New Harry Potter Movie Could Mean Mermaids

In case you haven't heard, the one and only J.K. Rowling today that she will be writing the script for a screen version of her spin-off Harry Potter book "Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them".

Nothing much has been confirmed about the movie, but as a fan of the book(s), I can make an educated guess that mermaids will be featured in the film.

Rowling's mermaids are dark and scary AND I'M FREAKING OUT BECAUSE NEW HARRY POTTER STUFF!

Let's face it, this is so much better than Pottermore.

Anyway, what do you think of this tremendous news? Let us know!

-Randi

Summer Post Round Up!

So I realize that we haven't posted since the breaking Ariel news from Comic Con, so I thought I'd give you a nice post round up before I head back to another sure to be awful year of school.

1. The Savage Blue is AMAHZING. Zoraida Cordova strikes again with a sequel that almost overcomes it's predecessor in terms of action, characters, witty dialog, and a sweet romance. I love all the new characters, and our returning favorites are back and better than ever. This book will drop some bombs and make you laugh, cheer, and want to take the next train to Coney Island. Highly recommended and be sure to look for out little blurb for the Vicious Deep in the front of the book!

2. The last book in the Lost Voices trilogy, The Twice Lost, is a beautiful, if mildly disappointing end to a stellar series. I was really disappointed with the ending of the novel, but the entire rest of it is absolutely beautiful and astounding. Again, we get a new cast of characters that add their own unique flavor to the book and make it even better than the last. The action and pacing are also big pluses, and this time, a lot of the conflict takes place on land, with (SPOILER ALERT DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BOOKS) Luce's father, Dorian, and even some of the relatives and friends of the mermaids. The Twice Lost would be the greatest book in the trilogy were it not for the ending, which feels like such a let down compared to the beautiful rest of the book.

3. We hope you guys are enjoying the new Mako Mermaids series, and the latter half of season 1 will be on Netflix in September.

4. There are rumors of development on Joe Wright's long awaited mermaid film, but nothing is clear as of yet. Keep an eye on it!

Here's hoping that you all have a great rest of summer, work hard in school, and keep us updated on any news this post might have missed. Catch you around!

-Randi

Ariel WILL Be Joining Once Upon A Time For Season 3!

We can FINALLY confirm that the beloved little mermaid will be making her appearance on ABC's Once Upon A Time this upcoming season!

The character's entrance has been in development for some time. We even were lead to believe her entrance would be in season 2, however it was not so.

Here's a link to the official panel from Comic Con, where season 3 is discussed in depth. Unfortuately, Comic Con attendees weren't allowed to film any extra footage shown. While Ariel does not come into discussion much, it does give fans a good idea of what to expect for season 3.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e99KIZc5Cjs


Do you have any predictions for Ariel's character and arc for season 3 of Once Upon A Time? Leave them in the comments!



-Randi

Watch a Russian Production of the Little Mermaid On Youtube for Free!

Most of you are probably here because of Disney's red-haired iconic Ariel, but there have been dozens if not HUNDREDS of other versions of the classic Hans Christian Anderson tale. One, a Russian version (subtitled) and from around the 60's, has resurfaced on youtube.

Here's a link to part 1 of 12: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvupnpGelCE

BAM! Your boring afternoon is cured.

-Randi

Friendly Reminder That...

Zoraida Cordova's THE SAVAGE BLUE came out yesterday! The Merblog is featured in the praise section for predecessor THE VICIOUS DEEP! Also, the story is awesome anyway, so you should go read it because of that too.

-Randi

Deep Betrayal by Anne Greenwood Brown Reviewed!

Lies Beneath, the predecessor to Deep  Betrayal, was one of my more favorite mer-books from recent years. It was one of the few narrated from a male perspective, it was a darker imagining of mermaids than what most us were used to, and it had excellent characters and romance. Deep Betrayal was just as good if not better.

Oh yeah, spoilers. Don't read this if you haven't read Deep Betrayal.

I really liked the direction Anne took with Lily's dad. The book begins with Calder and Lily revealing that he is in fact a merman, which is the catalyst for most of the events in the book. It was interesting to see where that took his psyche and the effects it had on his family.
And to further that, the inevitable build up towards Lily's transformation was incredibly suspenseful and perfectly done. I couldn't stop reading.

Lily's narration is also awesome. It's different from Calder's, but ties in very well. It's like peanut butter and jelly. Props to Anne on that one. I loved all the Tennyson in here as well, it all tied in so great with the story and the tone. 

