Ocean's Gift is my first novel, which will be released toward the end of 2012.
In the meantime, I have placed a preview of the first few chapters on Wattpad, with an early cover:
The first of a series, Ocean's Gift was inspired by a combination of unusual factors:
- a new CD (Evanescence (Evanescence))
- research on the shipwreck of the Columbia in 1921
- pressing deadlines that drove me mad
I bought the CD and was reading about the Columbia, a shipwreck with conflicting details that don't add up. Thoughtful, I concentrated on the words of the song playing, Swimming Home. At first, it sounded like someone sinking into the depths from a shipwreck, but then I decided the singer wasn't supposed to be human. I began to wonder. Could a mermaid explain the discrepancies in the Columbia shipwreck? A story began to coalesce.
Do mermaids exist, and what do I know about them so far?
When I'd met my deadlines, I did some research. I watched the Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. I dug out a copy of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Sea Maid and read it. I even watched the Disney version, The Little Mermaid.
I did my Google search and wished I hadn't. Animal Planet did a documentary on mermaids; an Australian woman has a mermaid costume and is known as a professional mermaid; an infrastructure project in Africa was delayed because of mermaids in a freshwater lake. I think the information that scared me most was that Stephenie Meyer, who is best known for her Twilight series, is writing a book on mermaids.
If this is true, I had to write and release my book before Meyer could promote or publish hers. If I delayed and she lifted the profile of mermaids the way she did that of vampires and werewolves, my story would be lost in the miasma of mediocre imitations of mermaid fiction.
In its final editing stages now, the final version of Ocean's Gift will be released in time for Christmas.
For the curious and impatient, I posted a preview on Wattpad.
Spoiler alert: The prologue of Ocean's Gift on Wattpad is about the Columbia.