Spam, self-promotion, and the thin, jellyfish-covered line between.

[seanan_mcguire]

If you are a creative professional, it is a sad reality that self-promotion is a part of your job. Maybe that wasn't always true; maybe there was a time when you could emerge from your creative chambers, hand your latest piece of deathless art to your agent, and then retreat back into your office fastness to keep creating. But alas, we do not

Comments

[maladaptive]

I once made a post complaining about the same old tropes in mermaid fiction (mostly YA) and included a checklist in my post that included [girl who doesn't fit in] [meets mysterious boy] [discovers she must save an undersea kingdom]*. There's so many things I want from a mermaid book and these are not it. Sure there's a lot of mermaid books out there, but the majority are crap so it's like there's only 4 mermaid books extant. I can say this because I know a lot of mermaid fans looking for mermaid fiction, and my checklist is all the stuff we don't want, either. More stuff like yours! /digression

[archangelbeth]

I would be very tempted to read ecoterrorist mermaids!

(and, just in a "share the O_O" way, have you seen http://www.amazon.com/Mermaids-Ransom-Joey-W-Hill/dp/0425230686/ ? ...it's, ah, not YA... And at least I don't think it hits the checklist? *ducks and runs and hides*)

[maladaptive]

Well here's the full checklist and I have to say it... does not cover mermaid-angels dating vampire-demons.

I have a friend who tried to find mermaid erotica (a field in which I have no experience) and she was pretty disappointed too, though. I'll have to ask if she saw stuff like this! Because to be totally honest I am pretty sure the mish-mash fantasy creatures are a Thing, especially with angels/demons.

(I would so read mermaid ecoterrorists. I really hate stories about how you gotta swim to the bottom of the sea and fight monsters for the Object of Woo to save the kingdom, because it's a total non-starter for actually solving the problems plaguing the ocean. Sure, mermaids taking out oil rigs is ethically dubious but at least they're doing something that actually has repercussions. "We found the magic gem, the ocean is saved!" only works for me, if, idk, it destroys all coal fired plants and sends all the oil reserves to the moon, or something, and book 2 is the ensuing mad scramble to keep the world from collapsing....)

[archangelbeth]

*admires the checklist greatly*

According to something I read recently, oil rigs actually support a great deal of ecological diversity once their... legs? struts? are colonized by marine life (apparently young creatures can go up and down without leaving the safety of an overgrown tower, basically, so this lets them get really dense and diverse and stuff). At least, after the rig is abandoned. Clearly the sensible thing for mermaids to do is make sure they're abandoned quickly, right?

(I saw the mermaid-angel thing on the shelf in the store, read the back cover, and decided that while it probably all made sense in the context of being Book 2, I... was not the target audience for reading book 2 first.)

*makes a note to write mermaid erotica sometime*

[maladaptive]

I've heard similar about wind farm towers - seals are sheltering around them. They basically serve the same function as islands, allowing ecosystems to anchor around them. They're not sure if the seals like the towers or if they're finding more food around them and what impact this will have because more seals = more predators. Depending how hardcore the mermaids are about maintaining proper ecosystems they may not like the oil rigs. Or they may curate the structures! Now I'm seeing mermaid arguments as to the merits of one approach vs. another....

I saw the mermaid-angel thing on the shelf in the store

I am really impressed that it showed up in a store! ...And also disappointed, given how I largely give up trying to find books in brick and mortar stores these days. I have trouble finding award nominated books, but I can get mermaid-angel erotica. Of course.

And if you do write mermaid erotica, lemme know. I have an audience waiting for good stuff. (And glad you like my checklist!)

[archangelbeth]

Ecoterrorist mermaid politics, fueled by research... That could be awesome.

I will see what I can do with mermaids sometime! ...though first I have to finish The Dragon Thing, The SF Thing, and The Series Thing. >_<3

[seanan_mcguire]

Have you read Mermaid's Song, by Alida Van Gorres, or Watersong, by Mary Carraker?