asshole, but
also being devilishly sexy. Maybe Tom Hiddleston. For Vera, I’d definitely want
Alfre Woodard; she’s amazing.
What
was most challenging thing writing about mermaids?
I
wanted the details to feel real, to force my readers to plunge into the water
and experience what Lena was experiencing. I didn’t want to be too over-the-top
with shimmering green tails and other Disney-esque details. I wanted balance.
That was difficult as I’ve been so inundated with the happier version of
mermaids. The hardest thing though was getting into the mind of a woman who
truly feels that suicide might be preferable to living. It’s a dark place. I’ve
been there and it jolts the psyche.
Ursula
or Ariel?
Ursula,
hands down. I loved the most recent season of Once Upon a Time. Villains need
to win every now and then. And Ursula was so wonderfully conniving in the Disney
movie (she was less so in the original HCA story, actually warning the littlest
mermaid of what trading in her tail would bring).
What
else should we know about your novella?
It
has a lot of ugliness in it- flashbacks to an abusive foster home, the reality
of psychological/verbal abuse in a relationship. If you’re going to read it, be
ready to read all of it, not just the happy bits under the sea.
Interview with Anna Albergucci
Author
of To Each His Own
What is your favorite mermaid story or myth?
Honestly, my
favorite mermaid story is one I had the privilege to beta read for a
fellow author for this box set. I will not reveal which one, as my opinion
might change after I read all of them, but that would be hard to accomplish.
What
was the inspiration for your mermaid novella?
Since the novellas could be
based on any mythical water creature, not only mermaids, I chose a character
from my Phoenix Decree Series, a Scottish water horse known as the
each-uisge, pronounced ech-ooshkya. While Douglass McGrail, a
gorgeous but deadly shifter, is the protagonist
in To Each His Own, he is a gorgeous but deadly antagonist in the Phoenix Decree books.
In that series he is a character who has a back history, but one I only give
the reader a taste of; the rest only existed in my mind—I hadn’t planned to write it. But when this project
presented itself, it gave me that opportunity. But then I had to create an even
darker antagonist to oppose Douglass,
which wasn’t easy and required a lot of research. That was interesting.
Cast
your characters. If your novella was made into a movie, who would play your
main characters?
These are for looks only, since one of my choices is a model
and not an actor. The curvy and innocent-faced Kate Upton as Jinny Fairchild.
The wild and disheveled Marlon Teixeira (taller and on steroidsJ) as Douglass McGrail. And the dark but
beautiful Ian Somerhalder (with slightly auburn hair) as Lachlan Brockhouse.
What
was the most challenging thing in writing about mermaids?
Though this wasn’t
the hardest thing in writing To Each His
Own, it was the hardest in writing about a water creature—the water scenes.
Jinny is human and susceptible to the elements. Set along the northern British
Isle around the Highlands, Jinny couldn’t breathe under water, and would die of
hypothermia if exposed too long. So, how could I give her and Douglass a water
scene that didn’t seem contrived and made sense with the story? I had to be a
bit more creative with that, and I have to say I really like the outcome.
Ursula
or Ariel?
If you are asking which I prefer, then very hard to choose there.
What is one without the other, right? A dull story. But if you are asking which
is closer to the personality of my lead character, then I’ll let the reader be
the judge;)
What
else should we know about your novella?
You should know it is written in two
parts, both novellas to be released in the Falling in Deep Collection on the
same day.
Interview with B. Brumley
Author of Cold Water Bridegroom
What is your favorite mermaid story or myth?
I included the Blue Men of Minch and 1830 Mermaid of
Benbecula. Both are briefly mentioned in history, but they were great for my
novella.
What was the inspiration for your mermaid novella?
Anna Albergucci, A.R. Draeger, and I were brainstorming
during a Write Day at the Albergucci estate. I joked that I might do something
completely ridiculous this time... like accidentally killing of my hero
mid-story + my husband and I really like UFC champ Coner McGregor + I
like beards = Calder was born. To be different, I decided that Cold Water
Bridegroom should mostly be written from Calder Brumen's point of view.
Cast your characters. If your novella was made into a movie,
who would play your main characters?
Calder Brumen: Gerard Butler (think: redheaded Leonidas that
paints), Gaire: Ayelet Zurer or Alexis Knapp (but, man, Jenn Proske has
the hair), Mike Love: Scott Evans (Captain America's younger brother) or Brett
Tucker, though they are both a bit tall for the role. Venora: To be honest,
she'd be much harder to cast, but I bet Uma Thurman could pull it off. If Uma
was busy that year, I'd choose Cate Blanchett. I still haven't figured out the
twins.
What was most challenging thing writing about mermaids?
I think the hardest part was making the characters
believable, while crossing from water to land, or even into the mer-city - just
how to make it all work, think of and answer all the questions.
Ursula or Ariel?
Ummm.... Can I pick King Triton?
What else should we know about your novella?
Set in San Francisco, Calder is an moody artist looking for
his forever. Somebody dies.
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