Tales and Tea Blog

One of the most captivating novel openings that I have read is in 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne. The narrator starts out by mentioning a strange event has occurred and that there are rumors surrounding it.

Skin of the Sea and Soul of the Deep by Natasha Bowen are two of my favorite mermaid books when it comes to world building.

Hola Merfolk! Flipping through The Mermaid’s Secret by Katie Schickel makes me want to reread it. I love Schickel’s characters, world building, and writing. Living in a small island town on the East Coast, Jess Creary can’t move on from her sisters boating “accident.” The book has that typical mysterious feel that I often get from a mermaid story. One of my favorite characters is Drag Queen Lady Victoria in part for the way she flamboyantly talks to Jess. Jess, the main chara

Hola Merfolk! One of my favorite collections of mermaid stories is Mermaids: The Myths, Legends, & Lore by Skye Alexander. The book is gorgeous with details of an aquamarine cover and the same color used for the print and illustrations. It’s not just stories but quotes, poetry, and art for the mermaid obsessed. Alexander mentions science tells us all life came from the sea. We even look like mermaids when starting in the womb. The duality of mermaids lures us. They have a pro

Hola Merfolk! If you’re into merfolk, Among the Mermaids: Facts, Myths, and Enchantments from the Sirens of the Sea by Varla Ventura is one of the books you should have in your library. The book goes into nautical terms, merfolk stories that made the headlines, poetry, mermaid stories, and two mermen stories that I recollect. One of my favorite stories in Among the Mermaids is a true account about a merman. A woman and her mother stayed at a new resort in Bermuda. While sleep

Hola Merfolk! Silver Light by J.R. Rain and Matthew S. Cox is a fun read I found from reading the Midlife Mermaid Trilogy that J.R. Rain wrote with H.P. Mallory. A private investigator mermaid with a Dark Master is a story I can sink my teeth into. And Alexis does. She has some vampire attributes like eating people, except the person was already dead, and she’d rather eat fish. Occasionally, she has this voice in her head—the Dark Master. I think the DM is more like a walk-

Hola Merfolk! I read a cute trilogy by H.P. Mallory and J.R. Rain called the Midlife Mermaid. The covers are fun too. The titles are inspired by movies-The Girl Next Door, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and A Walk To Remember. The Mermaid Next Door is book one. The cute story is about a naïve mermaid who escapes her soon-to-be macho merman, Cullen. Her husband Evard has died, and now she must marry his brother, Cullen. Her best friend, Mara, who has already married Cullen helps

Creator told her ancestors they would want for nothing as long as they lived in balance with nature and didn’t take more than they needed. During creation, the formless spirit O’-rey-gos wanted to be immortal. O’-rey-gos agreed to take care of the River, its fish, and its people and the Creator turned her into a rock. Today, she sits on the north side of the mouth of the River. She signals to the salmon when to take the journey upriver.

Hola Merfolk! I thought I’d share a book that helped start my research for The MerSea Series. Empire Beneath the Ice: How the Nazis Won World War II by Stephen Quayle goes deep down the rabbit hole of what happened in Antarctica and the events leading up to it and some of the possible technology. Each chapter starts out with a scene of the past in novel form and then switches to a history book narrative. In chapter one, Quayle writes about Operation Highjump, which was sold t

The MerSea Series Hola Merfolk! I have cover reveals! Not just one but three. The MerSea Series is almost live. Here is a little about the books or the series blurb. Marine biologist Sarah Sumner finds romance with Swedish deckhand Gunner at her side on the M/V MerSea as they harass the Japanese whalers with smoke bombs, potato launchers, and prop foulers. For the vegan, eco-pirate crew, saving whales is the mission, but weather, whalers, and a narcissistic scientist changes

Hola Merfolk! As I get ready to republish The MerSea Series, I have decided to create my own book covers using Photoshop. I had my last book cover, The Denizen’s Stone, made by a professional who did not use AI. However, she did make ads for me using AI as you can see above. My formatter added an AI photo to the title page. In the last ten years, stock photos have become dull. There are AI photos now that are colorful and show romantic couples. Having AI pictures for a parano

Hola Merfolk! What should you expect from my books? There are three things you will find in my stories. 1. A Happily Ever After 2. Compassion 3. Well-researched A Happily Ever After is also known as an HEA. Most of my books will be romances. With the romance genre, readers expect some kind of commitment between the main couple by the end of the book. It’s 2026, they don’t have to get married. Ways to show they are committed to each other are through an “I love you,” or saying

Hola Merfolk! I’m Melissa Ceseña, and I am a paranormal romance author. Here’s what to expect from my Tales and Tea blog. Most blogs are supposed to be about one topic, but mine will be about more than one. A well-rounded point of view is necessary to finding correlations through diverse topics. I do a lot of research through reading, videos, and events. Connecting the dots to me means not just researching mermaids and the ocean for my books. As I researched mermaids, too man