A lot of romances don't seem to click with me, but Calder and Lily are excellent together and you can really feel that when reading the book. It doesn't feel forced, cheesy, or unnecessary at all.

You definitely need to read Lies Beneath first, just to understand what's up, but this book definitely has it's own merits. It's different enough from the first to keep it interesting, but consistent enough from the tone of the first novel.

Easily one of the best mermaid oriented books on the market right now. The characters and places were all I could think about for days afterwards. Read this book.

Review for The Scales of Six by Rosean Mile

Sorry this took so long, like got in the way. But I hope this review finds all of you wonderful followers either on Spring Break like me and enjoying it, or just enjoying your life in general.

Anyway, The Scales of Six is an unsettling little book that spans the spectrum of human emotion in all the best ways.

There are Hitchcock-like moments of suspense and horror, a little bit of romance, and some excellent courtroom drama. I really liked the mix of genres and how the novel doesn't try to pigeonhole itself into one little niche.

The characters were all wonderful. Kathy, the main subject of the novels events, is memorable even when her character is rendered mute. Gail and Frances are both wonderful, spunky, and excellent narrators, both different enough to differentiate who's narrating, but enough to keep a good consistent tone for the novel. All the side characters also had excellent characterization for their short time in the novel. These characters feel like people we'd know in real life, and in this case, that's not a bad thing.

I also really enjoyed all the hopping around to different places. It made the book really easy to escape into. The sequences in Jakarta and Sumatra were a lovely stark contrast to the urban places like New York, or the small town in Maine. You get a little bit of everything here.

As an older young adult and a reader who doesn't usually read horror, I can say that I really enjoyed the book and that a lot of you here on the blog will probably like it. The horror elements of the novel are more of the give-you-goosebumps sort than gore. A lot of the horror elements could even be put into the hard-core sci-fi category really.

I tore through this book in a day and really enjoyed it. It's like nothing I've ever read before, and it would adapt very well to cinema. It's got something for everyone. Highly recommended.

The Scales of Six is available on Kindle and paperback on Amazon.com

-Randi

Interview with Rosean Mile, Author of The Scales of Six

Hi everyone! So I just recently finished Ms. Mile's excellent debut, The Scales of Six, and liked it a lot. So I got in touch with Rosean and thus here is an interview with her about her book! The review for the book itself will be up in the coming days.




1. Your book, “The Scales of Six,” is definitely not the typical mermaid book because A) it's not young adult, B) it's got a lot of horror and more hardcore sci-fi elements and C) it's a courtroom drama on top of all that! How did you get the idea to write such a genre mash-up?

Actually, I never intended for “The Scales of Six” to be a genre-specific novel. I just let the ideas flow and went for it!

2. Your mermaid mythology is more horrifying than fluffy, as seen in a lot of the books we review here. What motivated you to take it in that direction?

The idea of writing a horror story about a mermaid was ignited by a series of unexpected things that happened in my life that were beyond my control. I literally felt underwater. I wanted to explore in my characters different approaches to dealing with a challenging situation. On some level, perhaps the mermaid approach I took is symbolic of adaptation, determination and self-will.

3. Were there any movies or books that helped you find ideas and write?

Definitely. First off, Simon Winchester’s “Krakatoa” informed my writing about that incredible volcanic explosion, and Redmond O’Hanlon’s “Into the Heart of Borneo” inspired my writing about the Sumatran jungle. O’Hanlon’s is a firsthand account of his experience in the untouched Borneo jungle (a wild and at times hilarious read!). I also perused Alfred Russel Wallace’s books on evolution (“Infinite Tropics” and “The Malay Archipelago”). Another great treasure was finding the 1914 book “Java and Her Neighbors” by Arthur S. Walcott and a letter from “Hooker’s Journal of Botany,” written in 1855. Both provide rich accounts of unspoiled Sumatra, and they really got me loving the whole historical angle. The Peabody Museum provides great stuff about the late 18th-century pepper trade between Salem, Mass., and Sumatra, Indonesia. For a glimpse at the inner workings of the cosmetics industry, I attempted “Beauty Imagined” by Geoffrey Jones and “A Year Inside the Perfume Industry” by Chandler Burr. The seeds-in-the-trunk idea came from a couple of different news stories. One was about an old chest found at an Arlington, Va., antiques store that had some of Wallace’s original specimens in it (!). The other was about the finding of 200-year-old seeds in England that were successfully germinated. There was also a fantastic discovery, reported in The Washington Post, of 2,000-year-old (!) herbal medicines in a shipwreck off the coast of Tuscany. I surfed around for news and research articles on other topics, including some criminal cases in Maine, and found a couple academic papers about development in Sumatra, and one about Dukons in Sumatra.

