Title:
Undertow
Author:
Kiri R. Newton
Publisher:
Bookpal Austrailia
Blub:
For far too long these sailor-drowning,
ship-sinking sea sirens have been portrayed as happy, peaceful creatures who
want nothing more than to fall in love with a prince and live happily ever
after. Undertow is an unconventional twist on one of the oldest mythological
creatures known to man.
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About Kiri R. Newton
Its weird right but as an author I could
tell you about my characters inside out and yet when people ask me to talk
about myself I go all quiet. Anyways, here I go.
I am a child of ‘91 born in Jandowae, a
tiny little town out past Dalby. When I was five my parents decided to pack everything
up and move to Tonga in the South Pacific after Dad visited there and mum fell
in love with the place after reading a book about it. So I grew up in a third
world country, fluent in a second language by the time I was eight and lived
amongst the locals who I was friends with.
When I was thirteen my father passed away
and due to the fact that the government refused to pay my mum a pension over
there like they did my father, we were forced to move back to Australia.
As for my writing career, I started
writing progressively longer short stories in Grade 5 where one teacher noted
on my report card that ‘I had unique ideas and an unusual talent’. By Grade 7 I
had completed my first novel a post-apocalyptic fiction where cats are the
highest life form and live basically as we do and follows the lives of a litter
of cats, the characters based on a litter of cats belonging to my neighbour. I
continued writing different things from horsey stories to Phantom of the Opera
fan-fiction right through my teenage years, nothing serious, mostly just a lot
of scribbling.
In Grade 12 I realized that if I was going
to be serious about being a writer I needed to finish stories, not just have a
lot of random scribbles to my name. So forgoing all my assignments I finished
my second book called Dynamite which
is an Australiana tale about a racehorse. Two years later I went on holidays to
Fiji, came home and three months later Undertow
was completed. In the middle there I wrote a Tolkien-esque fantasy epic called The Dark Assassin with my now
ex-boyfriend. The year after that I completed Hazardous, which will be my next published title.
Guest Post
Is your next door neighbour a
mermaid?
Another thing with Undertow is that I
mention a few times mer-folk that have been banished for a variety of reasons.
And due the fact that mermaids can live quite happily out of the water provided
they remain well hydrated the chances that your secretive next door neighbour
is a mermaid is very likely. The trouble is land based mermaids look just like
everyone else, which makes spotting them hard but there’s a few giveaways if
you know what to look for.
For starters land based mer-folk are
often secretive. I mean they have a tail and they are not supposed to exist so
you’d be secretive too. Generally if they have a massive salt-water pool in
their back yard and a twelve foot fence, that’s a bit of a giveaway as well.
Mermaids also avoid chlorine pools as it messes with their skin. Mermaids don’t
like getting caught in the rain for obvious reasons though they do love pina
coladas. Mermaids can drink like a fish, so if your friend holds their alcohol
abnormally well they are either a mermaid or an alcoholic. Try to get the facts
before you accuse any of your friends of either.
Mermaids are fanatical about keeping
hydrated, many carrying bottles of water on them or plenty of loose change to
duck into the nearest shop. Long hair isn’t always a clue, some mermaids do
keep their hair short, it just depends on the mermaid in question. Under a
microscope the difference between human and mermaid eyes is apparent but the
chances that your neighbour will let you examine their eyeballs under a
microscope are unlikely. Their respiratory system is also different but the
chance of you figuring this out without being done for murder is also unlikely.
Height and weight is no giveaway either, mer-folk from colder climates are
shorter though North Sea mermaids are often tall and burly. Selkies often have
longer nails that the other mer-folk as they seem to grow faster but they look
just like normal nails so this isn’t really helpful either.
Mermaids though do like to keep a bit of
the ocean on them at all times. It can range from a key ring with a shell on it
to owning a massive aquarium that takes up half their living room. The love of
seafood is a giveaway as well. So if your friend wants to have sushi for
breakfast, fish and chips for lunch and a seafood buffet with the lot for
dinner they are likely a mermaid or just pregnant with weird cravings. Again do
your homework.
Of course the biggest giveaway is their
dorsal patterns that start at the base of their tail-bone and usually ends just
below their shoulder blades. These patterns are a variety of colours and each
pattern is unique to the individual though reflects the family they come from.
Your best bet is somehow convincing your secretive neighbour to take their
shirt off. That saying it could also be a tattoo, so tread carefully.
All in all it is entirely possible that
your shy next door neighbour is a mermaid and it is possible to decipher. If
they reveal their secret to you then feel worthy, you have just been endowed
with a massive secret and for heavens sakes don’t ring up the Ellen Show and
tell them about it.
