Giant Oarfish, Pig Butt Worms, and Other Freaky Creatures From the Deep

Every mermaid should know about these deep-sea creatures.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/10/strange-deep-sea-creatures/

16th century mermaid

From an article on sea monsters from Wired.

This woodcut from 1562 shows that mermaids were already associated with a comb or brush and mirror. They either lured sailors to their doom or foretold it. They are probably depicted as oversize here in order to show the details. Notice the snake-like fishtails. No knees here.

There is a sea chanty (actually a sea ballad) about the crew of a ship preparing for death after sighting a mermaid. The Hard Tackers perform a version of it here.

Mermaid Controversy Makes Splash At FishHawk Pools

I woman has been banned from wearing her mermaid tail in a community pool.
http://bloomingdale.patch.com/groups/around-town/p/mermaid-controversy-makes-splash-at-fishhawk-pools?icid=maing-grid7|htmlws-main-bb|dl2|sec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D346238

Review - The Mermaid's Knight

This book begins in the modern-day world where Leah Sunderland has just been killed in a traffic accident. Fortunately for her, she has a fairy godmother. Unfortunately, the godmother is hung up on fairy tales. She offers Leah two choices - ascend to Heaven or gain a second chance through a fairy tale. Leah takes the second chance and allows her fairy godmother to choose the fairy tale.

The next thing Leah knows, she is the Little Mermaid in medieval England. This is not the Disney version, either. The original by Hans Christian Anderson had a harder edge.

Leah has a month to get a specific nobleman to love her. If she fails then she dies for good. And she has some handicaps. She cannot speak of course. Worse, her legs are weak and become painful the longer she is away from water. She is also naked but that never hurts when trying to seduce a nobleman.

Love is never easy and Leah hits numerous obstacles along the way.

This is a light romance, suitable for young adults. It does have some explicit love scenes.

There is not a lot here for mermaid-lovers. Leah constantly slips away for a nightly swim but that seldom rates more than a sentence and there are no other mermaids in the book. Still, the ebook is cheap and it is an enjoyable read.

The Physiology of Mermaids

What should a mermaid look like? The image I grew up with was human from the waist up with a flexible fishtail covered in green scales from the waist down. I mainly saw this in comic books such as Superman's college girlfriend Lora Lemaris. Disney's Little Mermaid also used this model.

There are a lot of questions here. I'm not sure when green scales became the standard. Fish come in all colors but silver seems to be most common. I suspect that a comic book colorist decided that green looked good and used it. That happened with the Hulk - he stared out gray but marvel's cheap printing process had problems with that color so he was switched to green in the second issue.

The underlying structure of the tail is a question. It is usually shown with a horizontal fluke. That implies that under the scales the mermaid is closer to a dolphin or seal than a fish. It also has a bearing on how the mermaid swims. A horizontal fluke means an up and down motion. A vertical fluke means a back and forth one.

Live action mermaids have to make allowances for the human legs inside the tail. This can be minimized by extending the length of the tail. Splash, H2O: Just Add Water, and Pirates of the Caribbean 4 all did this.

In contrast, many modern paintings of mermaids show the tail bending where the knees would be. Some modern paintings also show well-developed buttocks which only make sense if there are fused legs inside the tail.

Most fish have additional fins. Should mermaids? Should their upper half be totally human or should they have some fish characteristics like fins on the spine or arms? How is this reconciled with a horizontal fluke?

Should their eyes look human or should they be enlarged in order to see in the murky depths?

I've asked before but how do they breath? Gills are the used most often. Would a mermaid have gills in her neck or chest?

Review - Boundless Sea

Boundless Sea is the third of the four-book Sacred Breath series by Nadia Scrieva.

The Sacred Breath books deal with a race of sea-breathing humans. Unlike traditional mermaids, they have legs. The also have an extra set of lungs, increased endurance, and a resistance to cold. They have extraordinary long lives as long as they stay underwater but they age normally in the air.

