When I announced the release of Between Land and Sea, a paranormal romance about an overweight, middle-aged ex-mermaid, I was surprised by the subsequent comments.
The typical male response was a Duchenne smile followed by a puzzled expression and several pointed questions...
Why is she so old?
Just how overweight is she?
Are you putting a fat mermaid on the cover?
The men had preconceived notions of what a mermaid should look like—wavy auburn tresses, mesmerizing green eyes, and a curvaceous twenty-something body.
The women, on the other hand, were intrigued by a mermaid who did not fit the stereotype and wanted to hear more about her reinvention story. Many of them had fond and not-so-fond memories of The Little Mermaid, Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tale.
I also had mixed feelings about that fairy tale. The sad ending of the original version stayed with me, and to this day, I still feel sorry for the mute ex-mermaid who could only smile when the handsome prince married the princess. Knowing that the wedding morning would only bring heartbreak and seal her fate as “foam on the crest of waves” always saddened me.
I wanted the little mermaid to marry the prince and live happily ever after. But when the Disney version was released, I still wasn’t happy with the ending. I realize now that I wanted to read about a different kind of mermaid, one who could achieve a happy and successful life, with or without the prince. And maybe one who wasn’t quite so young or so beautiful.
Keeping this vision of an older and wiser mermaid firmly in mind, I wrote Between Land and Sea, the first book of the Mediterranean trilogy.
Isabella of the Mediterranean kingdom gives up her tail for an international banker. In a fit of rage, her grandmother chops off Isabella’s hair and ages her beyond recognition. The horrified banker abandons her on the fog-drenched shores of southwest England, leaving her to face a difficult human journey as a plain and practically destitute fifty-three-year-old woman.
With the help of a magic tablet and online mermaid support, Isabella embraces her new body and heals her bruised heart. Along the way, she encounters a cast of unforgettable characters, among them former mermaids, supportive and not-so-supportive women, deserving and undeserving men, and several New Agers.