S07:09 Mermaid Romance with Zoraida Córdova/Zoey Castile

Summary

Fated Mates - Episode S07:09 Summary: Mermaid Romance with Zoraida Córdova/Zoey Castile

Hosts: Sarah MacLean & Jennifer Prokop
Guest: Zoraida Cordova (also known as Zoey Castile)
Release Date: November 5, 2024

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Welcome and Introduction

The episode kicks off with Sarah MacLean and Jennifer Prokop engaging in their signature banter, introducing their guest, mermaid expert Zoraida Cordova. Their playful exchange sets a lighthearted tone as they segue into the main topic of mermaid romance in literature.

Sarah MacLean (00:29): "Everybody, please welcome, for the third time, I think, I don't know, fourth, maybe fourth time. Fourth. Zoraida Cordova is with us, who is also Zoe Castile."

Mermaid Anatomy and the Physics of Mermaid Romance

The conversation delves into the intricacies of mermaid anatomy, particularly focusing on the logistics of mermaid-human relationships. Sarah and Jen express their curiosity about the feasibility of mermaid interactions with humans, leading Zoraida to elaborate on her unique approach to mermaid physiology in her works.

Sarah MacLean (00:11): "I do have a question about, like, the physics of mermaid sex that I used to have questions about one version. One, like, mermaid sex question."

Zoraida Cordova (14:00): "So I'm like, okay, if mermaids are mammals, they have to have mammary glands. They need some seashells or some protection for their nipples."

Zoraida introduces the concept of a "pocket" in mermaid anatomy to address coverage during swimming and intimacy, blending scientific reasoning with magical elements to maintain plausibility within her fantasy settings.

Global Mermaid Lore and Mythology

Zoraida expands the discussion to mermaid myths from various cultures, highlighting the universal presence of merpeople in global folklore. This segment underscores the diversity and richness of mermaid legends, from Greek sirens to Slavic Rusalkas.

Jennifer Prokop (07:20): "That's when I saw the broadcast of the shell in, like a Batman sign."

Zoraida Cordova (09:42): "Russian people and Slavic people have the Rusalkas."

Zoraida Cordova's Contributions to Mermaid Romance

The hosts explore Zoraida's extensive bibliography, including her YA debut novels "Vicious Deep" and its sequels, the novella "The Captive Mermaid's Promise" (written under the pen name Zoe Castile), and various short stories. Sarah praises Zoraida's world-building and her blend of romance with fantastical elements.

Sarah MacLean (03:43): "She was one of my picks for the best of last year."

Zoraida Cordova (03:31): "It's a rockstar romance, but also a retell. A contemporary retelling of the Little Mermaid."

Challenges in Publishing Mermaid Romances

The discussion shifts to the publishing industry's reluctance to embrace mermaid romances robustly, despite the genre's rich potential. Zoraida reflects on the saturated vampire and paranormal markets, noting the scarcity of mermaid-focused narratives.

Zoraida Cordova (38:05): "Publishers are scared of it. They never know what to do with it."

Sarah MacLean (36:39): "Publishers don't always know how to market it."

Recommendations: Mermaid Romantic Novels

Both hosts and Zoraida recommend a selection of mermaid romance novels, spanning from classic tales to contemporary works. They highlight the diversity of storytelling approaches, from cozy witchy romances to dark, suspenseful narratives.

Zoraida Cordova (48:04): "The first book is 'Witchful Thinking' by Celestine Martin... it's like a super cozy witchy romance."

Sarah MacLean (55:00): "My first pick is Marjorie M. Liu's 'Soul Song'... a full standalone within a larger series."

Spotlight on Zoraida's Upcoming Works

Zoraida shares insights into her upcoming projects, including "Tentacles and Triathlons," a male-male queer romance, and her involvement in anthology editing. She also teases her future works, hinting at expansive world-building and diverse creature mythologies.

Zoraida Cordova (63:57): "It's called Tentacles and Triathlons... a Leviathan fitness novel."

Zoraida Cordova (82:20): "My next book doesn't come out till 2026. It's called 'The Fall of Rebel Angels.'"

Closing Remarks

The episode concludes with heartfelt thanks to Zoraida for her participation and contributions to the discussion on mermaid romances. The hosts encourage listeners to explore the recommended books and follow Zoraida’s work across her social media platforms.

Sarah MacLean (84:26): "Find her at @ZoraidaCordova.com... check show notes for all the many links and the books that we've talked about today."

Jennifer Prokop (87:00): "Thank you both for being with us."

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Notable Quotes

• Sarah MacLean (00:11): "I do have a question about, like, the physics of mermaid sex that I used to have questions about one version."
• Zoraida Cordova (14:00): "If mermaids are mammals, they have to have mammary glands. They need some seashells or some protection for their nipples."
• Zoraida Cordova (38:05): "Publishers are scared of it. They never know what to do with it."
• Sarah MacLean (03:43): "She was one of my picks for the best of last year."
• Zoraida Cordova (63:57): "It's called Tentacles and Triathlons... a Leviathan fitness novel."

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Conclusion

This episode of Fated Mates offers an in-depth exploration of mermaid romance, blending scientific curiosity with rich mythological context. Zoraida Cordova provides expert insights into mermaid anatomy, the challenges of writing mermaid romances, and the broader landscape of mermaid lore. The hosts and guest collaboratively celebrate the allure of mermaid narratives while addressing industry hurdles, making this episode a must-listen for romance enthusiasts seeking to dive deeper into aquatic amore.

Transcript

[Jennifer Prokop]

Do mermaids ever wake up with sore necks? That's what I wanna know. Like, a me problem.

[Sarah MacLean]

They're in a constant. They're, like, floating in.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Just seems like they would never. That would never happen.

[Sarah MacLean]

I do have a question about, like, the physics of mermaid sex that I used to have questions about one version. One, like, mermaid sex question. But now I have, like, a completely separate mermaid sex question that I think comes from just being older.

[Jennifer Prokop]

And, like, we brought an expert in.

[Sarah MacLean]

Everybody I know.

[Jennifer Prokop]

We brought in our mermaid expert.

[Sarah MacLean]

Everybody, please welcome, for the third time, I think, I don't know, fourth, maybe fourth time. Fourth. Zoraida Cordova is with us, who is also Zoe Casteel. And when we decided we were going to do a mermaid episode, there was only one person who could possibly have been our. I mean, well, Jen, what did you say you were like, mermaids? I don't know anything about mermaids.

[Jennifer Prokop]

We better get dried on the phone. Or the shell, whatever it is.

[Zoraida Cordova]

I think you. I saw the broadcast of the shell in, like a Batman sign.

[Sarah MacLean]

Yeah, there you go.

[Zoraida Cordova]

That's when I knew.

[Sarah MacLean]

But I feel like in romance there are only. There is only Zoraida. Like, if somebody says, like, mermaids, like, I don't know who other people call, but we call you.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Okay.

[Jennifer Prokop]

And I would like to say Laura. Laura von Hold. Right. Who has the mermaid podcast.

[Sarah MacLean]

She has the mermaid podcast. Yes. But Laura, interestingly, does not write about mermaids. She writes about pumpkin pounding. This is a separate thing. Everybody. Happy Halloween. Halloween first.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Well, it's the week after Halloween when this is airing.

[Sarah MacLean]

I don't even know anymore.

[Jennifer Prokop]

It is correct. This is the week after Halloween, and I think maybe the day after the election.

[Sarah MacLean]

Oh, geez. So here you need Pumpkin Pounder.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yeah. And Mermaid Anatomy.

[Sarah MacLean]

Listen, if it's the day after the election, we probably are all still vibrating and we don't know what's happened. So you're welcome, everybody. Here we are. We're going to get to the bottom of all the physics of mermaid sex today with Zoraida Cordova.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Let's do it underwater in a different way. Okay.

[Sarah MacLean]

Yeah. So, Zoraida, you have written how many mermaid books? Because by my count, it's five. Is that correct?

