If Mom Told About Mermaids and Oil Spills...

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! I hope you’ve been enjoying the Mother’s Day theme on the blog this month. I’ve loved all the different takes the guest authors have done on the “If Mom Told the Story” theme.

Today is the last post to that theme. I’ve done a rewrite of the Cry of the Sea back cover blurb from June’s mother’s POV. Natalie Sawfeather is a bit bossy and controlling and not quite June’s favorite person. I think you’ll see why. But she’s got a mission, and it’s not a bad one. Cry of the Sea focuses a lot more on June’s relationship with her dad, but the sequel (which I’m frantically cleaning up for submission) deals a lot more with Mom. On Wednesday I’ll post a sneak-peek scene between June and Natalie from the new book.

As always, if you like what you see, leave a comment. And definitely scroll back and see the posts from my wonderful guest authors this month.


When I was on summer break from college I decided to do head to the west coast. I’d heard there was a rescue mission going on in California to save Pelicans from some jerk or band of jerks that were catching them and cutting off parts of their beaks to prevent them from being able to feed. While there, I met this handsome, young American Indian man. His skin was extra tan from being out in the sun all the time, and he had a mane of long, flowing black hair. He wore it up in a braid most of the time, but I loved it when he wore it down and I could run my fingers through it. His name was Peter Sawfeather. We fell in love, and we had a wonderful summer together.

That fall, I headed back to school in Washington State, and he followed me up there. He said he originally hailed from that part of the country and still had family on a reservation by the shore. We were married soon after I got my Bachelors, and he stuck with me while I went through law school. He started his own business called Emergency Environmental Alerts, or EEAlerts, and was constantly organizing protests and conservation movements. I chose to focus my law practice on helping the environment too. It’s not great money. Sometimes I don’t get paid at all. But we’re both passionate about what we do and each other.

We had a baby. One was all I could handle with my busy schedule and our finances. Juniper is the spitting image of her dad. I’ll admit I might not have been the best mom for her. I’ve pushed her really hard to be more than the average kid – to care more about the world around her. She’s a vegetarian in a meat-eating world, and she never had the nicer things some of her friends had. All of our family vacations have also been business-related – a protest, a movement, a rescue… She has grown up tough, resilient, and bright. I have been confident that she would follow in my footsteps. I expect her to go to my alma mater, get her law degree, and continue the fight with me and after I have to retire.

But suddenly it’s all changed. I’m in Alaska right now, dealing with Affron Oil executives who are stubbornly and stupidly refusing to comply with federal laws that state that they have to retrofit their oil tankers so that they will stop leaking oil. It’s been a hard fight, and I had to do it in person. So, I missed College Night at June’s high school. When I called to see how it went, her father told me that June said she didn’t want to go to my college and that she doesn’t want to be in Environmental Studies. She wants to work at Sea World or something inane like that.

I was furious and refused to talk to her about it until I got home. Then, in the middle of the night, I got word that the Affron Oil tanker had left Alaska. I knew there would be a spill or at least some heavy leaking. I called Peter and told him to get to a beach and keep an eye out for early damage. Next thing I know, he’s calling me later in the morning and telling me that he and June discovered mermaids in the oil. He sent me a video he took of them. June said that one of the mermaids acted like it could understand her. This is incredible! Sentient creatures in the ocean that look like humans? If the public found out about this we could get more people on our side to fight the oil company.

I’ve got to get back home and take control of this situation. They’ve involved this teenage boy named Carter that I’ve never met, which I’m not excited about. Peter will be busy with the oil spill clean-up all week, and June is too young to handle this big of an ordeal herself. I’m certain she’ll screw it up. I hope they don’t do anything rash before I get there.


Here is the real back cover blurb for Cry of the Sea and some handy links for both paperback and ebook versions. You can read a little excerpt and review clips on the Cry of the Sea page of this website too.

Juniper Sawfeather is choosing which college to attend after graduation from West Olympia High School next year. She wants to go to San Diego to be far away from her environmental activist parents. They expect her to think the way they do, but having to be constantly fighting causes makes it difficult to be an average 17 year old high school student. Why do her parents have to be so out there? Everything changes when she and her father rush to the beach after a reported oil spill. As they document the damage, June discovers three humans washed up on the beach, struggling to breathe through the oil coating their skin. At first she thinks they must be surfers, but as she gets closer, she realizes these aren't human at all. They're mermaids!Now begins a complex story of intrigue, conspiracy and manipulation as June, her parents, a marine biologist and his handsome young intern, her best friend, the popular clique at school and the oil company fight over the fate of the mermaids.

Fire and Ice Young Adult Books (read 2 chapters free)

Print:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Book Depository
Books a Million
Lulu

Ebook:
Kindle
Nook
Smashwords
All Romance ebooks
Lulu

---