This series has been growing increasingly darker and darker. The first book was fairly light. A few characters died along the way but we barely knew them. The second book was much darker with a major character being killed and sent back in pieces. Much of the book involved the capture and torture of Visola by her estranged husband. By the end of the book, the two are reconciled but Queen Aazuria has been kidnapped.

While the first two books were a continuous narrative, there is a gap of several months between those and the third book. In the interim, the undersea kingdom of Adlivun has revealed itself to the outside world.

Most of the book deals with the fallout of this revelation and the abduction and likely death of Aazuria.

As with the other books, the characters are well-defined and there are no gaping holes in the plot. At the same time, watching the main characters falling apart because of Aazuria's disappearance is not pleasant nor are the details of Aazuria's imprisonment. This book does not take any shortcuts or easy outs.

I'm not sure how this series is marketed but it is definitely not a teen romance series.

Hopefully things will come to a happier resolution by the end of the fourth book.

H2O - Just Add Water Season 3 - story arcs

Warning, everything here is a spoiler.

The third season of H2O - Just Add Water was very different from the first two in many ways. The obvious one is that there were major changes in the cast. There were also major changes in the way the show was written.

The first season presented the girls as women with super powers who also happened to change into mermaids when wet. They used their powers regularly, often in trivial ways. In several episodes they were not even shown as mermaids. The second season split between the two. They still used their powers but they were shown as mermaids in every episode.

The third season was the opposite of the first season. Every episode had the girls as mermaids but they only used their powers occasionally.

Continuity was handled differently. In the first season there was a lot of background continuity. This involved things that were easily picked up by the audience like Zane seeing a mermaid tail. Except for the season finale, major plots were not carried over from one episode to the next. The second season had some story arcs that spanned multiple episodes but there were still many stand-alone episodes.

By the third season, continued story arcs were the rule rather than the exception. The season almost feels like chapters in a novel where the first season was a series of stories about a set of characters. The episodes are also much more serious. There is only one out and out comedy episode involving a floating bubble of water with a fish in it. Strangely this was shown out of sequence and continuity is so tight that this is painfully obvious.

There were two major story arcs. The first was about a tendril of water that formed in the moon pool during the full moon. It is featured in all five full moon episodes and is part of the A or B plot in most other episodes.

The second story arc is the romance between the new mermaid Bella and Will, a free diver (someone who competes to see how deep he can dive). It takes the entire season before they actually get together and the romance is handled very realistically. Bella was interested in Will from the beginning but it took him a while to reciprocate. After learning that she was a mermaid he became so excited with that side of her that she broke off the relationship for a while. There was also some question about which mermaid Will was interested in after Rikki saved his life. This was a great contrast to Emma's "I hate you, let's date" relationship in the second season.

Rikki and Zane's relationship evolved and eventually fell apart. Zane reopened the juice bar, naming it after Rikki and having her managing it. It was obvious that she did all the work while he played. As always, Zane managed to screw up their relationship then tried to fix things after they broke up.

Apparently Zane really needed Rikki's management. After she left he was regularly shown actually working at his desk instead of playing. Even with that, the bar was on the verge of closing within a few weeks of Rikki's departure.

Rikki as a character grew the most during the show's run. By the third season, she was the most mature character in the cast (although she still blew off studying and was skeptical of science). All of this was consistent with her character.

After being the center of the second season, Cleo got little attention in the third season. She still fought with her sister. Her divorsed father met someone new and got married. Lewis left for America and Cleo took over his role as chief scientist for the group.

All told, the season was better-written and more realistic that the first two. There were few cringe-worthy moments or relationships played just for laughs.

H2O - Just Add Water, Season 3 - changes

Originally H2O - Just Add Water was planned as a two-season show but it was popular enough that a third season was added. The third season was different in several ways from the first two. A large part of the cast changed, relationships were redefined, and the general tone of the series was more serious.

The biggest change was the departure of Emma and the introduction of Bella. I didn't actually miss Emma a bit. Where Emma tended to be a one-dimensional obsessive/compulsive, Bella came across as a real person.