[Zoraida Cordova]

Okay, so there's the Vicious Deep and the two sequels, which were my YA debut novels in 2012.

[Sarah MacLean]

This is where I remember having a conversation with you long ago about the physics. The pocket situation. Which we will get in.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yes, the pocket. Yeah. And then I wrote this novella as Zoe Castile called the Captive Mermaid's Promise.

[Sarah MacLean]

Which I just finished yesterday and is really a delight. Thank you.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Thank you. And then mostly I've written mermaid short stories. So I have a mermaid short story and Reclaim the Stars, which is a. No, sorry. Relit, which is a Latinx science fiction and fantasy anthology, which is basically a Frankenstein made a mermaid instead of a Frankenstein. Frankenstein's. Yeah, he's Frankenstein. And then I have the short story in Mermaids Never Drown. Mermaids Never Drown, which is an anthology, a YA anthology that I co edited.

[Sarah MacLean]

With Natalie C. Parker and Meant to be, for the Meant to Be series. Right. Kiss the Girl, which we've talked about on the podcast. It was one of.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Well, we put. It's on the best.

[Sarah MacLean]

It was one of my picks for the best of last year.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Thank you.

[Sarah MacLean]

I appreciate it so much. Well, it's great. It's such a terrific book. It's so fun. It's basically a rockstar romance, but also a retell. A contemporary retelling of the Little Mermaid.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yep. Disney's the Little Mermaid.

[Sarah MacLean]

Which is interesting because I feel.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Sarah, before you launch into. Because, should we welcome the people to the podcast?

[Sarah MacLean]

Oh, I figured we would have already done that in banter, but let's do it now. No, you're right, we should. Let's do it again.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Let's just do it. I feel like we're doing it.

[Sarah MacLean]

We're in it. We're in it.

[Jennifer Prokop]

We're bantering with Zoraida.

[Sarah MacLean]

Welcome, everyone, to Fated Mates. I'm Sarah Maclean. I read romance novels and I write them.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I'm Jennifer Perlkop, a romance reader and procrastinator. That's like a personal statement about my state, my state of being right now. But it's fine.

[Sarah MacLean]

And we are here today with Zoraida Cordova, which we've already said, but welcome, Zoraina.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Thank you. We're excited. I wasn't sure if I was here in my capacity as Zoe or Zoraida.

[Sarah MacLean]

I have answered, but I feel like both are separate. The two. Like you are both. When we are talking about mermaids. Right?

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yeah.

[Sarah MacLean]

Yeah. Okay. So what. See, now you've derailed me.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I'm sorry I derailed you.

[Sarah MacLean]

A storm has come through the city.

[Jennifer Prokop]

It'll come back. You know, here's how we can start. Because I want to. One of the reasons we mentioned we have, like. Cause Zoraida is our mermaid expert. But. And we've had on the podcast. You've mentioned this before, but, like, you have really loved mermaids and mermaid lore.

[Zoraida Cordova]

My whole life. Yeah. You know, it is. You Know, most kids, I think, are thinking about, how do I get a boyfriend? And I'm thinking, like, how does a merboy have a penis? And that was really just my deranged, perverted little mind just being like, well, I barely figured out how all of this. My own personal stuff, works. Now let me figure out. How does the magical anatomy work?

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yeah.

[Zoraida Cordova]

And that didn't come come out until a little bit later in when I was researching my debut novel, the Vicious Deep, which is about a teenage boy who discovers he's the grandson of the sea king and has the champion for the sea throne. It is out of print, so if you could find it, it's probably, like, in a used book source somewhere, but it's not online or anything anymore. But this is the series that got me started with doing this kind of research and thinking about how I wanted my merpeople to function, essentially. And so I came up with a lot of different versions of what kinds of merpeople there are, because, you know, like, all fantasy, you. You make it up for to fit your own story.

[Sarah MacLean]

So mermaids are really fascinating, and mermaid merfolk are very fascinating to me in the sense that they sort of come from everywhere. Like, every culture seems to have some sort of, like, concept of. Of peop. Things that live in the sea. Like sentient beings that live in the sea.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yes.

[Sarah MacLean]

Possibly humans, possibly manatees.

[Zoraida Cordova]

That the conquistadors were like, oh, that looks like a person. I'm gonna fuck it.

[Sarah MacLean]

Well, exactly. Like all conquistadors, I'm really.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yeah, I'm really interested in hearing more about this because I think one of the things I'm interested in is, like, the power or like the. Like, it feels like everything's the Little Mermaid to me. Right. Like, everything. And so I'm kind of like, are there other. Is it just like that? There's only one merma story. And therefore, like, that becomes the blueprint as opposed to, like, a princess in a castle. We've got, like, a million of those stories.

[Zoraida Cordova]

No, actually, it's so a few years ago, Penguin. You know how Penguin does a lot of those, like, book, like, story collections about a specific topic. Like the book of demonology, the book of, like, fairy tales. So they have a book, the Penguin Book of Mermaids, and it's by Shu. Oh, my God. What is the word? Archaeologist is not the right word, but two researchers. Anthropologists, I think, like. Sorry, anthropologists. But I remember reading it just because I was like, this is a beautiful cover. And they were like, you're a mermaid.

[Sarah MacLean]

Person.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Here's this book. I ended up blurbing it. In that collection. There's merpeople from Hawaii, the Philippines, the Caribbean, which comes from the African diaspora. And there are indigenous mermaids, specifically some that. I forget the names of the tribes, the specific tribes, but they have a lot of, like, mermaid in the waterfall. Greek people have, obviously, Poseidon and all of the nymphs and sirens. Son Triton. Triton literally is a. Is a merman. Poseidon, Sun. Triton.

[Sarah MacLean]

Triton could get it.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yeah, Triton can get it. There's. There's ichthyosauruses, which are like a centaur, but a merman. Would like to write that one day.

[Sarah MacLean]

Get it done.

[Jennifer Prokop]

What's a kraken? Is a Kraken.

[Zoraida Cordova]

A kraken is just a giant octopus. Yeah, that is like, that. Is it. Is it Lovecraft? I'm not really sure. Like, Cthulhu?

[Jennifer Prokop]

Oh, yeah.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Like. Yeah.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Okay.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yeah. So there's there's just like.

[Jennifer Prokop]

So there's, like, there's monsters and then, like, people.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yes, they're. Yeah. And then. And sometimes they're a little bit of both in, like, that fairy, Celtic mythology. There's. In Ireland, there's the Marrow, and the Marrow is like, the ugly guy. Mermaid, merman, but they're specifically called Marrows. Then there's, like. Then there's just water creatures. Right. So they're all over the world. They're pretty global. Russian people and Slavic people have the Rusalkas. And I will talk about a book that's. It's actually not a romance. I'll just mention it now. It's called Fathom Folk by Eliza Chan, which is. It's a Asian mythology, but it's a political fantasy with more people. So there's a lot.

[Sarah MacLean]

And, like, this has to be in large part because the ocean is just monster soup. Right. Like, such weird shit comes out of there on a. I mean, just walking on a beach like that. You have to assume that, like, the mist, the mystery of the ocean, especially for, like, people who are seafaring, is. It inspires us to imagine that there is, like, a whole universe down there and.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Absolutely. And I think that, you know, if stories and mythology and all the things that people used to believe in and still do are a way for us to explain the world, then how do you explain, like, the, like, standing by the rocks of a. Of a. Of a beach and hearing that, like, haunting sound that sounds like somebody singing, you know, and so. Or the things that you see jumping out of the water? And so it's really fascinating from that point of view, how we explain away all the things that have now become kind of, like, central to monster fucking and other things.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Well, and I think also so much of the ocean is unknown to us even now. Right? I mean, back then, but like, even now. How much? I mean, you know, like, we're sending things down to the very bottom and blowing up billionaires down there.

[Sarah MacLean]

Including billionaires.

[Jennifer Prokop]

But I think ultimately there's, like. That's the part that's like. When you. When people talk about how much of the ocean is, like, unknown to us or, like, how because it's so impossible for us to get there, you know, it's easy. It was easier to get to the moon, to the bottom of the ocean. That's real wild when you think about it.

