(no subject)

I'm 25,000 words into a project I call Shameless Mermaid Romance, and figured now is probably the point at which I should talk about it, since 25,000 words in the past two weeks is better than any other book track record--this probably has something to do with the fact that I sit down and write whatever the bloody hell I feel like. Plan? What's that? I asked a couple friends-- rather, I said "lol I have no plot" and teleidoplex gave me Archetypal Romance Form 18-B (struggling non-profit version), which made me go "meh" but Crysi said "I would read that" so Archetypal Romance Form 18-B (struggling non-profit version) it is.

I am the last person you want writing a romance. The proof? The story is 20% romance, 40% mermaid biology and husbandry, 30% Florida stuff,* 5% protagonist getting in over her head and 5% non-profit/wildlife rescue.

It's set in a mermaid sanctuary behind a fish breeder/wholesaler called Oscar's Koiland (two puns for the price of one! Yeeees), where our 18-year-old protagonist works. It was originally YA but I'm sure being an 18-year-old starting college makes this book "new adult" but I'm writing it for myself so who cares! I got the idea for it while cursing the difficulty of my own aquarium and getting distracted by researching things I have no business thinking about. The thought process was best summed up by this exchange:

me: I was gonna finish a story today, and instead spent a while reading about seahorses, realized the husbandry was too much work (again) and wrote about keeping mermaids instead. Roughly 4,000 words later I have a finished short

crysiana: pfft
Best reason ever
"I was going to write about seahorses but taking care of them is too complex"
"MERMAIDS."

My brain, in short.

I started after writing "The Care and Keeping of Sirenes suvannamaccha" and realized that I needed more of this mermaid business, because a 4,000 word story that involved cute random asides about different mermaid species absolutely required more. I need to know how psychotic the loreleis really are, or how the lone rusalka keeps getting her squeaky toy stolen by the nixies.

For ex: Concupiscentiae miccosukee is the only freshwater mermaid in North America, though most people don't even know it exists. It's a burrowing species and scientists debate whether it sings at all. Instead, the freshwater species most people are familiar with is the miengu-- C. punctatus, a dwarf species from the Congo basin that rarely sings, and forms a strong bond with its keepers-- or anyone else within reach. Its gentle demeanor makes it a welcome choice for anyone with the space to keep one. Most commonly kept in captivity is Amplexi ningyo, or the teacup mermaid. Topping out at 30 inches it's a marine species that comes in multiple domestic strains for the aquarist's fancy. Teacups are especially sought after for their complex courting behaviors, which are only exhibited given a proper lunar cycle (so make sure you get those moonlights!) but will charm and delight for years with proper care.

The mermaid people really want is, of course, Sirenes andersonii, but like all of Sirenes it's sapient and doesn't belong in the home aquarium. Never mind that it's 8 feet long, 400 pounds, and as smart as your average nuclear physicist. They're largely affable and, aside from their size, easily kept-- feed them and they probably won't sing. Still, prompted by the Misty the Mermaid movies of the 1940s, everybody wants to see/know/be a mermaid of the andersonii persuasion (name subject to change as I muddle through declensions).

As you can guess I had a lot of fun coming up with Latin names for them, which run the gamut of mythological (rusalka = C. rusalky), to literary (lorelei is S. brentano), to simply Latin (A. basiatrix). Then I had to figure out what species has special needs, what can go together, and what's antagonistic to what-- e.g., nixies are mischievous but well-meaning, though put a larger predator like a lorelei into their tank and they will mob that predator like otters mobbing a crocodile. I know logically that the freshwater mermaids should be in different genuses since they're from different parts of the world, but that would be confusing! So they're separated out into Sirenes, the human-like/sapient mermaids, Amplexi the marine mermaids, and Concupiscentiae, the freshwater mermaids.

After law school, this is probably the best use for my Latin education.

There is, of course, in all this a romance and a story about the extinct Sirenes djullanar, and I have to quash my desire for politics because politics are pretty much my raison d'etre as a writer. Right behind "adorable, fluffy, and funny."

I think the most amusing thing is that from a few snippets, Crysi was able to say she liked my MC, Luz, and she sounds a bit like Morgan-- since the book is first person POV, modern world, and mostly my personal stream of consciousness, I guess I can't be too surprised. Morgan's voice is probably the easiest to slip into, out of all my protagonists. Morgan hangs out on the periphery and takes in all the details of a situation because he's always been an outsider who needs whatever edge he can carve out for himself so a half-page digression about Ikipo fashion trends and what that says about people's places on the social hierarchy make sense. Luz is just a nerd. I've been watching West Wing so "ridiculously smart person with bad social skills" is on my radar, though Luz is about science instead of social agendas.

Of course it also makes me worry that I write the same protagonist every time! Haha, right. Like a grizzled hunter is an ambitious hero is a teenage bio major is a poor hacker is a royal dressmaker is a world-weary magician. But doesn't every writer have a fear like that sometimes?

Though I think the most fun has been talking about the love interest. Boys in skirts! Yeeeees.

*WTF is Florida stuff, you ask? Florida stuff is the stuff I grew up with and love about my state that nobody ever writes about. To me, "Miami" is sprawling suburbia, cowboys, and those weird little egrets long before it's "beach." Granted I set the story in Homestead, which is more my stomping ground than Miami/Miami Beach, closer to the Everglades, an agricultural area, and close to the Keys, and a part of Florida you don't see discussed ever (did you know we have the oldest cattle history in the US? We do). Any book that allows me to discuss the differences between anhingas and cormorants is a good day (also, Firefox thinks the correction of "anhingas" is "gassing." ...Okay.) Also who knew I'd have to call on my experience kayaking a mangrove maze? For once I get to write what I know! I usually write fancy dress parties which I don't know at all, but camping in the Keys and the Everglades, that I can write.