I can’t think of any particular movies that influenced my ideas, but I’m sure films provided lots of visual and emotional cues that informed me indirectly.

4. What music did you listen to while writing?

I write to the sounds of my fingers clicking on the keyboard!

5. “The Scales of Six” takes place in a LOT of locations, some exotic, some urban. Have you been to all the places in the book?

Yes, I’ve been to all except Rakata and the fictitious Sumatran jungle (sadly, Sumatra’s jungles are being deforested at a prodigious rate). The University of Jakarta isn’t real either, but it’s based on an actual university in Jakarta.

6. Mermaids have been growing steadily in popularity over the past few years. What is your opinion on this trend?

I think it’s a long time coming, and I’d love to see more books explore the genre outside its norm.

7. What do you hope readers will take away from “The Scales of Six?”

I hope the book proves to be one that folks can escape into and will approach as though they’re riding a roller coaster, knowing that at times it will be unsettling but also entertaining. And, hey, my characters go through some scary stuff, but they tough it out.



And now for some fun stuff.
1. What was the last movie you watched?

“Safe Haven” (good date movie)

2. What did you eat while writing your book?

Warmed leftovers. Occasionally chocolate chip cookies with milk or Nutella on crackers. 

3. Who are some of your favorite authors and books, mermaid or not?

Hmm, there are so many great ones, and you’re reminding me I need to populate my GR shelves. In the horror genre, Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” and Anne Rice’s “Interview with the Vampire” are my all-time favorites for their originality. On the subject of people toughing things out (and that’s putting it mildly), current faves are “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand and “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls. For humorous and entertaining reads, I enjoy Carl Hiaasen, Tom Wolfe and John Irving. Ken Follett is terrific for historical fiction. In current popular fiction, “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn is fabulous. With the ebook market bringing independent and self-published books to us, there are lots of opportunities for finding new and exciting reads. The trick is knowing how to discover them. It seems Goodreads is a great start.

4. Anything you just wanna say?

Make no mistake, “The Scales of Six” by Rosean Mile is not a traditional mermaid story, nor is it specifically a mermaid novel, and it isn’t a YA read (but I believe some older YAs will like it). It combines horror, suspense (including courtroom drama), sci-fi and romance. If you’re looking for a new twist to the mermaid theme or are in the mood to get lost in something different, try this one for scale. Thanks for reading!

Thanks so much to Rosean for the interview and her lovely book, and thanks to you for reading :) Like I said, review will be up in the coming days.

-Randi

In Which Randi Reviews Tempest Unleashed

I know it's been a while since there has been any actual book reviewing going on here at le blog, so I'm here to finally put the book back in merbooks blog.


I just finished Tempest Unleashed by Tracy Deebs. This is the sequel to Tempest Rising as you probably already know.
I wasn't the biggest fan of Rising, although I liked it pretty well. I thought it was too focused on romance and didn't spend enough time in the ocean to be considered urban fantasy.
Tempest Unleashed certainly surpasses it's prequel in terms of general awesome.


I really enjoyed the character development, and again, the best thing about these books is Tempest's surprising humanity. Usually when a character kills a something, be it bad or good,  they don't think about it too much, which is illogical especially in teens. But Tempest's compassion for others and human vulnerabilities are amazing in such an un-human world. But here we see Tempest less selfish and bratty, and more willing to take on the roles required of her if she is to be queen. It's fantastic.

I also ended up liking Mark a lot more than I ever did in Tempest Rising. Again, Deeb's excellent character development kicks in and we finally understand any sort of initial fascination these two had for each other.

On the other hand, Kona is less of a favorite after this book. He becomes clingy and aggressive, not without ground to do so, but still, it's annoying.

The story is wonderful, exciting, and keeps moving after the slow start in Tempest. It's very fast and makes the four hundred ish pages go by really fast. The new characters introduced or further worked upon are interesting.

There's a very grand sweeping scale of an epic fantasy, and it's beautifully written. This is a story that I have loved getting lost in.

-Randi

We're On (The Back) Of A Book!!!!