[Zoraida Cordova]

That is wild.

[Sarah MacLean]

But in our case, we're specifically interested in the fucking part of it. Right.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Why are they like this? Why am I like this?

[Sarah MacLean]

I mean, I'm just gonna. I'm just cutting to the chase here.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I guess I'm like, the romance of it.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Let me tell. Let me tell you some of the research I did when I was trying to decide what my. When I decided what. Trying to decide what my mermaids looked like, I sort of had to pick between, are they mammals that live underwater, like whales, or are they just fully fish?

[Jennifer Prokop]

Fish gills. Yeah, fish.

[Zoraida Cordova]

And you see that in lots of different books. Libba Bray's Great and terrible Beauty series has Peter Pan mermaids, but they look like they're bald with scales on their heads. And then you have the Disney or whatever.

[Sarah MacLean]

The. Those.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Those cutesy mermaid movies were, like, not splash, but, like, you know, they're beautiful. They're like. They have actual hair also splash. They have, like, you know, beautiful hair. And they just have a tail. And then we have to explain why they have a tail. So if mermaids are mammals.

[Sarah MacLean]

See, I love. This is the difference between us and people who write fantasy.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I know.

[Sarah MacLean]

We have to explain why they have a tail. I'm like, why? They just do. I'm just neurotic.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Okay, that totally makes sense.

[Sarah MacLean]

Like, obviously you need to explain that.

[Zoraida Cordova]

So I'm like, okay, if mermaids are. If I'm going with mermaids or mammals, I do have some mermaids that are, like, actual fish, but it's a different mythology.

[Sarah MacLean]

Okay, so that answers my first question, which is all your mermaids do not live in the same mer universe.

[Zoraida Cordova]

No, no. Even my vampires, my witches. I have different universes for everything. So I'm just sort of being like, well, what if I did this differently and had a different kind of.

[Sarah MacLean]

You know what I mean?

[Zoraida Cordova]

So, like.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yeah, so you're not locked in once you make a decision.

[Sarah MacLean]

Yeah, yeah.

[Zoraida Cordova]

And so if mermaids are mammals, they have to have. They. They have mammary glands. They need some seashells or some protection for their nipples. Right. So, like, if you. If you're a mer person. And so I was like, okay, so I need the scales to retract so when they surface, they can brush away their scales and their scales turn to sand. And so it's just, like, easy. It's a little painful, but. But like, there you have coverage for your nipples when you're swimming really fast in the water and you're just, like, going turbo in some. I'm imagining this is how mermaids, like, take, like, the lie, Right? Yeah. And so, like, so they would have that. The hair situation. I feel like it. You know, that's the part that never makes sense because they shouldn't have human hair underwater, but it's just too pretty.

[Sarah MacLean]

But you have to.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Well, listen, it's literal gravity defying hair.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Exactly.

[Jennifer Prokop]

This week's episode of Faded Mates is brought to you by Madison Scorer, author of Happily Never After.

[Sarah MacLean]

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[Jennifer Prokop]

You can binge the whole series right now. And it's available in print, ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited. If your podcasting app supports it. You can click on the chapter title right now to be taken to buy the book. Thanks to Madison Square for sponsoring this week's episode.

[Sarah MacLean]

But then we get to the other organs, right?

[Zoraida Cordova]

So let's get.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Thankfully, Sarah's like, I've been waiting 15 minutes for that.

[Zoraida Cordova]

I've drawn this diagram for lots of people.

[Sarah MacLean]

I think I've seen this diagram, but if you'd like to draw it for us, we can put it in show notes. And also it could be the image on the podcast that you're looking at right now.

[Zoraida Cordova]

After being a little tipsy, I drew this, like, diagram of like. So if people with mer. People with penises would have a slit down their front, which is covered by scales, kind of like a boxer brief, right? Oh, and so, yeah, because whales.

[Sarah MacLean]

Hanes has already got there.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Have you ever googled a whale penis?

[Sarah MacLean]

Well, no, but now I'm going to. So here we go.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I'm doing it right now. See, what's the difference between us? Sarah's like, no, I haven't.

[Sarah MacLean]

Let me put a number. Pulling up my browser. Whale penis.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Whale penises.

[Sarah MacLean]

Oh, my God.

[Jennifer Prokop]

See, they come out of. They come out between us. I don't need to know. Holy.

[Sarah MacLean]

There's a picture. You guys, don't. Don't do this unless you're ready is what I'm.

[Zoraida Cordova]

So this is my. This was my inspiration. Obviously mermen have like a little bit regular size, appropriate sized for a romance novel. So, you know, just like 12 inches. Just kidding. And, and so they. But so they, they. They remove their penises when they need to pee or have sex.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Wait, they remove them?

[Sarah MacLean]

Yeah, they like, they bring it out from the market.

[Zoraida Cordova]

They remove it from the pocket.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I thought you meant, like, it was detachable.

[Zoraida Cordova]

No, detachable penis. You remember that song?

[Jennifer Prokop]

Oh, my God, this is the best thing that's ever happened to me.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Incredible.

[Sarah MacLean]

That.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yeah. So it's not that scary. Like my mer people, their penises look like more human penises.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I said I wasn't gonna look it up, so everyone. Sarah looked it up and then forced it onto the zoom screen. So I have to look at it.

[Sarah MacLean]

Non consensual whale penis sharing a tale.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Of our friendship right there.

[Zoraida Cordova]

A tale of two penises, mammal and nut. And so what was I saying? Okay, so that's one way. And so when they're ready to have penetrative sex, I Think that mermaids with a vagina, their vaginas would have to be closer, like down and under, like further to the earth.

[Sarah MacLean]

Because they have tails.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Because they have tails. Exactly. And they can't open up those tails. So the access needs to be in the front. So if they're in the back near their.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Wouldn't it be great if there was.

[Sarah MacLean]

Like a mermaid with like a tail of doggy? They always mount from the back.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yeah, they always mount from the back. Because. Unless they're in human form because.

[Sarah MacLean]

Well, that would inspire like then we would. Yeah, that would.

[Jennifer Prokop]

They'd probably get in trouble for that though.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Like.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Right. Like they'd be like, you're not allowed to do it in that form.

[Sarah MacLean]

It's so gross.

[Zoraida Cordova]

But they also can't access it. Right? Like they can't access it because it like the entrance.

[Jennifer Prokop]

We know why.

[Zoraida Cordova]

From lower and back. Because then they're. I guess it could look, technically I could do it other. The other way around. I'm using my hands like as if I could.

[Sarah MacLean]

But I guess two tails kind of mean like you're like, you'd have to be. I get, I get it.

[Zoraida Cordova]

I get it. I gotta do it. It's doable. It's doable.

[Jennifer Prokop]

My job. Apparently right now I'm just here to giggle.

[Sarah MacLean]

No, but see because front to back feels like you could, you could both. Okay, listen, front to back is like you could both bend the same way, but front to front.

[Zoraida Cordova]

No. Oh, front to front. You can't front your front.

[Sarah MacLean]

That's what I mean.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yeah.

[Sarah MacLean]

Yeah. I'm glad we're really getting the bottom. So like.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yeah, so like.

[Sarah MacLean]

Oh. Yep.

[Zoraida Cordova]

And so. But you have to.

[Sarah MacLean]

But also for working with this whale penis thing like that there's no concern about.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yeah. So there would have been able to get to.

[Sarah MacLean]

There's.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yeah. There are two entrances. Right. There's like your booty hole and then your like how there's still everything else. Yeah. So in everyone just like I'm going.

[Sarah MacLean]

To leave this to you two weirdos.

[Zoraida Cordova]

So in. In. I think it's whale anatomy in order. Because I was like, well, how does sperm actually enter? And this is what the research I did for the captive merman's promise. Because for my ya, I was just like, I just need to know where they are. Like.

[Sarah MacLean]

Yeah, they're not asking these hard hitting questions, if you will. These penetrative questions. Exactly.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yes. I really need to penetrate the subject thoroughly. So.

[Jennifer Prokop]

You listen. We're doing a service right now.

[Zoraida Cordova]

You're welcome everyone, whatever Happens not.

[Sarah MacLean]

Just kidding.

[Zoraida Cordova]

There's only one option. So where was I? Oh. So I have to figure out, yeah, like, how does this. How does like sperm enter the body if they're underwater? And so the. Their penises are just have to be that much longer to go up the channel.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Sure.

[Sarah MacLean]

Yes.

[Zoraida Cordova]

And so they have sort of this like suction so that seawater does not.

[Sarah MacLean]

Here is where I would like to pause and discuss the specifics of the Captain. Captive Merman's Promise.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yeah. So the Captive Merman's Promise. Should I pitch it?

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yes, it's great.

[Zoraida Cordova]

So the Captive Mermaid's Promise is a novella that I wrote for originally for a Kickstarter Peculiar Taste. And I've added like a bonus ending and published in an audio a month this in October 2024. It's also available on ebook. And it's about a young bruja who is cursed to always lose her love. And it used to be her family's curse, but she has absorbed it into herself so that her family can have their happy ending. So she just like wanders around the world looking for an elite to alleviate the pain. And she winds up in this like circus Samhain knight spectacle at this sort of like a brothel run by this like, wizard, man, sorcerer.

[Jennifer Prokop]

And one of the things I liked about this was like, he's real hot. And like, oh, I was not.

[Sarah MacLean]

I was like, I'm in, I'm in.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I was like, wait, is this the guy? He seems like kind of a scumbag, but I guess that's what we're doing now. And I was like, oh, it's not.

[Zoraida Cordova]

No, no, not in quota.

[Sarah MacLean]

And that's what's.

[Zoraida Cordova]

I will have a hot villain. I just. I just don't always. I can't redeem a hot villain.

[Sarah MacLean]

No. My life, my like entire life with Zoraida has been texting Zoraida, like, when am I gonna get that horrible villain story? And her being like, you're not go away from me.

[Zoraida Cordova]

You know, I always make them nice. That is a Star wars story that I can tell later. But anyway, so she meets. Her name is Amada. She meets Ronan, who's a merman who's been captive for.

[Sarah MacLean]

He's like in a fish tank, everyone. It's like a fish tank.

[Zoraida Cordova]

And he has to perform for people, including, like masturbating in front of people because his sperm turns into pearls when they are in contact with salt water.

[Sarah MacLean]

And anything salty, everyone.

[Zoraida Cordova]

And everything. There's salt water in our saliva. Just, you know, putting that out There.

[Sarah MacLean]

It's fucking perfect. It's so great.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Listen, I love everything about this from.

[Sarah MacLean]

Romance is like for people to just take the swing and go, right, y'all. Zoraida takes the swing in this novella. It is absolutely delightful.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Thank you. And so that you know, a captive merman, a cursed bruja who fall in love and they fall, you know, for me, I'm always sort of an insta love kind of girly. So it happens over a couple days around Samhain.

[Sarah MacLean]

And it's also blazing hot, this novella. You're all gonna have a great time because it's written by Zoe Casteel. It's written by Zoe Castile, who is the like blazing hot version of Zoraida.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Zoraida After Dark, if you will.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Oh, that should be the name of my website. My Zoe website.

[Sarah MacLean]

So, okay, you were talking about the pocket. So then the way that this is actually all. What I love about your books is like all the world building is actually like sorted in the books. And so at one point there's like a discussion of like, how mermaids procreate. And he's like, well, there's a pocket and there's like, it's a seal, so that it doesn't turn to pearl in there.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yeah. Yes, it doesn't. Like, there's no pearls in your uterus. Because that would be painful.

[Sarah MacLean]

No.

[Zoraida Cordova]

And so when I. There's a line in my YA novel, In the Vicious Deep, because it's a teenage boy and he's turned into a merman for the first time. And he's like. And he has a guardian with him.

[Sarah MacLean]

He has one question. He's not about the tail.

[Zoraida Cordova]

And like, he can't ask his mom, the ex mermaid. So he's like, to his guardian, he's like, bro, where does it go? And his guardian is like, don't worry, there's a pocket. And so this pocket that I wrote in 2012 has just been in as many mermaid things that I can put it in.

[Sarah MacLean]

So that is the same. The. The boxer brief pocket remains.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I mean, you can't change anatomy. She's listening.

[Sarah MacLean]

That's just canon. That's fact.

[Jennifer Prokop]

That's the way it goes.

[Zoraida Cordova]

That's canon. Just my science. And then like the scales turn into sand. So like, this is like, this is what how I feel like my merm people function. Everything else I can explain away with magic. But this is. I'm like, this is science. This is the right of science fair.

[Sarah MacLean]

So what is so sexy about? Why are we also like, drawn to the Sex part of mermaids because they have a tail.

[Jennifer Prokop]

You're like, what? How are they doing it? Don't you think?

[Zoraida Cordova]

I think that it is a little bit like tails. Yeah.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Like their whole body.

[Sarah MacLean]

Yeah. But, like, why are you, like, why are we humans? Like, oh, this is like, we're drawn to this as. And I don't mean, like, sex. I mean, like, why are we drawn to, like, the sensuality of, like, is it because of water? Again, like, is it.

[Zoraida Cordova]

I think it's because mermaids have been sexualized.

[Sarah MacLean]

Fish are not ever, right?

[Zoraida Cordova]

Not sexy. I've never been like, look at that. Clownfish.

[Sarah MacLean]

No. Fish are fucking weird. I think.

[Zoraida Cordova]

I think clown octopus could be sexy. I don't know.

[Sarah MacLean]

Well, we've certainly seen tentacle romance.

[Zoraida Cordova]

We have seen tentacles. And I have a tentacle. Cause I do consider these, like, all water creatures are fair game in the mermaid world. And so I think for me, it is the mystery, right? Like, the mystery people. Mermaids have been sexualized in nautical communities, like fishermen, pirates. Like, you get a sexy mermaid tattooed on your bicep, right? Like.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Right.

[Zoraida Cordova]

That kind of imagery has really defined what a mermaid is. And then you have, like, a girl or a woman with these, like, tiny clamshell things or no clamshells. Right. Like just her boobies. Free the boobies. And it's beautiful. Right? And so I think that then we start getting into what do the guys look like? Right. If you Google merman Christmas ornaments, I.

[Sarah MacLean]

Will do that for everyone.

[Zoraida Cordova]

It's this collection of the gaudiest. I have two of them. Gaudiest Christmas ornaments that every Christmas.

[Sarah MacLean]

Oh, my goodness. They look complimentary. Everybody's getting one of these for Christmas from me.

[Zoraida Cordova]

I. I bought myself one for Christmas. I'm going back to New Orleans. I'm gonna buy myself another one. Because there's a store that just sells these. Like, all of their stock is these, like, merman holiday ornaments.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Look at these. Oh, look at that. Look at the grooms. How cute are they?

[Zoraida Cordova]

They're also gay merman, I should say.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I mean, obviously.

[Sarah MacLean]

Look at this one with a baguette and a bottle of wine, and his.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Tail is in the springs.

[Jennifer Prokop]

It's not a baguette, sa.

[Zoraida Cordova]

That is a merman. That's many bigots. Oh, my God.

[Sarah MacLean]

I'm saving this link. Everybody look down. This is Canadian mountain title here. This one with a dolphin friend. This is.

[Zoraida Cordova]

I love that one.

[Sarah MacLean]

That's the mermaid.

[Zoraida Cordova]

That is my. That's the mermaid I want.

[Sarah MacLean]

I'm going to send this to Eric, right now, this is going to be the mermaid I want 39.

[Jennifer Prokop]

They're.

[Zoraida Cordova]

They're. Yeah, they're like this big. They're hand. Hand painted hand everything.

