The Mermaid and the Unicorns

August 29, 2022

The Mermaid and the Unicorns

by L.T. Getty

GENRE: Middle Grade Fantasy Adventure

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.

NOTE: The book is only $0.99.

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.

About the Author:

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

Q&A With the Author
What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

I had a lot of fun thinking back to what my imagination was like when I was a kid. I wrote this book for my niece, but in order to do that I had to think back as to what sort of story I would have liked to have read.

Do you have any other books you are working on that you can tell us about?

I have recently signed my second novel in the Rogue Healer series with Champagne Books. I am also working on a draft to a sort of but not sequel to The Mermaid and the Unicorns, about the Puppeteers. Once again, it’s being written for my niece, but she’s a teenager now so I’m going to say that the title is more YA than MG, but I’m not going to make it so a mature ten year old couldn’t read it. I also have some ideas for a sequel to The Mermaid and the Unicorns, but I have a lot of work ahead of me right now so it’s not a priority.

Can you tell us about what you have planned for the future?

Right now the plan is to finish the rough Draft of Puppeteers, get the edits for the second book in, then start the fourth book in Rogue Healer. I also need to hire an editor and develop another book that’s collecting dust on my hard drive for self-publishing, but I’m probably not going to be anywhere near ready for that for a few months. I also wanted to rewrite something and send it to Champagne Books, but I don’t see it happening unless I delay the fourth book Rogue Healer.

How long have you been writing?

I honestly don’t even know. I write and finished my first novel when I was in grade eight going into grade nine, so it’s been a while. It wasn’t good and I know I tried writing stories before that, but let’s just say by the end of high school I wrote my first series and started to get positive feedback at a professional level around the age of 21.

Anything more you would like to say to your readers and fans?

Thank you for joining me on this tour and I hope that you had an amazing summer if you’re in the northern half of the hemisphere.

This book is meant for children, but I’m also a firm believer in CS Lewis when he says there’s a time when it’s it’s okay for adults to start reading fairy tales again.