The way the other two accepted Bella was handled well and fit prior characterization. Cleo's reaction was, "Another mermaid - let's be friends." Rikki, who was a;ways slow to make friends, was much more reserved. The two were initially suspicious of each other which changed after Rikki's predictions about Nate came true.

After that, Rikki and Bella bonded quickly. Riki needed a new swimming buddy. In the first two seasons Rikki and Emma spent more time swimming with each other than either spent with Cleo. With Emma gone, Rikki had someone new to swim with although Bella was playful where Emma was competitive. Also, both of them were only-children who had moved a lot so they had more in common with each other than with Cleo (more on this later). Rikki seemed like Bella's older sister.

Even through the three were supposed to be the same age, Rikki matured the most. She was still Rikki - she didn't study, was skeptical about science, and rude to Lewis. But in the opening episode, Zane announced that he was reopening the juice bar based on an idea that Rikki had and that she would be managing it. She actually did a good job of it.

This was not a total surprise. In the first season she worked at the juice bar for a short time and did so well that she was almost promoted to assistant manager (she purposely lost the job so that she would not replace Emma). She also showed hidden maturity in the first season in her reaction to Zane's father wanting to develop Mako Island.

On the other hand, Zane showed that he had not matured at all. For most of the season he let Rikki do the work while he played. He also cheated. The relationship was on a downward spiral most of the season until the inevitable breakup (although the show ended with Zane trying to win Rikki back again).

In the first two seasons a major focus of the show had been on family. Cleo and Emma had full families. Zane's father was in several first season episodes. Rikki's father appeared in a couple second season episodes as did Charlotte's mother.

In the third season, Cleo's family was still around (minus her mother who disappeared between the first and second seasons). She even got a nice step-mother. We never heard a word about Rikki's father (maybe he moved on and she was living by herself). We heard about Bella's parents but never saw them.

Then there was Will, Bella's love interest. His parents let him live by himself in an old boathouse. We never saw them but his older sister, Sophie, is a regular.

Sophie is what I expected 2nd season's Charlotte to be - drop-dead gorgeous, self-centered, amoral, and manipulative. She didn't approve of her brother dating Bella and went to lengths to stop it.

Without Emma, all references to the 1950s mermaids were dropped and eventually the girls got new necklaces.

The final change is that the actor who played Lewis left the series half-way through and was reduced to minor supporting character in half of the episodes he did appear in.

Next post I will discuss the story arcs.

Review - Fathoms of Forgiveness

Fathoms of Forgiveness by Nadia Scrieva is the second of the four-book Sacred Breath series. It is the sequel to Drowning Mermaids.

The people in this series are not traditional mermaids - they look human and are genetically close enough to interbreed with normal humans. The main difference is that they have an extra set of lungs that can extract air from water. The Title of the first book refers to their traditional means of execution - stabbing through the lungs. The only way a mermaid can drown is through internal hemorrhaging.

The first book was fairly light. The second one is much, much darker. It picks up right where the first one ended but the focus changes. The first book had a lot of talking and romance. The second picks up in the middle of a war. Much of the book focuses on Visola, the red-haired warrior and her relationship with her estranged husband. Unfortunately, with these two warriors, a reunion means multiple deaths, broken limbs, and attempted suicide.

As with the first, the book is well-written with strong characterization. The undersea culture is well thought out and seems possible.

I would not recommend this for teens. Parts of it are disturbing.

Frankenstein and the Mermaid

http://www.retronaut.com/2012/12/frankenstein-and-the-mermaid/frank/

“”Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid” was shooting near a set where “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” was filming. Tourists were shocked to see Glenn Strange’s Frankenstein Monster having lunch with Ann Blyth in her fishtail costume. Both Strange and Lon Chaney in his Wolfman make-up were invited to the Mr. Peabody wrap party, where they hammed it up in make-up.”
- IMDb

Glaucus

Usually mer-folk are born that way or at least have an undersea ancestor. Glaucus is an exception. He began as a normal human although he was unusually skilled at building boats. He built the Argo which Jason used on his quest for the golden fleece.

