Next year marks the 10th anniversary of Forgive My Fins. How did that even happen? It feels like only yesterday I was lying on a beach and… Well, I’ll get to that later.
For now, if you don’t know anything about the series, here’s the summary: Forgive My Fins is about a half-mermaid princess who goes to high school on the mainland and accidentally bestows her magical first kiss on the wrong boy.
Since Lily and the gang have been swimming around for so long, I thought it would be fun to share a series update.
Here’s what you’ll find out:
- What inspired the Forgive My Fins series?
- What books are in the series?
- What does the future hold?
If you want to watch the video version, here you go:
Or keep reading to find out all about Forgive My Fins.
The Inspiration
One of my deep dark secrets is that I once taught 7th grade science. Once, as in one year only. That one year was enough to send me running back to school to get my PhD (which I never finished, but that’s another story).
Anyway, after my one year of teaching, I definitely needed a break. So I headed to Florida for part of the summer. I stayed in a condo that my family owned at the time and spent pretty much every afternoon at the beach.
One day, I was lying there on the beach, daydreaming. I thought:
Wouldn’t it be cool if a merman walked out of the ocean and bestowed his magical mer powers on me with a kiss so I could go live under the sea with him?
Immediately I knew two things:
- The likelihood of that happened was pretty slim.
- That would make an AMAZING book!
I changed the merman to a teen mermaid, and the Forgive My Fins series was born.
The Books
As of right now, November 2019, there are four books in the series.
Forgive My Fins is the first book, about Lily Sanderson (aka Princess Waterlily of Thalassinia) who has been living on land, attending human high school, and crushing on the school’s swim team star. When a masquerade mix-up leaves her bonded to the wrong boy, she will do anything to ditch him and get back to her love-from-afar dreams.
Fins Are Forever continues Lily’s story following the ramifications of what she realizes and decides at the end of the last book. (Which I can’t share, obvi, or it will spoil book one.) Rest assured, there is more romance, more underwater adventures, and more of the wrong boy.
Just For Fins is the third book about Lily and the (not so) wrong boy. In addition to juggling school, royal duties, and a very complicated personal life, Lily is confronted with the realities of climate change and ocean warming and decides to do something about it.
Pretty in Pearls is a connected novella about Lily’s best mermaid friend, Periwinkle Wentletrap, who gets caught up in a swirl of emotions when her pirate-y pearl trader crush returns home.
The Future
Oh, I’m not done with the Forgive My Fins series yet!
I’m currently revising a novella about Coral Ballenato, the younger sister of Riatus, Peri’s crush in Pretty in Pearls. It’s taking longer than I would like (!!!) but the release date should be some time early in 2020.
I might write some more novellas about secondary characters (the Terrible Trio, perhaps, and Coral’s best friend Zanzia). And I hope to write at least one more book about Lily. It’s a ways off in the schedule, but it’s on the list.
AND I have big plans to expand my mermaid world. Thalassinia isn’t the only kingdom in the ocean (in fact, it’s one of dozens) and it’s always been my goal to write stories about merfolk in other kingdoms.
The one I’m thinking of writing first isn’t even in the Western Atlantic! (Check out a map of the Mer Kingdoms of the Western Atlantic on my Extras page.)
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If you love the Forgive My Fins series, let me know in comments below which part of the seven seas you think I should write about next!
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