[Jennifer Prokop]

What's. Wait, go back. Go down a little. What's the point of the one who's.

[Sarah MacLean]

A ghost to be work for podcast. Important work for this podcast.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Sarah. Look at the ghost. Oh, what's the point? I'm like, the whole point is a sexy merman.

[Sarah MacLean]

What I want to know is there is somebody in the world and I don't know who they are, but I want to. Who decorates their tree exclusively with these guys.

[Zoraida Cordova]

You know, give me another book deal and it might just be me because that's when I'll be able to afford it.

[Sarah MacLean]

Look at this one. Punk rock Sid Vicious mermaid. You guys, we are gonna put this link in. Show notes. You can all go buy these for your friends for Christmas.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Oh, my God.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Oh, my God.

[Sarah MacLean]

Neat. This one, this one is octopus.

[Zoraida Cordova]

It has tentacles and it's called the stiff one. They all have funny names.

[Sarah MacLean]

I love it.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Flaming bottom. First responder.

[Sarah MacLean]

Full pages of these. They are all.

[Zoraida Cordova]

It's also like good merman. They also come in many sizes. There's two foot one that my boss.

[Sarah MacLean]

One time gave me a two foot one.

[Zoraida Cordova]

He gave me a two foot merman of this style to celebrate my launch for. For there's a Black Lives Matter merman. It is literally insane how many kinds of merpeople they are. They also have ferrymen, which I bought one for Holly Black because I just thought it would be hilarious.

[Sarah MacLean]

Sure. This one is both. Oh, my God. This one is both angel and merman. And it is called Gabriel, but you spell it with a Y. Oh, boy, this is perfect. I'm not. I'm. This is.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I'm sorry. The contest is over. Now we're shopping.

[Sarah MacLean]

This is the greatest episode of the podcast we've ever done.

[Jennifer Prokop]

This week's episode of Fated Mates is brought to you by author M.J. ed@kind. Author of Dishwasher Safe.

[Sarah MacLean]

Well, I mean, there couldn't be a better episode for this one, Jen. This is a mermaid book.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Perfect.

[Sarah MacLean]

So Alicia Latu has been running away from the suffocating expectations of her mother for basically her entire life. And she has finally done the full job by swimming as a mermaid as far away from her home in the Pacific islands as she could. And she is now set up as a chef at the hottest new restaurant in Boston. By day, she walks among humans and cooks some of the best food that Boston has ever had. By night, she is bound to the ocean, forced to transform back into her mermaid form and rejoin the thriving Murr community off the coast of Boston. Listen, I love it.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I'm just curious if she went all the way around or through the Panama Canal. But you know what? We're gonna keep going.

[Sarah MacLean]

We're gonna find, well, we'll suss it out for everybody. Here's the deal though. Like, she is sort of done with this whole, the, the whole expectations of being a mermaid and she is sort of convinced. Convinced that dating a human man will solve a lot of like her personal issues. Of course, luckily, Sean McClary is the new dishwasher.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Men make your life better.

[Sarah MacLean]

We all know that, right? Human men especially.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Sure.

[Sarah MacLean]

Luckily, Sean McClary is the newest dishwasher at the restaurant. But there's something up with him too. He doesn't seem to know how to like operate the dishwasher. He's also living kind of a double life himself. He's a fisherman by day. This is like big lady hawk vibes and a dishwasher by night. And so when Elise kind of swoops in to rescue him from a rogue kitchen appliance, she wonders if maybe he is the human man of her dreams.

[Jennifer Prokop]

So if you're looking for a fantasy rom com with forbidden love, secret identities and a very cute co worker, meet cute, then dishwasher safe might be for you.

[Sarah MacLean]

If you.

[Jennifer Prokop]

If you click on the chapter title right now, you'll be taken to buy the book, which is available in print, ebook and audio. Thank you to MJ Eckind for sponsoring this week's episode.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Merpeople have rarely worked in fiction. Like, and I don't. It's always like if I look at my sales, like there's always a little dip when I do mermaids.

[Sarah MacLean]

Well, this is the really interesting thing because obviously we are going to get to to recommending some books on this episode. It's not just about mermaid anatomy, but the. There are not. You would think in the early tens, right, there was such a rise or in the sort of late aughts, early tens, there was such a huge rise in paranormal. Huge. Like you couldn't. It was what we have seen like with romantasy everywhere we go in cycles.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Every decade, it's fine.

[Sarah MacLean]

And so we were. I was looking and I was like, there must be. There must be like mermaids in here. And it is very difficult to find. There are, you know, throw a stone, hit a vampire, werewolf, a fairy or whatever, but like a mermaid. In fact, this whole, this Whole podcast was. Was built on Immortals After Dark, which is basically monster mash. Right. And there are no mermaids. I mean, there are mermaids. Like, there's.

[Zoraida Cordova]

There are no mermaids in Stooky Stackhouse.

[Sarah MacLean]

Yeah, yeah.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Like, in that series either.

[Sarah MacLean]

There's something really interesting about it because back in the day in, like, the 80s and 90s in romance, there was this sort of adage that, like, if you put a romance on a boat, you were gonna ruin your career.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Like, yeah, boats.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Like, it's a setting issue, I think, for sure.

[Sarah MacLean]

Right.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I mean, it's a setting issue.

[Zoraida Cordova]

It's. It's logistics. It's. Can you flesh out, no pun intended, the world enough to create something? And so you always bring the merperson on land. But then, so how is the story limited that way? Right, right. And so when I see my book.

[Sarah MacLean]

Can't take a human back.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Right.

[Sarah MacLean]

That's fine. I do want skills in my book.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I think the mammal choice is smart because nobody wants skills.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Well, you have to have gills. My people have gills. But they seal when you're on air. In air. And so it is this thing. Like, when I sold my debut novel, I sold it in one week. It went out on submission. I sold it in a week.

[Sarah MacLean]

I sold it. Not common, everyone.

[Zoraida Cordova]

But it was also because there was that lady who had. She was like, the troll romance lady. Do you remember Amanda Hawken?

[Sarah MacLean]

Oh, yeah.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Amanda Hawken had sold a mermaid series for seven figures.

[Sarah MacLean]

I remember that.

[Zoraida Cordova]

And so all the publishers were like.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Okay, we gotta do mermaids.

[Zoraida Cordova]

We gotta do mermaids. And so they rushed. So there was like, my book, Terra Lynn Child's Forgive My Fins, Tracy Deebs, who's now Tracy Wolf, Tempest Rising, Anna Banks of Poseidon.

[Sarah MacLean]

Like, but that was all ya.

[Zoraida Cordova]

All ya. It was all ya. There were so many. It was. 2012, was the mermaid year, merman year. And it just went to show. Like, I did have a mermaid novel when I was a kid that really haunted me called Serena by Donna Gianna Poli. It was a YA novel. YA didn't exist in 1990. A juvenile novel. Yeah, that's what they called it. And it was about a mermaid in Greece who. Her and her sisters. And this is where they confuse the mermaid and the siren mythology, which are two separate things, but they have become one thing. And it just. It doesn't bother me, but it's just sort of like, oh, but a little.

[Sarah MacLean]

Bothers you a little bit.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yeah.

[Sarah MacLean]

It's all right. We can tell the truth here.

[Zoraida Cordova]

And I get it. Like it's easy to fuse the two, but they're technically two different. Anyway, so these mermaid sirens crash a ship and she picks the mermaid, decides to save one. His name is Philoctetes. And imagine me reading that as a 11 year old being like, philopted Philoctetes. I'm pretty sure it's Philoctetes now that I'm sure.

[Sarah MacLean]

Now that I'm a mature adult that has like Uranus.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yes. And so she's like. And then they have. They fall in love and they have sex. And I was like, but how?

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yeah, but how?

[Zoraida Cordova]

I barely just learned from my girlfriends at a slumber party how people have.

[Sarah MacLean]

Sex, how old they.

[Zoraida Cordova]

And so that really just got me started.

