Myths, monsters and marvels

Welcome Lyndi’s Adventurous Friend Alice Renaud!

We all know what mermaids look like, don’t we? Long hair, seashell bra, fish tail. But mermaids didn’t always look like that. The sirens in The Odyssey who charmed Ulysses with their songs were part-woman, part… bird. Other depictions of mermaids show them with teeth and claws and rather scary. Welsh legends feature beautiful women who live in water but don’t have a fish tail, like the Lady of the Lake who gives King Arthur his sword Excalibur. Welsh folklore is full of aquatic creatures. As well as mermaids and mermen, there are afancs (water monsters, part crocodile, part beaver), mist hags, torrent spectres, and the mysterious Ceffyl Dwr, the Water Horse, who can appear in any body of water – lake, river, even baptismal fonts in churches. The Horse can sometimes take human form and walk on land, like the Scottish Selkie. In horse form he gallops along the shore at night, and if he meets a lone traveller, he offers him a ride on his back… only to throw him off in the marshes.

I grew up listening to and reading tales of such fantastic creatures. One day in Brittany, I saw young men come out of the sea, wearing black wetsuits. I had the idea of shape shifting mermen, who can move between a human and an aquatic form. In their aquatic form my mermen have webbed hands and feet, and a tail… but not a fish tail. They’re one hundred per cent mammal, hot blooded, and beautiful, of course! So the Sea of Love series was born. It follows the lives and loves of four young merfolk as they discover the world of humans… and fall for a human, in defiance of the laws of their people. The Welsh creatures of legends appear in all my stories. The Water Horse features in Music for a Merman, the second book in the series (the books in the series are stand-alone stories and can be read independently). Read the extract below to find out more!

Blurb

Rob Regor knew that humans were trouble. All the shape shifting mermen of the Morvann Islands knew it. And human women were double trouble… especially when they were lying on the road in front of a digger.

Rob has a mission. Go to the mainland. Work as a policeman. Spy on humans. Report back to his father, the head of the Regor Merman Clan. It should be easy. Until he has to arrest Charlie. Rob can’t fight his attraction to the sexy eco-warrior, and it puts him on one hell of a collision course with his family and his Clan. Will he break the rules – or break her heart, and his?

Love ‘em and leave ‘em, that was Charlie’s motto. It had served her well until now. But Rob is different… Can she open up her heart to Rob – when a secret buried in her past surfaces and changes her completely?

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Excerpt

Somehow Charlie felt that one merman, at least, was near. She forced her body into perfect stillness, hoping that the invisible enemy wouldn’t hear the frantic beating of her heart. Unless he had infrared vision, he couldn’t see her any more than she could see him. Maybe he’d walk right past her.

The merman hissed at her out of the darkness. “I can smell you, human.”

A tiny wave lapped over her feet, though there was no breeze. A mysterious voice whispered in her head. The monsters won’t win. Run to the sea. I will protect you.

Maybe she was going mad. But if so, it was a helpful sort of madness. Strength was rising through her body, easing the pressure on her ribs. Wherever the voice had come from, she’d follow its advice. She gripped the stone harder and put her hand behind her back. She had to buy some time, until the damn moon came out and lit her path to freedom.

“What do you want?” she asked.

A suction sound informed her that her enemy was moving through the mud, but he wasn’t coming any closer to her. Maybe he too was waiting for light. Or maybe he was wary of her. The thought comforted her. He was right to be careful. She could be dangerous too.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” the merman said. “I want to help you.”

Charlie almost sniggered. He must think I’m stupid. She’d play along, until she saw an opportunity to escape.

“That’s good,” she said, trying hard not to sound sarcastic. She put on her best “lost little girl” voice. “Can you help me get out of the marsh?”

“Sure!” The merman sounded eager, almost enthusiastic. She heard him move forward, but slowly. “I’ll give you a ride on my back, if you want.”

The voice murmured in Charlie’s head. She couldn’t tell if it was real, or a childhood memory. An old fisherman had told her that story once, when she was holidaying on the Morvann Islands with her parents. And she had read the same story, in the old book she’d found in the police station. The Water Horse offers the unwary traveller a ride on its back, only to throw him off and drown him in the marshes.