Creating a Vivid Fantasy Mermaid World with Real-Life Connections
Today’s post is Part Five of my Rise of the Grigori Beneath-the-Surface series. (Go to the bottom of this post for links to the first four parts.)
In this post, I talk about some of the real-life inspirations behind the technology and worldbuilding in my mermaid world. I also have a special gift for you at the end. Enjoy!
A curly-haired mermaid sits on a boulder and watches the sunset over a restless sea. Image by Jeremy Bishop, @jeremybishop, courtesy of Unsplash.
The idea that became the Rise of the Grigori series started as a question while watching a mermaid T.V. show: What happened to all the mermen? Why do mermaids drag sailors beneath the sea?
Okay, I guess that’s two questions, but they’re related. I guess they didn’t have to be, but if you have a dimorphic society without mermen—which most mermaid stories are—then it follows that to keep your semi-humanoid species going, you might have to borrow some compatible DNA on a regular basis.
That answer seemed much nicer than the version you sometimes see where the mermaids hunt humans for sport. (I’m looking at you, Pirates of the Caribbean.)
But, since I “discovered” that the sirensong used by the undines (UN-deens) in my stories can be used not only to temporarily stupefy their male victims but to also subvert their minds completely, which they do to every single male they capture, it’s not that much nicer.
“Something must have gone terribly wrong if they can no longer produce their own males but still need them to survive, and if they feel the need to make mind-slaves of every man they capture.”
And, once I discovered that, I was hooked. After all, something must have gone terribly wrong in a culture’s past if they can no longer produce their own males but still need them to survive, and if they feel the need to make mind-slaves of every man they capture. Right?
While discovering the answers to those questions, which I eventually published as the Rise of the Grigori series, I incorporated a whole lot of things that fascinate me: mermaid lore; ancient cultures; issues of faith and worship and power; the historical landscape at the end of the eighteenth century, particularly in England and the West Indies; and even some extrapolations from modern scientific discoveries, which I incorporated into the undine culture as an expression of their magic and technology.
(Did you know there are experiments that involve surfacing highways in a crystal formation to generate power through piezoelectricity? Or that scientists are really experimenting with crystals that absorb oxygen that could replace air tanks for breathing underwater—an idea which I borrowed for my breathing stones? Cool, right?)
And, while I still have some mysteries to uncover in future volumes in the series, I’ve had a lot of my questions answered along the way. To me, finding those answers is part of the fun of writing.
But so is just making cool stuff up. :-)
I hope reading it brings you joy, too.
If you want to test the waters (see what I did there?), the standalone origin story of Zale, the first male undine to be born in three millennia, is available for free when you sign up to my newsletter. Happy reading!
Thank you to Sybrina’s Book Blog for hosting the original post.
Notes on the “in-between” stages of creative work and how I’m planning to tackle my upcoming projects to publish more frequently and keep my creativity fresh.