Hey y'all! Long time, I know, things are busy.
But guess what? The lovely and talented Zoraida Cordova has just told us that there will be a blurb from the MerBooks blog on the back of the forthcoming sequel the The Vicious Deep, which is called The Savage Blue. No word yet on what blurb it'll be, or which review they'll use (Garrett and I both wrote one for the blog), but that's still REALLY EXCITING!
So keep your eyes peeled, because there will be much fangirling.

Review and Interview

Just popping in to let all you mer-fans know about a couple of recent happenings over at The Parsons' Rant:

1. There is a two-part interview with Robert W. Cabell - author of All The Mermaids In The Sea and A Mermaid Christmas. Both of these books were part of our Christmas Give-away. The first part of the interview is at howardparsons.info/interview-robert-w-cabell-part-i and the second part of the interview is at howardparsons.info/interview-robert-w-cabell-part-ii.
2. There is a review of the second installment of Adrianna Stepiano's Memoir of a Mermaid series - When, At Last, She Could See. Go read it at howardparsons.info/review-when-at-last-she-could-see.

Finally, we still have a number of books remaining from the Christmas Give-Away. These books are looking for good homes and are absolutely free - including shipping. Swim on over to the Merry Mermaid Christmas Clearance Centre to claim a copy as your very own.

Revised Mermaid Playlist!

Sidenote: HAPPY NEW YEAR! May your 2013 go swimmingly :)

Anyway, a while back here on our illustrious blog, Garrett and I both posted a playlist we had worked on featuring songs that we had used to help with writing our mer-novels. Well, it's been a good year and a half, if not two so I'll post a couple songs released in that time that have helped me tremendously.

1. Never Let Me Go by Florence + The Machine. I even posted here on the blog when the video came out. Seriously, there is nothing more evocative of the sea than this Florence song in particular, even though all of them have a sort of ocean tinged feel. The percussion sounds like the tides rushing in and out, and the lyrics are sort of a romanticized overwhelming experience that no other artist has replicated for us.

2. Year of the Tiger by St. Vincent. St. Vincent, a.k.a. Annie Clark, has been doing cool music for quite a while now. While this one is not explicitly related to an oceanic quality, it has this really weird floating feel to it that helped me out when writing my current mer-novel. There's a really magic quality to Annie's voice, so a lot of her songs could be considered helpful in this area. Another good one for your writing is Dilettante, both of which are featured on St. Vincent's third album, Strange Mercy. For even further listening, try Rosalyn, which was a team up between Annie and Bon Iver.

3. SHERlocked by David Arnold and Michael Price, from the Sherlock Series 2 Soundtrack. Admittedly, I'm a very big fan of pretty much most British TV. Doctor Who, Downton Abbey, The Hour, Wallander, you name it, I probably watch it. Anyway, Sherlock is a stand-out modern adaptation of, surprise, Arthur Conan Doyle's classic detective stories. Anyway, this theme from the soundtrack is for "A Scandal in Belgravia", which is based on the original "Scandal in Bohemia". The theme is used for dominatrix Irene Adler, professionally known as "The Woman". It's very moving and romantic. It's very mournful and has that sea-like quality to it. I also like writing to soundtrack because I'll get less distracted with singing along. So two  birds with one stone here.

4. Supernaturally by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Chance are that you have probably not heard of this super awesome rock/soul/punkish/goth band. That can be fixed. If you have heard of them, than you probably did so when their song "O Children" was featured in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, as the song Harry and Hermione dance to in the film. Supernaturally is a rocking, poetic, dark, and beguiling tune that is anthem-esque, loud, brash, and utterly perfect for a story with any sort of supernatural resonance. Especially good for chase scenes.

5. Lover of the Light by Mumford and Sons. This song finally found a home on the band's sophomore effort, Babel, after often being performed live. It's a beautiful song, with lots of catharsis and build up, tension and release. I used this song to write a very big even in one of my novels and it's one of my favorite chunks of writing I have written thus far.  Seriously, not to be missed. Also, this whole album is what  got me through this first semester of freshman year. Their cover of Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer" is another good writing tune.

6.Skyfall by Adele. I know, I know, we'll not discuss my love for British secret agents (and their sometimes ridiculously cute quartermasters) here, but this song is great for writing. Very mysterious, and very fun to listen to. Also, if like me you enjoy writing noir secret agent mermaid stories, this is right up your alley. AND on top of that, go see Skyfall if you haven't, it lives up to the hype.

Well, that's it so far. I'm sure we'll update it again  next year around this time. Music is such a big part of writing for me, and I hope this helps out a couple of you. I'd love to see other suggestions in the comments!

-Randi