One day he noticed that the fish he caught were reviving and escaping back into the water. It turned out that he had dumped his catch on a strange herb and it was responsible.

Glaucus tried the herb and felt a compulsion to dive into the water where he changed into a merman with green hair. He learned prophesy and became known for helping sailors in distress.

A different version has Glaucus plunging into the ocean during the fight between Jason against the Tyrrhenians. Glaucus sunk to the bottom of the sea and was transformed.

Review: Drowning Mermaids

Drowning Mermaids (Sacred Breath, Book 1) by Nadia Scrieva

This is not your typical mermaid novel. For one thing, the mermaids have legs instead of fishtails. Als, it is written for a more mature audience - not that it contains adult subject matter, it just has content that will interest adults.

The aging captain of a fishing boat takes his crew to a stipper bar to unwind after losing a crew member. There he becomes entranced with a young stripper and invites her to be his house guest along with her two sisters.

Actually, she is over six hundred years old and ruler of an undersea kingdom. Even her youngest sister is 90 but looks 10. They are on the surface to raise money in order to buy weapons to defend their kingdom from aggressors.

This is a very well-written book. All of the plot twists were thought out in advance. The characters are well-developed and each has a distinctive way of speaking.

This book avoids one of the big traps of mermaid books - the undersea world is fully integrated with the modern world. Too often the undersea parts seem dreamy and indistinct compared with the modern world but not here.

Also, the writing itself is compelling enough to keep up interest even though very little actually happens in the first half.

One warning - while this is novel-length, it breaks off abruptly and is continued in the next novel. The first one is free (as an e-book) just to get you hooked. I've already bought the sequel.

Mermaid Technology

Mermaids are usually depicted as naked. If they carry anything, it is a comb and mirror. This shows just how alien life in the sea would be from life on land.

The basic building blocks of technology were fire, rocks, and wood. There is evidence that cooking food predates modern humans and that the extra calories gained from cooking food allowed us to develop our larger brains.

But there is no fire underwater.

Tool-making also predates humanity. These were a combination of stone and wood. Knives and scrapers were made from hard, brittle stone like flint but spears began as pointed wood with stone heads being added later. Flint is hard to come by on land or sea but the initial impulse to pick up a stone and use it is not as obvious when stones are as close as your feet. And wood just doesn't grow underwater.

The main tools that mer-folk would have to work with are shells and coral. Coral is soft enough that it could be worked with shells although there are limits on what can be made. Traditionally mer-folk have made things like necklaces and bras from sea shells but that would require drilling holes in the shells. How would this be done?

Clothing is its own issue. The first clothing was made from animal skins that had been dried and later tanned. It was worn to protect humans from the weather.

While you can make leather from many sea creatures, it cannot be done underwater. Also there is little point. Sea people would not need protection from the sun or rain and leather will not keep you warm in the water. Also, wearing clothes does not affect travel appreciably in the air but can slow you down underwater.

All of this is an intellectual exercise. Novelists depicting mermaid civilizations have to account for these things or their civilizations will feel off. If the mer-people live in set villages then the novelist has to explain why. What is the benefit of this way versus living in a constantly-moving school like dolphins? If they make things then the novelist has to know how and why.

This is a problem in some of the mermaid novels I have read. The set-up is detailed, down-to-earth. Then the lead character travels to a mermaid settlement and the tone becomes dreamy. The change can be jarring.

Granted, it is much easier to describe existing civilization than to make one up from scratch and still seem authentic. Thinking through these questions would help. How did the mermaid civilization develop and why don't they live like dolphins? If you can sell this to yourself then you can sell it to the world.

Control Your Own Mermaid

Do you want a virtual mermaid that you can control? You can have one through Second Life and it's free.

Second Life has been around for years. It is sort of a cross between a multi-person video game and a chat room. It takes place in a virtual world made up of islands. Like real life, some of these islands are public and some are private. When you join you select an avatar (which is supposed to represent you) from a series of pre-packaged ones. You can get new clothing for your avatar or even replace it completely. After that you can wander around or teleport to specific landmarks.

