Why Did One Fantasy Writer Make this Challenge to Readers?
Name a mermaid story where the main Mer character never walks on land.
Have you ever wondered why fantasy authors who write about mermaids, never seem to let their merpeople stay in the water?
Recently, a new fantasy writer challenged readers to comment and name the title of a mermaid story where the main Mer character doesn’t walk on land.
Mer Fans
As a fan of legends, myths, and folklore, I just love sea stories, particularly about beautiful mermaids who dwell in the ocean, and hang out around mysterious, isolated islands.
When it comes to fantasy writing about sea dwellers, lately, there is no shortage of awesome (and some not so awesome) books, movies, and films. Serious Mer fans have read or seen them all.
But you don’t have to be a diehard fan to enjoy tales about merpeople; after all, who doesn’t love a good mermaid story these days?
In truth, a whole lot of these stories contain mythical elements that are similar. That’s mostly because not every author wants to create an entirely new fantasy world.
As a result, Mer fans have a gazillion sea stories to choose from, but more often than not, the main merperson in the story will end up walking on land at some point and time.
Mer Stories
Debut fantasy author Beka R. March is seeking to identify competition for the soon to be released: Tell Us the Mermaid Story, and the pending Merquatica mermaid series.
Merquaticans are merpeople whose stories will only occur in the water. Though they interact with humans, they don’t get legs and come on land.
Not all mermaid stories are well-known, so fantasy readers are challenged to help identify any book titles they know of, with sea dwelling merfolk.
Have you enjoyed (or even not enjoyed) a book, movie, or film, about a merperson who lives in water, from the beginning, until the end of the story?
If so, you’re welcome to name the title in the comments below, or better yet, tweet your response. The actual results to this inquiry might just surprise some fantasy readers.
Existing Mer Books
Personally, I wasn’t surprised at what I discovered when I examined a mermaid booklist on Goodreads. Out of the numerous titles that I scanned the book descriptions for, none contained merpeople who actually lived in, and stayed in the water.
The list contains 100 titles of what sounds like some really interesting Mer stories and I have to admit, I didn’t read the descriptions of all of them. But I read enough to confirm my suspicions.
Only 2 of the titles seemed to suggest merpeople who resided solely in the water. They were: The Forbidden Sea (Forbidden Sea #1) by Sheila A. Nielson and Underneath — A Merfolk Tale (Under #1) by M.N. Arzu.
Unique Merpeople
I’m open to all kinds of merpeople, but I’d love to see some more unique story situations. Instead, for one reason or another, authors always write about merpeople who end up alternating between land and sea.
In many cases the mermaid or merman doesn’t even realize their origin.
Changing things up and writing a different type of mermaid folklore effectively is a challenge. The underwater scenes will need to dominate the story, in a way that the reader can actually visualize the merworld in their mind.
As a writer, I realize that it’s much easier to just have your merpeople live on land as humans, and only make cameo appearances in the water. But somehow, that seems like cheating the reader.
What Say YOU?
As a mermaid fan and also as a writer, I’d love to know what others think. Feel free to respond below and share your mer-related thoughts, or post a tweet.
Comment, whether you’re a fantasy author who wants to share what’s unique about your mermaids, or you’re a fantasy reader and you know of a unique mermaid book or movie.
[FIND OUT how to get a free Amazon gift copy of Tell Us the Mermaid Story for a limited time]
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