The Mermaid and the Unicorns by L.T. Getty - Book Tour + Giveaway

The Mermaid and the Unicorns

by L.T. Getty

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GENRE: Middle Grade Fantasy Adventure

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BLURB:

Daphne’s a typical mermaid, and at least according to her, that’s a problem. She’s courageous and has a beautiful singing voice, but lacks the power of an elemental, the ability to command water with the sound of her voice. Jealous of her best friend, she makes a deal with a sea-witch, only to be betrayed, in place of her beautiful tail and flukes Daphne’s left beached with a pair of human legs. The spell keeping Daphne looking human will become permanent, unless Daphne can hunt down and bring the scheming Lorelei a unicorn horn before the next full moon.

Unable to reach her friends and family for help, Daphne doesn’t know how to walk, much less where to find a unicorn or how to catch one. Even if she’s successful, Daphne’s still not sure if she can trust Lorelei and her pint-sized kraken to keep their end of the bargain and let her return to the sea.

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NOTE: The book is only $0.99.

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EXCERPT

"What's wrong?" Esperanza asked as Daphne went to retrieve the arrow.

"Nothing," Daphne said, unstringing the bow. "Not like I'm ever going need to use this skill. Let's just pack up and go."

"What are you talking about?" Esperanza asked. "You're already better than I am. Here, let me have a try and I'll show you."

"I've already unstrung it," Daphne snapped.

"Fine," Esperanza said, matching Daphne's tone. Esperanza went to go get more water from the river with the large buckets to boil so that they could wash their dishes.

"I'll do that. Water's heavy," Sean said, ignoring Daphne as she struggled to take their tent down.

"Here, let me help you," Esperanza said to Daphne once Sean started towards the river.

"Sure—let's send the person with the tallest reach to the river, great plan," Daphne muttered, climbing onto the wagon to reach the tip of the tent as Sean descended towards the river.

"What's your problem?" Esperanza demanded as soon as Sean was out of earshot. "We're helping you get to Taralee. Sean didn't have to come all this way, you know."

"He didn't come for me, Espy. If it was just me who wanted to go, he wouldn't care that I had to walk the whole way. What do you want, me to kiss your feet and sing your praises? Wait, I forgot—you're the better singer, you should sing your own praises. I might not do it good enough without a four-stringed harp and a cat to squeeze for background noise."

"Our voices are different. Neither one is really better than the other."

"It's just... do you know what it's like to be overlooked?"

"All the time," Esperanza said. She looked away, towards the river. "Hey, wait... be quiet for a minute."

"Don't you tell me what to do—" Daphne became mildly insulted when Esperanza put a hand over her mouth.

"Listen."

They heard singing. A beautiful, high pitched and soft melody, barely audible above the breeze. The sound had a haunting quality. "Doesn't sound like it's Sean's range," Daphne muttered, but then really heard it. She ran, and got the arrow and the quiver as well as Sean's knife and axe. She quickly strung the bow before heading towards the river bank.

"What are you doing?" Esperanza asked, following after Daphne.

"Stay with the wagon!" Daphne ordered.

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Author Interview

What would you consider to be your Kryptonite as an author?
It used to be confidence, and now it’s marketing. I started writing young. I’m unapologetically a science-fiction and fantasy writer, and it can be frustrating trying to get taken seriously sometimes. I just had to learn some people aren’t going to like what I’m doing regardless, so to stop stressing.

Marketing is tricky because there’s just so much product out there, and when I’m asked, “There’s a hundred books on mermaids, why should I read yours?” If I was honest, I’d probably say, “Because mine’s kind of fun?” but that’s disparaging of books I haven’t read and I’m sure a lot of other authors have a sense of humor too.

Honestly I think I need to learn to apply my creativity to marketing. I’m getting there.

If you could tell your younger writing self, anything, what would it be?
Don’t give up, but focus on having fun as opposed to trying to impress anyone. Try to tell the truth, stay grounded in your morals, and don’t chase the market, but if you see a market need that aligns with what you’re interested in, try to learn more.

What fantastical fictional world would you want to live in (if any) given the chance?
My go-to answer for this is Narnia, knowing I’d get kicked out relatively quickly (and Narnia is not for adults!). I think I would do the other cliché answer and say Middle Earth, but I think I could also spend time in one of my books; not even necessarily hanging out with this character or that, but seeing how the world I built in my mind functions when I’m seeing the day to day, not necessarily the big plot.

I would spend time in the world of my books. My running joke is they’re all somehow connected,  but it’s a little convoluted.

Did you want to be an author when you grew up?
Yes. I really liked games where you got to make your own character. That was some times more fun than playing the game.

If you could own any animal as a pet, what would it be?
My mom recently asked if I could live anywhere but Manitoba, where I’d go and why. I said I’d want a loghouse in the woods near a mountain, not far from a beach of some sort and I’d have horses. My one sister and niece said, “We’re living with you” so I’m assuming they’re managing the horses. I guess I’d get to raise alpacas.

How long, on average, does it take you to write a book?
It depends on the length of the book, and how much work I have to do with it. For instance, I wrote Tower of Obsidian in about a year but it took a lot of research. I wrote Witchslayer’s Scion over the course of two years, but I was working/in school part time. Both of these are 110k and 135k respectively, but when I wrote Magus’ Gambit it took about eight months to come up with a rough draft and probably another ten months after that to edit it. Magus’ Gambit is the second book in the series, so while I had to check my notes I was also no longer a student, so I had more time and my job does have down time, so I could usually hash out a scene or whatever once in a while.
The Mermaid and the Unicorn I think I drafted the rough copy in about four or five months but it was around 65k. My usual thing is to give a work in progress to my beta reader, and R.J. Hore gives me feedback.

I then let the story percolate, and my usual rule is unless I’m under a deadline, to let it sit for at least three months (for a novel, less for a short or whatever), then go back and do hard edits.

The reason for this is this break lets me see the story the way its written with fresh eyes, because I may know the story and what happens, but now I can try to make it sound good, and be more objective when I’m crafting sentences.

How do you select the names of your characters?
 “Daphne” is named after a character in Greek mythology who became a Laurel Tree to escape the affections of the god Apollo. Daphne in my story is transformed from a mermaid to a human. I don’t remember if I had any other names for her; other merfolk characters like Oshiera and Nadira had typical placeholder mermaid names like Pearl and Marina when I was jotting down early sequences.

The name Esperanza originates from Spanish and means, “Hope” and I thought it was suiting for the character. Her original name in the first draft was Bedelia, which is Irish and means “Strength” or “Exalted one”. I gave that name to her little sister upon the rewrite.

Sean is the Scottish variant spelling of Shawn, which mean’s “God’s is gracious” and is technically a variation of John, but honestly I picked it because I liked the name, there wasn’t a particularly special meaning behind it. My niece kept reading it as Seth though, so I’ve recycled that name into another WIP.

Lorelei, the scheming sea witch, is Germanic and means “Alluring enchantress”. I know, I’m really pushing the limits of creativity here. Her henchsquid is named Herman because it rhymes with merman. My jokes are lame, I know.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

L.T. Getty is a rural paramedic from Manitoba. She enjoys writing science fiction and fantasy and generally being creative. 

Amazon (American)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09F2MRB9N/ 

Amazon (Canadian)

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B09F2MRB9N/

Kobo

https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/the-mermaid-and-the-unicorns

Goodreads

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60006465-the-mermaid-and-the-unicorns

Barnes and Noble

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-mermaid-and-the-unicorns-lt-getty/1140115966

Author Links: 

My Blog

https://ltgetty.ca/

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION

L.T. Getty will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via

rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway