I was sitting on a dock at a lake and there were fish swimming beneath me. A slight altercation between them sent one poor fish darting away and as he did he flipped over so that the rainbow underbelly was exposed. The image intrigued me and led me down the path of mermaids and sirens. But as we all know the mermaid myth is as old as time and I struggled with a new way to approach it. A while later, and I do mean a while, probably several years, I was at a family dinner with a particularly challenging sister and it occurred to me; do mermaids have families? Is there a siren lineage? Where do mermaids come from and how are they created?
After considering the perceived differences of mermaids, the beautiful vixens of the sea with their puka shell bras and soft flowing hair, compared to sirens who viciously lure sailors to their death, a story began to emerge that answered a lot of the lineage questions and led me to a fresh perspective of these mythical creatures and I discovered a possible answer on how they came to be.
The rainbow flash of the fish underbelly became the central image for me as I created this siren. Often, throughout the novel, her arrival is preceded by a spectacular color display that is vivid and near blinding. The colors hide her true appearance and her nature and lure our poor anti-hero into his destruction.
They say that you never finish a novel, you just stop working on it. So was the case for me with The Siren’s Scream. I was due to receive the final edit from my editor the next day when I was watching TV. One of the characters on the show I was watching said, “The devil has no friends!” I laughed and thought, “That’s not true, fire is the devil’s only friend,” as any American Pie fan can attest. Then my mind took me to fire, evil, disaster and (spoiler alert) I yelled ,”Damn, I have to burn the mansion!” With that revelation I re-wrote the final 6 chapters, all for the better, and created a much stronger ending than I had originally written. At the end of the day the story I was able to formulate I found intriguing and scary and to be honest, I am quite pleased with the result.
Title: The Siren’s Scream
Author: Thomas White
Publisher: Savvy Books
Pages: 492
Genre: Mystery/Horror
An old mansion sits atop of a cliff, overlooking the ocean, in Santa Cruz, CA. A young realtor, Darcy Wainwright, manages to sell the dilapidated old house to Henry Childs, an obese nebbish who is obsessed with the property. In the backyard is a pool. Not an ordinary pool but a giant tide pool. In the tide pool is a siren with an evil agenda for revenge.
The Thornton Mansion was a talisman for the death and mystery that surrounded it. Unoccupied for years until Henry Childs was summoned by the house. As directed, he reached out to unsuspecting, novice realtor Darcy Wainwright. Darcy finds herself intricately involved with the house, its history and the haunting tide pool that filled the backyard. It was the pool that beckoned her, and it was the pool that would decide if she lives or dies. The Siren’s Scream. Available on Amazon.
Release Date: October 5, 2022
Publisher: Savvy Books
Soft Cover: ISBN: 978-1088067819; 480 pages
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3TEz7kx
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-sirens-scream-thomas-white/1142494493?ean=9781088067819
Purchase your copy at the author’s website: https://thomas-white-author.com/
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