[Sarah MacLean]

And that's where you realized it had to be front to back. Not front to front. When.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yes, a piece of Core Knowledge. When was Aquaman with Jason Momoa?

[Sarah MacLean]

Oh, wasn't that like. That was more recently. No.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yeah, but did that cause any kind. No, it was like real recent. But like, did that cause a blip? I guess he's not. But I feel like that's like in comics you have like, name.

[Sarah MacLean]

Well, you would think that the Little Mermaids are sexy, right? In Roman, like, I went back into the deep here. I mean, not, no pun intended, like back to Little Mermaid time in romance and like.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yeah, but Sarah, back then people were not looking to children's movies as inspiration for adult romance.

[Sarah MacLean]

Beauty and the Beast, the movie that made libraries in historicals.

[Zoraida Cordova]

It is not. I will tell you that. It is not.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yes.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yeah. It is not a trend that catches on really well. I write it because I just love merpeople and the mythology and like, if you threaten me with a good time, I'm going to write. It's because I'm going to write a mermaid novel. And I do think that, like, it's sort of. Publishers don't always know how to market it. They give them the same covers, right.

[Sarah MacLean]

It's all waterscape.

[Zoraida Cordova]

It's all waterscape. And so it's really even one of the ones I'm going to talk about. Like, it's not obviously a Mervyn Mer. A merman in it. If you look at the COVID you would never know it. It's not even in the copy until I read it. And I was like, what? And so it's a difficult publishing.

[Sarah MacLean]

Publishers know this stuff. Right. And so it's funny to me, you say it's not in the copy. Like, there are a lot of things that for a long time you didn't Put in copy. Like they're sort of famously, if you had a widow in your book, you wouldn't put it in the copy because people wouldn't. Yeah, like, so I think like there's, you know, publishers are scared of it.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yeah, publishers are scared of it. They never know what to do with it. Even like there was like a one, one big C series in YA by Jennifer Donnelly, who's a, you know, was a huge author at that time. Like, even her Mermaid series, like, sort of like you never really saw them as much as you saw her other books. So there's sort of this like Curse of the Mermaid, the mer person in, in, in, in romance and in publishing. And I don't, I don't know what it would take because I, I was trying to pitch things around the time Aquaman was coming out and around the time the Little Mermaid was coming out and publishers was just not interested in cross promoting or being like, that's not enough. Like that's not enough to carry it. So it is, it's definitely a struggle.

[Jennifer Prokop]

But I mean, I feel like Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast are like bigger than Disney to me.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yes.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Right. Like, those are like foundational in a way. That's like bigger. But like to me the Little Mermaid is Disney. I mean, that's not fair. I know that it obviously isn't. But like, in terms of like the way it like kind of created it in our, like it entered a lot of people's consciousness as a children's movie as opposed to other things. I do feel like at that time.

[Sarah MacLean]

That was different our generation and we were children when it came out. But like Splash also, right?

[Jennifer Prokop]

Oh yeah.

[Sarah MacLean]

Had to. But I mean like had to have impacted romance in some way because it is like a. One of the things I did want to say, which is not about sex, is I think the other reason why it's sort of naturally, there's a natural sort of sense to romance. Embracing mermaids, even if we haven't seen it is. It is very conflict laden.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Right.

[Sarah MacLean]

Like, rarely do we see two mermaids falling for each other in these books. It's almost always like one of them is a mermaid and one of them is a human. And there is that tension of like, the human can never go like into the deep. Unless. Unless Zoraida's figured it out. Yeah, unless. And so that sort of tension is a natural conflict for romance because like you are, you are star cross.

[Jennifer Prokop]

It's gonna change, right?

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yeah, yeah. And I love that, I love that star crossed thing, but you have to sort of keep making it fresh every time. Right. And so it's like, how do you do that? How do you. How do you bring in conflict? Because I. I love plot. I wish I could function. And I would love to write a book that is just all Vibes. But then I'm like, here's a 17 step quest that they must work on.

[Sarah MacLean]

Your instinct for world building is antithetical to Vibes.

[Zoraida Cordova]

No, I know. I would like to do it because then I'm like, I hate plot holes and I hate, like, figuring this out. But just kidding, I actually do love figuring it out. Out.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Let's recommend some books. But before we do that, can I say my favorite, like, factoid about Splash, the movie, because I'm older than all of you and I saw it in the theaters, is like, Madison. You know her name's Madison? She picks it off of a, like.

[Sarah MacLean]

Out of a sign.

[Jennifer Prokop]

And now that's just like a totally, like a usual name. But, like, at the time we. I remember being like, that's such a weird name. That's like what I. I like, vividly remember being like, yeah, that's so weird. Like the movie. Yeah. Invented the name Madison.

[Sarah MacLean]

And your cat. Cat was named Madison?

[Jennifer Prokop]

No, my cat was named Madison after our president, everybody.

[Sarah MacLean]

Well, I.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Guess so. Sure.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Madison Avenue.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I. I cannot speak to that. I know what names. I know what names.

[Sarah MacLean]

Jen does not want you to think she named Madison after Daryl Hannah is.

[Jennifer Prokop]

What I did not, is what I'm saying.

[Sarah MacLean]

Yes.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Named after James Madison. Sure, same thing.

[Sarah MacLean]

Jen's cat and Daryl Hannah in Splash have the same name.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Rest in peace.

[Sarah MacLean]

Naming structure. This week's episode of Faded Mates is sponsored by Alexandra Harvey, author of the Scandalous Spinster. My favorite flavor of spinster, the old, the best kind.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Sarah. Lady Clara has a secret. She may seem like a wallflower, but in reality, she is writing scandalous romances that are taking. Taking society by storm. And no one knows, not even her fellow members of the Spinster Society. The only one who does know her blackmailer.

[Sarah MacLean]

Oh, she better get a man to help her.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Luckily, Captain Bram Thorn is on the case.

[Sarah MacLean]

Is that the greatest romance hero name captains are really the realm of the historical romance.

[Jennifer Prokop]

It's true. So she is at a. A notorious house party. She essentially one of the other Spencers has gone missing. And so she's like, I'll take the case. And he is the one who realizes that she, like, might be putting herself in real danger. And so Captain Bram Thorn and Claire are gonna probably do some shenanigans they are going to discover who the blackmailer is. They're gonna rescue another lady. I love it.

[Sarah MacLean]

Perfect. Well, if you love a Regency historical with a lot of spice, only one bed, bodyguard vibes, and a like teeny tiny age gap situation, this one is absolutely for you. You can read the Scandalous Spinster right now in print, ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited. And thanks as always to Alexander Harvey for sponsoring this week's episode Zoraida as our guest. Would you like to go first?

[Zoraida Cordova]

I would. So the first book is Witchful Thinking by Celestine Martin. The line is A match made in magic. And it's about a witch, Lucinda Carraway, who lives in a magical town called Freya Grove. I'm pretty sure it's in New Jersey. And she meets. Meets a really cute guy named Alexander Dwyer, who is a merman and he's been traveling the world. And Lucy's in this sort of in between life situation. And so it is all cozy. It's super cozy witchy romance. Hea. And so. But Lucy has also hexed herself, which I. So I was, I was really surprised. Like, this is like a. I wrote like a raunchier version because we have a similar premise, but it's like a testament to like you could take two premises and write completely different books. So this is like super cozy witchy town. Like, I have my pumpkin spice latte ready to read it and it's very sweet.

[Jennifer Prokop]

How so? Do you want to speak to like the anatomy question or.

[Zoraida Cordova]

No, it does not go. It does not go into my anatomy.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Okay. Yeah, the cozy vibe.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yeah, the cozy vibes. I mean, imagine like, I like. It's so cozy. And here's this tentacle penis, right?

[Jennifer Prokop]

They don't quite go together. Celeste, we've talked about Celestine Martin's books before. Like, she really does write like a cozy witchy. Like it's perfect. You're perfect. Fall vibes for sure.

[Sarah MacLean]

Yeah, Amazing.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Okay.

[Zoraida Cordova]

But, yeah, but if you look at the COVID That's what I was saying. Like, you can't tell.

[Sarah MacLean]

You would never know. You would never know.

[Zoraida Cordova]

You would never know. So now you do.

[Jennifer Prokop]

The secret is out.

[Sarah MacLean]

Jen, do you want to go next or do you want me to go next?

[Jennifer Prokop]

Sure. No, I can go next. So I. So. Okay, everybody. All right. So we're gonna recommend some books though. Some adult romances. So like mermaid romance and almost all ya. Yeah, a lot of it is ya, which I thought was really interesting. And a lot of it, it's not as many. I mean, if you put in like vampire romance, it's like you broken Goodreads, right? There's.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yeah, you'll have like. Right? And then if you do mermaids, there's only like four pages.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yeah, exactly. And so I was like, oh, it really is pretty different. So I ended up picking and reading a book for the first time called the Mermaid's Night by Jill Miles. And everybody, that's Jessica Claire and she has been around for a minute, right? And this book is actually from 2011. And part of the reason I read it is because this is like me making shit up. Everybody. I want to be clear. It is a time travel book with a mermaid. And I was like, oh, I'm in. Right? Because sometimes books feel like either they were a dare or literally an author was like, all right, I'm gonna pick this shit out of a hat and make sure. Make it work. Right? And that was like the vibe of like this blurb. So basically, in the Mermaid's Night, Lee Sunderland, it begins with her dying in a car accident. A drunk driver has hit her and she's like, basically standing on the side of the road, like in her, you know, non corporeal kind of aura self or whatever, looking at the, like the wreck. And her fairy godmother rolls up next to her and it's like, real shame that that happened. And she's like, who the hell are you? She's like, well, I'm your fairy godmother. And Leah's like, well, you have clearly done a very shitty job. And the fairy godmother, whose name is Muffin, was like, God, I know. I feel really terrible about it. I was kind of busy doing something else. So in order to make it up to you, I will essentially, you can either like, go to heaven right now or you can essentially, like, spin the wheel with me. And you will like, essentially have to live out a fairy tale for a month. And if you can make the, like, hero fall in love with you, then you can get your life back. Get a life back. Not this one. This one's over. You're done. And Liebe is not really paying attention to the terms of service here. And so she ends up being placed in the story the Little Mermaid, of course. And. But the setting is medieval England. And so what happens is she like, kind of like wakes up, she's like swimming around in the surf and she's like, what the fuck happened to me? I was really delighted. This is all set up, by the way. It's all like, chapter one it's like, what's happening? And she's like. And you know, muffins, like, I told you, you're. It's a little mermaid. You gotta swim off land. And she's like, I have fins. She's like, don't worry. Once you get out there, they'll turn back into legs again, and you won't be able to talk. But you have to make this guy fall in love with you. And the guy is a warlord. Everybody knows I love a warlord baron. He's a baron. Royce Fitzwarren. And so he and his men are trying to reclaim his ancestral castle from, like, the bad guy. And when they see her on the beach and she's naked, of course, her gill. She has gills, but they have sealed up, and her legs are legs. He assumes that she is a spy for the other guy. So he takes her back to the castle, and she won't talk. And he's just convinced that's like, a pretext. But then she ends up saving him from a rogue arrow.

[Sarah MacLean]

That. That's.

[Jennifer Prokop]

And he's like. And everyone's like, boy, she didn't yell or anything when that arrow hit her because she pushed him out of the way. And so he's like, oh, maybe this. She really has lost her voice. Like, anybody at that moment would have, like, made some noise. So she. Now, the part that's really funny is the fairy godmother is kind of like, you are doing a terrible job. You know, she checks in with her every night. You're doing a terrible job. And at one point, kind of is like, listen, you have this month. If you can't make it happen, you're dead. Dead. So you might as well do all the things you wanted to do with your life. And of course, Lee's a virgin, so she's like, oh, I'm gonna definitely do it with this guy then. Because why not? What do I, you know, this is my one chance. And the next morning, the fairy godmother's like, you gave it away for free. And she's like, what is this? And she's like, medieval England. It is Medieval England. It was just really fun. I had a great time reading it. It definitely is just like.

[Sarah MacLean]

I don't know.

[Jennifer Prokop]

It just was, like, a real romp. I had a great time. Super fun. So that's the mermaid's night.

[Sarah MacLean]

So I've talked about this before. I think to. I. I think to Zoraida for sure, but to others as well. My pick is. My first pick is Marjorie. Marjorie M. Liu's Soul Song, which is so everybody in the whole world knows Marjorie M. Liu for her YA novels or graphic novels, like, she is a legend. Before she did all of that, she wrote romance novels and she wrote a fantastic series of paranormal romance novels called the Dirk and Steel series. And the concept behind this, I think they're like, like 12 of them. There are a lot of them. Maybe not 12, but a lot of them. Oh, no, there are 11 of them. Oh, my God. Yeah, there are 11 of them. And the premise of this series is like a paranormal detective agency. And they, like the people, the members of the Dirk and Steel agency, like, protect the innocent, like, and they, like, get involved in all these, like, paranormal shenanigans. Right? So this book, though, soulsong and just the conversation that we've been having makes me think like, oh, this makes a lot of sense because it's deep into the series. It's maybe it's book 6 of 11 and it's a full. For me, it's like a full standalone. You don't have to have read any of the other stuff. You don't have to know about the world, et cetera. And I think there are two reasons why. One is, we've talked about this lots on the podcast, but when you put a human into a paranormal romance, although the heroine of this is not technically a human, she does not know about Merwald. And so you can sort of Eli. You can elide a lot of the early world building in the series because she needs to relearn everything so you can start there. It's another on ramp into the series, but also it makes me realize that these mermaid books in larger series kind of have to be standalones because of the space that they are in. Right? The. The water. Anyway, the premise of this is. This is a reverse little mermaid in the sense that he is. So McAl is our. Our hero. He is not a mermaid. He is not a merman. He's something else. He's like a different kind of. Of mercreature, like underwater creature, but he's basically a merman. And he is tied to. He is enslaved by a sea witch who requires him, who can sort of manipulate him to do whatever she wants. And his particular song, he's like a siren. His particular song can steal the souls of people. So she sends him out as her, like her strongman to steal souls from random people. We meet him stealing the soul of a young woman, and he is just broken by this job, but he can't stop doing it. He is beholden to her whims. And so he meets our heroine Kit who is a world class violinist and also a. A witch. We discover that she's a witch. She knows she's a witch but she has like sort of put her witchiness aside and her unique and terrifying power is that she can see imminent death. So this book begins with her in a. We meet Kit playing a concert in like a world class concert hall. And it's the. I think the line is literally like she looks into the audience and she's like, like a woman in the front row had a knife sticking out of her eye. Right. So I should say this is like Margaery does not, does not pull away from like the darkness of a paranormal world. Like this really feels like an old school paranormal in that like of the Christine Feehan, like yeah, like off that limb of the tree because of the way that like she's not afraid to show darkness. But anyway, so the sea witch has requested that Mkal go and steal the soul of Kit so that the sea witch can have Kit's powers. And when he gets there to do this, he realizes that like they are fated. And so the whole book is a fated mates story where he must. He is compelled to take her soul but also compelled to protect her at all costs. I mean perfect. It is incredibly all the things that people love about Margaery are in this book. Like it is so sharp, it is so funny. She is so clever and all of the kind of like rich mental world building, the kind of every creature in the book is really fascinating. All of the structure of the world is really fascinating. But basically this is a book where these two people are drawn together and absolutely set up to ruin each other. And it is the best.

[Jennifer Prokop]

The best.

[Sarah MacLean]

The best.

[Zoraida Cordova]

You guys are so good at talking about books.

[Sarah MacLean]

So are you. What is your next book?

