by Various Authors
Release Date: September 21st 2015
Summary from Goodreads:
Our collection includes fourteen unique mermaid tales with over 900 pages of enchanting stories from award-winning and best-selling authors!
From mermaids to sirens, Miami to Athens, dark paranormal romance to contemporary stories with steam, the fourteen award-winning and best-selling authors of the FALLING IN DEEP COLLECTION are bringing you mermaid tales like you've never seen before. Are you ready to fall in deep?
Scales by Pauline Creeden
Ink: A Mermaid Romance by Melanie Karsak
Of Ocean and Ash by A. R. Draeger
Deep Breath by J. M. Miller
At the Heart of the Deep by Carrie Wells
The Mermaid's Den by Ella Malone
The Water is Sweeter by Eli Constant
The Glass Mermaid by Poppy Lawless
An Officer & a Mermaid by Blaire Edens
How to be a Mermaid by Erin HayesCold Water Bridegroom by B. Brumley
Immersed by Katie Hayoz
Siren's Kiss by Margo Bond Collins
To Each His Own by Anna Albergucci
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**The Falling in Deep Collection is on sale for $0.99 through September 28th!**
The Authors
The Water is Sweeter
Interview with Author
Eli Constant
What is your favorite mermaid story or myth?
It’s funny; I mean, I
grew up with the traditional Hans Christian Anderson version of the Little
Mermaid and it always made me sad. Each sister before the littlest mermaid
waited patiently until she was old enough to experience the world above the
water. They each came back with beautiful stories, but they always came back.
They returned to their home after witnessing wonderful things. The littlest
mermaid was impatient, as we all are- wanting to grow up and then once we have
grown up, wanting to return to the novelty of youth- and when her time comes,
she’s built this amazing vision in her head of what the dry world is like.
And then she saves a prince. And she is willing to give up everything to be with him, because if he loves her enough, more than anything else in the world, she gains a soul. So she abandons her mermaid’s tail and her long life span, even though she is warned that it will bring her nothing but sadness.
But I always thought that the sea was the little mermaid’s soul. And she gave that up, devoted every ounce of her being to winning the Prince’s hand, who would never love her.
And then she’s faced
with killing her Prince or dying.
She chooses death, but
finds life again in the sky.
How f***ing depressing is that?
So, I hate the traditional Little Mermaid. But, wait, I was supposed to say what was my favorite mermaid story or myth?
Well, I sort of liked
J.K. Rowling’s interpretation of mermaids… Yeah, they were cool. Of course, I
did ascribe to the happier version of a mermaid in The Water is Sweeter to
balance out Lena’s suicidal mindset.
What was the inspiration for your mermaid novella?
Freedom.
I’ve been a certified
diver since the age of 14 (thanks, Dad!) and I always found that being in the
water diving helped me separate myself from things that were going wrong in my
life. I took that concept and I expanded on it, which makes The Water is
Sweeter a deeply personal piece. At its core, it’s about an orphaned woman who
realizes her fiancé is abusive, but she desperately clings to the idea of
family. When she tries to kill herself, she finds that she’s plunged into an
alter-reality beneath the waves.
Cast your characters. If your novella was made into a movie, who
would play your main characters?An actress playing Lena would 1) have to look great with maroon hair and 2) be adept at playing ‘beautifully broken’. I think my top pick would be Rose Leslie. She has a fierce strength, but is wonderful at deep emotion. For Truman, I’d want someone who could play the pretentious, entitled asshole, but also being devilishly sexy. Maybe Tom Hiddleston. For Vera, I’d definitely want Alfre Woodard; she’s amazing.
What was most challenging thing writing about mermaids?
I wanted the details to
feel real, to force my readers to plunge into the water and experience what
Lena was experiencing. I didn’t want to be too over-the-top with shimmering
green tails and other Disney-esque details. I wanted balance. That was
difficult as I’ve been so inundated with the happier version of mermaids. The
hardest thing though was getting into the mind of a woman who truly feels that
suicide might be preferable to living. It’s a dark place. I’ve been there and
it jolts the psyche.
Ursula or Ariel?
Ursula, hands down. I
loved the most recent season of Once Upon a Time. Villains need to win every
now and then. And Ursula was so wonderfully conniving in the Disney movie (she
was less so in the original HCA story, actually warning the littlest mermaid of
what trading in her tail would bring).
What else should we know about your novella?
It has a lot of ugliness
in it- flashbacks to an abusive foster home, the reality of
psychological/verbal abuse in a relationship. If you’re going to read it, be
ready to read all of it, not just the happy bits under the sea.
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