To create an account in Second Life go to their web site and sign up. This will give you a link for the Second Life Viewer. Everything you do in Second Life is through this. You can walk around with your avatar or interact with special animations for things like dancing.

The first thing that you need to do to make a mermaid is to modify your avatar. Start at Freebie Island. This is full of signs showing clothes and body parts. The default avatars have permanent underwear which conflicts with the mermaid look so you will need a replacement skin. Be sure that you get the full thing and not just a demo. You have to look around and you might need to change your preferences to include "adult". You can also look around for some new hair and eyes.

Now, use your web browser to go to the Second Life Marketplace and search on "mermaid tail". You will find an overwhelming number of hits, many of them free. I'm using the term "mermaid" but there are male version also. Some of them are pretty fierce.

A note on money. Purchases are made in "Lindon Dollars". Free members have to buy these but they are pennies on the dollar. Premium members get L$300 each Tuesday which is enough for almost any tail.

Mermaids are handled three different ways in Second Life. The most common is to include an Animation Override (AO) that keeps the legs together so that they resemble a tail. The fluke is attached to one foot. There may be additional fins. Most of the mermaids done this way have a light, airy look. They can also take up a lot of room with all of these fins floating around.

The second way of handling a mermaid is to make the legs invisible using something called an "alpha channel" and to attach a tail at the waist. This can be very convincing but many of the animations looks a little strange unless they were specifically designed for mermaids. Also, sometimes your tail gets on crooked. When this happens you can fix it by removing it and putting it back on. In between you are floating since your legs are invisible. Also, if you are wearing anything like anklets, they will seem to be floating below you.

I haven't tried the third way yet. It involves removing one leg and reshaping the other into a tail. This is, of course, painless. That would resolve the problem of animations since you still have a leg and it should look better than trying to fuse two legs together.

Once you have your mermaid, what do you do with her?

If you search for locations with the term "mermaid" you will find several. These are mainly bars where you can hang out and stores where you can buy more mermaid-related things.

If you really want to get into Second Life then you can buy property and start decorating it. There are numerous mermaid beds available. You can also get poses, animations, and props such as seaweed.

All of this is great but the truth is that Second Life peaked some time ago. Most of the areas I have been through have been empty or nearly empty. The Trident Bar has a nice mermaid dance floor with enough animations for multiple mermaids to be dancing at once but out of several visits I've only found one other mermaid present. The dance with only two mermaids is impressive. It must be spectacular with all of the animations in use.

Another issue with Second Life is that a good bit of its content is adult oriented. Some of the mermaid beds include animations for mermaid sex. Many areas are devoted to casual or kinky sex and some to violent sex. I would strongly recommend that anyone below 18 stay well away from Second Life. It is also easy to underestimate the strength of on-line relationships so even adults need to be careful.

Melusine

Currently it is pretty common to depict mermaids as being able to grow legs when needed. As far as I know, that mainly dates from Splash. Before that, mermaids did not change form.

But, if you go back far enough, you find some exceptions. One is Melusine. I first ran across this term in an article about Starbuck's logo which is a topless, two-tailed mermaid. The article claimed that this creature is called a melusine.

It turns out that when you look it up, Melusine refers to a specific character in a number of medieval myths. She appeared to be a normal human most of the time but changed into a mermaid (or a half-serpent) on Saturdays. She married a noble (possibly a king) on condition that he not disturb her on Saturdays. Of course, he does eventually and she left him (possibly turning into a dragon on her way out).

Wikipedia concludes by saying that Melusine is a holdover water sprite from pre-Christian legends.

Mermaid Divers

Here is a video of a scuba diver in a mermaid diving suit. This is the next step up from swimable tails. You can order them from Otter Bay.

Here is a similar video.

H2O: second season

There are a lot of similarities between the first and second seasons of H2O: Just Add Water.

They both have five full moons with a full moon that gave powers in the first episode and one that removed them in the last episode.

They both have multiple references to the 1950s mermaids and how they resembled their modern counterparts.

