How to Date a Merman! plus Vicious Deep ARC giveaway

One of the titles I'm most anticipating this year is The Vicious Deep by Zoraida Córdova.

Along with Lies Beneath, it's another mercreature story with a male POV, which is something I really appreciate in young adult literature--because we sure don't see enough of it. Which got me to thinking...if you were an ordinary girl who met a merguy, that's got to be a pretty awkward situation to work out logistically. How would that work, exactly?

Zoraida was kind enough to humor my curiosity, as well as to tell us why she chose to write this story from a boy's perspective. Join us as The Midnight Garden officially kicks off the Vicious Deep Blog Tour!  ~ Wendy

 




 

HOW TO DATE A MERMAN

There are rules, you see.

 Mermen are different from regular men. For one, there’s the tail. Most men don’t have tails. At least, none that you can see. Mermen have always been elusive. Unlike their lady counterparts, mermen don’t seek the attention of mortal women in the same way mermaids seek out lovely drowning sailors. They are stubborn, beautiful, and honest to a fault.

Rule #1 –  Make sure you’ve plenty of food. Though some merpeople have an underwater veggie diet (there are endless things to make with seaweed) many are carnivores. For instance, Tristan Hart never says no to a morning stack of bacon.

Rule #2 – Be honest. Merpeople are excellent at smelling emotions. It’s a heightened sense that’s supposed to be used for predatory reasons. But when around humans, they can tell when you’re lying. For instance when you try to be coy and go, “I’m so not into you, Tristan Hart.” He’s going to be all, “Puh-leeze. Your lust smells like burning sugar.”

Rule #3 – Learn to swim. Seriously, you’ll need to one-up Michael Phelps because unlike, Tristan Hart, some mermen won’t let you ride on their backs while he does all the paddling. 

Those are some starter points to dating a merdude. 

When I set out to write The Vicious Deep, I always knew my main character would be a guy, partly because I wanted to reverse the roles of the traditional mermaid/human story, but also because I wanted to explore new territory. I wish there were some giant bible with clues to the mind of men. Thank goodness there isn't one because it would be pretty gross. It was one of those things that came organically, hell, maybe in my past life I really was a prince of the sea kingdom. Then again, thinking like a man isn't exactly rocket science. Most of my best friends are guys, and every guy I’ve ever dated has had the mental capacity of a 16 year-old, so I wasn’t shy about writing in that POV.  Besides, as a woman, I’ve always wondered what it would be like to look down and see something grow without having any control over it. Of course, I’m referring to Tristan’s mer-tail.

I am by no means an expert on guys. As I writer, I did what writers do best. We guess. We put on our best acting caps and immerse ourselves in these roles. Wait, I lie. I did do some research. But all of it involved searching lifeguard images on Tumblr. Really, it was arduous. Finally I came to the conclusion, men are not exactly a mystery. However, no two men are the same the way no two mermen are the same. When you get to know Tristan Hart and his friends, you’ll see what I mean.

Happy fishing!

~ Zoraida

Thanks so much for your thoughtful and hilarious post, Zoraida! I'm sure our readers will file this away for future reference. You just never know when you might be sitting on a dock somewhere and are suddenly approached by a handsome merman.

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Enter to Win an ARC of The Vicious Deep

Thanks to our generous friends at Sourcebooks, one of our lucky readers will win an advance copy of Zoraida's book! Just fill out the Rafflecopter form to enter, and leave a blog post comment telling us your favorite thing about mermaids for extra points. Contest is open internationally.

And be sure to be on the lookout for The Vicious Deep, releasing on May 1! You can also follow the latest news and updates for the book on Zoraida's blog and Twitter. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway