Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Not To Be Left Out (aka More News) Plus Mermaids

Following up on Heather's News From NYC, I have some news of my own to share. (And some of it is related to Heather's news because it involves HarperTeen!)
  1. The first review for GODDESS BOOT CAMP is in ... and it's lovely!
  2. Last week I finalized a deal for my next two books at HarperTeen (technically Katherine Tegen Books). The first, a mermaid story called FORGIVE MY FINS, will come out in 2010 and the untitled TBA sequel to follow ... sometime after.
In honor of my sale (and my lovable, frizzy-haired, half-mermaid heroine, Lily Sanderson) I'm going to share some of my fave mermaid stories.

SPLASH -- Is there a child of the 80s (girls anyway) who didn't love this movie? It's about a guy (Tom Hanks) who was saved by a mermaid (Daryl Hannah) as a child and the love story that develops between Allen and Madison as she tries to keep her secret on dry land. I could watch this movie a million times. I think maybe I have--I used to have it on vhs. I probably wore out the tape. I can't tell you how badly I wanted to be Madison, how much I wished that the next time I took a bath I would suddenly sprout a fin. (Sadly, that never happened. Not even with salt water. Sigh.) Lily has Madison's long, pale blonde hair, but she's, um, a little (a lot) smarter.

THE LITTLE MERMAID -- One of my fave Disney movies of all-time. This came out when I was in high school and my best friend and I just fell in love. Poor Ariel trying to get her charming Prince Eric to kiss her when she doesn't have her voice! She was such a (pardon the bad pun, but you knew it was coming) fish out of water. And the songs. I still sing the songs. (I'm singing them right now. Just be very, very glad you're not here. My voice does not sound like Ariel's.) Lily shares Ariel's fascination with all things human (which isn't exactly surprising, since Lily's mom was human) but her love life is a little more complicated.

H2O -- This is a totally fun Australian TV series on Nick about three average teenage girls ... who just happen to be mermaids. I've only seen a couple of episodes, but I have my dvr set. Two major bonuses to this series: (1) Australian accents, and (2) Australian boys with Australian accents. Yum. Unfortunately, there are no Australian accents in FORGIVE MY FINS (which takes place in south Florida) but there are biker boys, swim studs, and messenger gulls.

Okay, have I missed any? What are your favorite mermaids or mermaid stories? I need to know. Seriously. For research purposes. (Okay, maybe technically FINS is already written, so it might be because I just love watching a good mermaid story. Maybe.)

Hugs,
TLC

OH. MY. GODS. (available now!)
GODDESS BOOT CAMP (coming June 2009)
teralynnchilds.com

10 comments:

TinaFerraro said...

I can't think of any more mermaid tales, telling me the world is RIPE for more--namely, yours! Big hugs and congrats on this sale, plus your other good news.

You're on a roll, Tera!

sunnynikki said...

http://www.beautiful-mermaid-art.com/mermaid-movies.html

This is a website I found that lists mermaid movies, not nearly enough though.

I used to pretend I was Ariel from The Little Mermaid, love that movie.

Me said...

Tina -- I dearly hope you're right about that! =) Thanks.

Nikki -- Thanks for sharing that link. There are tons of movies I've never even heard of on there! I'll have to check them out.

Jennifer Rummel said...

Aquamarine is a movie based on a tween book with a mermaid in it.
thanks for linking to the review!

stephhale said...

I've always had a bit of a mermaid fetish too. If you haven't been, you have to visit Weekee Wachee. It is the coolest place on earth. ;) So happy for you!

Amanda Ashby said...

Yay on your good news and I can't tell you how happy I am that there are no Australian accents in your book, Tera - trust me there is nothing cool about our flat nasal tones!

And while I know it wasn't a mermaid show, I used to love The Man from Atlantis. I even taught my kids how to do that swim the other day!!!!!

Me said...

yabooknerd -- Eeek! How could I forget Aquamarine?!? Such a fun movie!

Steph -- I've seen pictures of the Weekee Wachee mermaids ... they're definitely on my "To See" list!

Amanda -- As I've previously explained to you (stubborn girl), Australian accents are very, very attractive to non-Australians. I feel the same way about American accents. Trust me on this one. Around the world, your drawl is highly envious. =) On the other hand, I have no idea how to *write* an Australian accent, so that might never be an issue.

Anonymous said...

I loooovved Splash when I was little and I recently shared it with my little girl and she loved it just as much. And I do have to agree that some of those Australian shows are loads of fun, especially when listening to those awesome Australian accents.

DW Golden
Soar with Fairies in a new young adult novel: Purple Butterflies

Heather Davis said...

Great news, Tera! So glad you're with me at HarperC!

Xoxo!

Simone Elkeles said...

My cousin played a joke on me - right before I saw Splash she told me that he leaves her in the end. So I was crying like a baby in the theatre...waiting for them to be separated in the end (which never happened). To this day we still talk about it.