There was a major change in emphasis. In the first season, the girls were portrayed as people with super powers who also turned into mermaids. They used their powers in every episode but were not always seen with their mermaid tails. In the second season this was reversed. Every episode had them as mermaids but they used their powers a lot less. They also spent a lot more time in the Moon Pool and less time at the juice bar. Maybe they were saving their special effects budget for the final episode. It was quite spectacular and probably had as much CGI as the rest of the season put together.

In the first episode the girls were moonstruck and went to the Moon Pool where their powers were enhanced. Their powers were out of control until the end of the second episode. This was a bit of a red herring (so to speak). They barely used their enhanced powers.

The main plot arc involved someone who became romantically involved with a regular and who found out about the mermaids. In the first season it was Zane and his romance with Rikki. In the second season it was Charlotte and her relationship with Lewis. In both seasons the romance threatened to break up the close-knit group. The others wondered if they could still trust the one in the relationship. Also, our view of the outsider changed radically in the last few episodes. In Zane's case, we found that he could be trusted to do the right thing. In Charlotte's case, we found out that she was not as nice as she originally seemed.

The handling of Charlotte's character was handled well and is an example of how the writing for the show is better than most shows aimed at a teen-age audience.

I had read the Wikipedia entry on the show before watching it so I knew who Charlotte was before we met her. My first impression was, "But she's nice!"

This was actually a relief. It would have been annoying seeing a jerk all season. Instead, Charlotte was pleasant. She was also smart and talented. We saw her artistic talent from the beginning and, at one point, she was recruited as a tutor for Cleo.

Her body type was also a bit of a surprise. She is tall - taller than Lewis. She is also noticeably heavier than the stick-thin stars. She is a bit reserved and the type who would never be one of the cool girls. Actually, she is exactly the type of girl I would expect Lewis to be dating. Speaking immodestly as a fellow genius, it can be a strain being with someone who doesn't understand what you are talking about.

Through most of the season Charlotte is long-suffering. She is constantly kept waiting so that Lewis can do something with his ex-girlfriend and her friends. It is understandable that Charlotte would begin to dislike Cleo.

This dislike got a lot stronger when Charlotte found a photograph of her grandmother in Cleo's room. Then she noticed that Cleo was wearing a locket just like her grandmother's. No wonder she suspected that Cleo and the others were keeping something from her. They were keeping something big secret. Once Charlotte discovered their secret she was convinced that they had been keeping her heritage from her.

Then she found out that she was as powerful as all three of them put together and had more control.

No wonder it went to her head. There was the implication at the very end that being a mermaid had changed her and that she couldn't handle it but that she was back to normal once she lost her powers.

Charlotte's personality is similar to Emma's although not as obsessive/compulsive. There were hints of this all along starting with the way she pursued Lewis. She managed to get herself invited along to things like a camp-over at Mako Island where she was not exactly welcome. At one point Lewis suggested a couple of things for the evening and she was surprised because he usually let her make all of the decisions. At the time she took this as a sign that he was becoming more interested but it also showed the general direction of their relationship.

After becoming a mermaid, Charlotte felt that the others are trying to hold her back, insisting that she should not be using her powers. Considering that a couple of episodes earlier Emma and Rikki were using their powers to throw a pool game or that Cleo had just used her powers to cheat in a volleyball game, she was justified in thinking that there was a double standard.

It is unclear if Charlotte got the girls' original powers or the enhanced version. We never saw her create snow, or lightening. Maybe she could have done those things, also if she had seen Rikki and Emma do them. Instead she seemed totally surprised when Rikki used her lightening powers in the final episode.

Charlotte and Rikki just plain didn't get along. No surprise there. It was established early on that Rikki had problems making friends and she found Charlotte abrasive.

A note on performances. I've already written about Rikki's. Episodes featuring Rikki tended to be the most realistic.

