And suddenly there were mermaids...

[hrj]

My primary blog has moved, but feel free to comment in either place.

As previously noted, last Thursday I e-mailed off the manuscript of Mother of Souls to the publisher. So I should have a brief relaxing break before plunging into my next writing project. Somehow that never quite works out for me. In one of those peculiar conversations that started out on facebook and then jumped over to Twitter, I found myself being inspired by a Starbucks Coffee shopping back to write a fluffly little short story about mermaids. And Nantucket Island. And lonely early 18th century Quaker ladies. Tentative title: "Light in the Water".

And so (as you do) I found myself pulling up old maps of Nantucket that showed settlement distributions, researching types of small watercraft appropriate to the era, and devising an internally-consistent social ecology of mer-people. (Did you know that the two-tailed form featured on the Starbucks label and known in heraldry as a melusine is actually the sexually mature form of the species that has the more familiar single tail only in the juvenile form? What's that you say? "Heather, you just made that up!" Well, yes. Yes, I did.) I'm not sure I'm capable of writing a historically-based story without plunging into some sort of research project. Fortunately I could poke around for an appropriate (human) character name in my own genealogical records.

When I got hit by an attack story back in January after finishing the first draft of Mother of Souls, I put it up as a free e-story. But I think I'll hold on to this one and see if I can find a market for it. Probably not. It's too much of a fluffy romance for a fantasy market, and not "spicy" enough for the usual LesFic markets. But hope springs eternal.

Comments

[lifeofglamour.livejournal.com]

That's the best explanation I've ever heard for the mermaid tail(s)! It explains so much!

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Doesn't it, though? I'm trying not to get too deep into merfolk physiology.

[marfisa.livejournal.com]

That's kind of like the Japanese kitsune (fox spirits) and nekomata (cat spirits), who develop extra tails as they grow older and more powerful. (The kitsune can eventually accumulate as many as nine.) Although as far as I know, in those cases the number of tails isn't particularly linked to sexual maturity specifically.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Thinking too much about merperson biology and reproduction probably is not a good idea. But it always amuses me that the one-tailed mermaid is considered a sexual icon (the whole "lonely sailors" thing) when she has no obvious means of engaging in sexual activity. One can, of course, assume a sort of cetacean approach. But given the historic iconography of two-tailed variants (e.g., the traditional depiction of male tritons), it seemed an innovative twist.

I've also come up with a completely throwaway explanation for the "sitting on the rocks combing her hair" trope: merpeople have to respiratory systems, lungs for above the air, and external hair-like gill structures for under water. But the gill-hairs have a tendency to become fouled with acquatic micro-fauna and need regular grooming...

I swear that this story will come in under 5000 words. I swear.

[helblonde.livejournal.com]

I love it already!

[hrj.livejournal.com]

I find that random inspiration works better than saying, "What could I write a story about?"

[avashida.livejournal.com]

I WOULD BE MORE THAN DELIGHTED TO PAY FOR THIS STORY.

JUST SAYING.

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Me too...

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Well, first I have to get it written!

[katerit.livejournal.com]

I want to read this. Surprise.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

I think you'll like it. (That is, once it's written.)

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

I have monies, gimme story!

[hrj.livejournal.com]

It will make its way into the world eventually. But I need to get more short fiction out into places where people aren't currently encountering my work.