Can you tell me about Cape Coral? I only know a little bit but it sounds like an such an interesting story. Where did you get the idea for it?
Thank you for asking!! I got the idea from a beach trip my family took a while ago, the one when my dad took this picture of me. I didn't know he took it until he showed me afterward. It was at my favorite beach, i'm pretty sure it was my birthday, and it was such a surreal moment. I climbed up there on the rocks and just took it all in. It honestly made me feel like such a mermaid. I've loved the idea of mermaids and adored the ocean pretty much my whole life. The closest I got to writing about it was with Sydney, a Siren, but she was confined to the world of Teen Wolf.
Sitting there, I thought about a plotline i'm sure has most likely been used before: a town in which most of the residents are either mythological or mermaids specifically. They thrive off the tourism because it's a beach town (it'd have to be, for the mermaids) and they get an up close look at what it's like to be human. Then I got home and sat on the idea for over a year. Riverdale became a big obsession for me and I really got into it, and there was something about Lili Reinhart that got me. She's got this innocent, shy, magical vibe but she talks and she's so wise. I'd found my Shelley.
The plot developed after I'd written the first couple of chapters. Shelley and her parents move into a beach house in Cape Coral (not a real town, this one is fake!) for the summer before she starts her senior year of high school. She meets these young girls who instantly adopt her into their group. In doing so, they reveal themselves to her as mermaids because they feel like they can trust her. It's a shock but explains a lot about the town. The girls work at a mermaid-owned antique shop/café by the beach with a guy named David who, for the most part, is incredibly antisocial. Though, he takes an interest in Shelley, and she him. After a couple of wild instances involving black horses, the girls explain to Shelley that there are Kelpies roaming around the town. David is exposed as being one, mostly thanks to his 'brother' Oliver, who is up to no good. The girls explain to Shelley that there's a group of sailors who call themselves the Black Anchors, and they're main goal is to rid the cape of mermaids (think the Salem witch trials). In trying to help stop the Black Anchors' mission, Shelley opens old wounds between the mermaids and the Kelpies in the area, causing the start of a mythological civil war.
There are a million subplots and I would explain more but it would spoil everything lol. I hope this answers your questions! xo