Emma's tended to be silly. She only got one good scene. Her boyfriend Ash knew that she was a competitive swimmer and couldn't understand why she wouldn't go swimming with him. She explained that she had had a life-altering experience, letting him assume that she had nearly drowned and was afraid of water. He took it upon himself to desensitize her by carrying her into the surf. She convinced him to put her back on dry land but, in a fit of anger, decided to show him what happens when she gets wet. Just before she reached the water some other people came into view and she had to put off the big reveal. This was the juiciest piece of acting that Claire Holt got.

Emma also got the creepiest episode of the season. After being poisoned by a some exotic coral, she became voracious and her scales began bleaching out. As time went by she stopped talking and started having fish characteristics (gills, scales on her arm), even when human. There was some question if she would attack her friends or family.

Angus McLaren as Lewis got to move beyond his one-dimensional character. He spent the season caught between Cleo who broke up with him but didn't want to see him move on and Charlotte. At various points he had to communicate that he was miserable just through his expression. In one late-season episode Cleo finally thought to ask him if he was ok and he answered, "No." He looked miserable.

Phoebe Tonkin as Cleo finally got a good episode at the end of the series. In the second-to-last episode she had a total meltdown. Her father was demanding that she do the dishes. Charlotte had bullied her and taken her locket. And Lewis wasn't talking to her any longer. After Charlotte took her locket she collapsed in tears. When her father tried to force her to do the dishes (without rubber gloves) she ran away. rather than going to the Moon Pool, she hid in the shark-infested reef beyond Mako Island (presumably the same area as Zane's run-in with a shark in the first season). Lewis had to come and bring her back.

Book Review - The Mermaid's Mirror

The Mermaid's Mirror by L. K. Madigan is aimed at teens but readable by adults.

Lena (short for Selena) has just turned 16 and wants to learn to surf. Her father refuses. Lena's desire increases after she sees a mermaid in the surf at Magic Cove.

Lena has some issues. She sleepwalks and even fainted, just from being in a high-rise building. Apparently this is tied to the mermaid, assuming that she really exists (spoiler: yes, she does).

The book is essentially in two parts, the first part is highly realistic with details about Lena's friends and boyfriend. A lot of time is spent explaining how to surf and what to do when you fall off.

The second part follows what happens after Lena finally makes contact with the mermaid. This part is much less detailed, almost dreamy which matches Lena's state of mind but is still a little jarring.

The mermaids in the book breath air and have to surface occasionally for air. They communicate telepathically and live in small settlements. Much of their culture is through song which matches primitive human cultures.

One oddity of the book is that the mermaids carry sealskin cloaks like silkies. They do not change shape with these but they use them to appear to be seals and sea lions to humans.

The book left quite a bit of room for a sequel.

An Interesting Look

I happened on an unusual mermaid makeup job. It is from a short, independent fantasy film amde in Australia called Glamour; A Faerys' Kiss. It mainly features fairies including Titania, the Queen of the Fairies in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. It also has a mermaid or two. You can see one in the FaceBook link.

This is the one that caught my eye.

Notice the gills along her rib cage. I think that Colin Wilson, the person I linked to, did the complete makeup including the tail.

Pibgorn

The on-line comic strip Pibgorn recently picked up a mermaid as a supporting character. You can see her here.

The strip started as a Christmas story about a fairy who took one last flight for the year with a mouse friend. Her wings iced up and she was revived by a church organist who put her in a cup of warm tea.

Originally planned as an innocent joke-of-the-day strip it quickly changed to lengthy stories suitable for gathering into graphic novels. Besides Pibgorn (Pib), the main characters are Geoff, Pibgorn's lover and Drusilla (Dru), a succubus possessed of great power. Both Pibgorn and Dru are usually naked but covered with natural coloring. The mermaid is also naked (topless) and spends her time face-down in the water or in silhouette.

The current story involves a golden genie who hangs out with the mermaid when he is not being summoned through wormholes. Apparently Pib was sucked through a wormhole in the other direction.

The current story began here with the mermaid appearing the next day.

Pibgorn ran a text story with illustrations about a mermaid three years ago starting here. Technically, this was about a Tookora who is sort of a flying mermaid.