[Zoraida Cordova]

My next book is called. It's actually the second book in a series but I read the second book first because it was the one that was available on online on audio. They're both available on audio now. It's called Tentacles and Triathlons, a Leviathan fitness novel online. It's kind of like a. It has cozy vibes but it is also very. It goes deep into the infamy. It's a male, male queer romance and it's about basically monsters that go to the same gym and they've kind of come out of the closet. And so the first book which I'm gonna go back to read is a werewolf, werewolf book. And the second book is about the human brother of the sister. And so his name is Cyrus. So it's Cyrus And Rhys One is a tentacled creature. He's like all blue. He does not have any human features and he walks on tentacles. And he's an artist. He just wants to live his life peacefully, lift some weights, go to the gym, do some art. But a lot of people still fear monsters. And Rhys is somebody who's trying to learn how to swim. So he's going to get lessons from Cyrus, this tentacled man. And they have such great chemistry. The sex scenes, I was like, I couldn't wait to get to the sex scenes because I was like, I really hope this author just takes a swing and talks about where things go and she does such a good job. And I really loved it. So especially if you love tentacles and are curious about what that would look like in a very bite sized, only like 200 pages novella, you can get this done. And so every book in the series has different monster pairings. But of course I went first for the one that had the.

[Sarah MacLean]

The More People Monster Gym.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yes. Like, God, you still have to work out when you're a monster.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Enjoy.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I mean, I guess unless you're meaning cute people there, fine. But just feels like I really did get stuck on that for a while and then I was like, no.

[Sarah MacLean]

But I was glad when she said 200 pages because I was like, Monster Gym is not a 400 page book. That is a 200 pages.

[Zoraida Cordova]

It's not, it's not. That's what I love about this series. They're, they're really bite sized. I love that it's called Leviathan Fitness. I just like, it's like, it's really light hearted. Yeah. And so it, you know, I, I have a, I have a few more backups but like. Because I could just talk about mer babies. Mer books all day. But yeah, so that one's my, my second pick. Oh, the title again is Tentacles and Triathlons.

[Sarah MacLean]

Excellent.

[Jennifer Prokop]

An unfair advantage, I mean, I would think.

[Sarah MacLean]

This week's episode of Faded Mates is sponsored by Avon Books, publishers of Alyssa Cole's how to Find a Princess.

[Jennifer Prokop]

So this is the second book in the Runaway Royal series in which we have Makeda Hicks who is going through something. She has lost her job and her girlfriend and one fell swoop. So the last thing she's in the mood for is to rehash the story of her grandmother's infamous summer fling with a runaway prince. Which sounds honestly like a good story I'd be telling everyone. Anyway, the an investigator named Biznaria from the World Federation of Monarchies has appeared to ask questions. And so this sleek and sexy investigator exudes exactly the kind of chaos that organized and efficient Makeda finds irresistible. Even though Bez is determined to drag her into the world of royalty, Makeda doesn't want to have anything to do with it. Until a threat to her grandmother's livelihood changes her mind. So Makeda and Bez are on a transatlantic adventure with a crew of lovable weirdos, a fake marriage, and only one bed on the high seat.

[Sarah MacLean]

Perfect.

[Jennifer Prokop]

What more could you ask for?

[Sarah MacLean]

Well, if you also want a fake relationship and only one bed and an Anastasia retelling on the high seas, how to Find a Princess might be just the book for you. You can find it right now in a new trade paperback version, also an ebook audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited, if your podcasting app supports it. You can click on the chapter title right now. Now to be taken to buy the book. And thanks to Avon Books and Alyssa Cole for sponsoring this week's episode.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Okay, so I am going to talk about a professional mermaid instead of a real mermaid for this one, which is. This is a book called One night standard by E.F. dodd. I just wanna say, like, I worked on this book. This is how I know about it. I was an editor on this book, but I thought it was perfect for this. And in this book, Coral Triton is a professional mermaid. Talk about Name is Destiny. That's, like, her real name. And she. So she essentially has worked in, like, Miami and, like.

[Sarah MacLean]

You mean professional mermaid, like, she swims in fish tanks at bars, like a white. Exactly.

[Zoraida Cordova]

What are they called?

[Sarah MacLean]

Do you remember that bar in New York? What was that called?

[Zoraida Cordova]

The one in Coney Island?

[Sarah MacLean]

No, there was one, like, on the. Sorry, Jen. There was one, like, downtown on the west side, like, right on. Right near. Like, right on the west side Highway. And it was a giant warehouse and it had, like, mermaid tanks. And it was this, like, scene, like you would. It was.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yeah, there's a NETFLIX documentary about people who live as mermaids.

[Jennifer Prokop]

So I think that the. Actually, so what the author told me is she watched that and was so inspired that this was like, sort of like.

[Zoraida Cordova]

It's a Hard Life.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yeah, yeah.

[Zoraida Cordova]

One of those bars. I'm sorry, in Montana.

[Jennifer Prokop]

No, I mean, and that's why. So, like, it's a really hard life because there's just not. There's barely enough work. Right. So Coral, the way the book starts is she's essentially in. Okay. She's in Vegas because there is a new Vegas hotel opening that. And you know how Vegas hotels are, right? Like, they just have like a theme. And this place, it's all like underwater or whatever. And they're like building these huge mermaid tanks. And so she has the ability to like, get like essentially a really, a full time, long term job in Vegas in this hotel. And she's not only gonna be one of the mermaids swimming around, but she'll also have the opportunity to like, sort of like, like do showrunning essentially, right? Like, sort of like plan the, you know, how it all looks or whatever. So she's like moving to Vegas for this job, which is like a real coup because it is hard to find full time mermaiding work. So she is at the airport and she meets this really cute guy. And it's this horrifying moment because, like this huge bottle of lube, like, shoots out of her bag because apparently this is how you get your mermaid tail on, right? You lube up and like slip into this thing. And his name is Jamie Standard. He is from Boston. His sister is in Vegas, and he is sort of sequestered in Vegas because a deal of his is in danger after a, like, newspaper article that like painted him as like a real rogue. And so, you know, the guy on the other side of the deal is like, you know, old man who cares about such things? And so Jamie's partner is like, go to, you know, get out of here for a while. Like, we'll just wait until things cool off. So what happens is he and Coral meet in the airport, they have a super hot one night stand, like crazy hot. And they're both like, never going to see each other again. Except of course, it turns out that his sister Jocelyn is her boss and she sees the insane chemistry between them and essentially like talks them into like, sort of like pretending to date. It's not like true, true fake dating in order to essentially like, kind of like there was like some really good social media vibes and she just wants to like, capitalize on that. So Quarles, I was like, I'm not going to Boston. This is like the job of a lifetime for me. And like, will his association with this mermaid, like, ruin the deal even further? Is kind of like all of the, you know, so there's like some good conflict in it. But basically I just thought it was really cool to have a book about a professional mermaid as like the, you know, the main character. So that's standard.

[Sarah MacLean]

That's really cool. Yeah, it was really A great twist.

[Zoraida Cordova]

The Netflix documentary is called Merpeople.

[Sarah MacLean]

Okay. The bar that I was talking about is called the Coral Room, but I don't think it exists anymore. And there is a very. There's a performance artist in New York City named Julie Atlas Muse, who worked at the Choral Room. And now, like. Like every once in a while does these. Performs as a mermaid around the city. So we'll post links in show notes, but there's a. Her website. There's a gorgeous photograph of her mermaiding around.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yeah.

[Sarah MacLean]

Okay. I went deep, as I said, back into the annals of romance to Harlequin Nocturne, which I know, which is a deep cut. An old harlequin line that was paranormal. It was basically the category paranormal line of Harlequin. And I mean, like, I think probably one of the only. I don't want to say the only because I'm not 1,000% sure, but, like, definitely one of the only paranormal category lines. There is a series that I have not. I have not read all of them. I've only read the first one, so, you know, enter at your own risk. Sirens Secret by Debbie Herbert is the other thing. The really interesting thing about these old nocturnes is there was always. They were always, like, sort of edging into romantic suspense. So this book begins with Shelley, our mermaid, a who is, like, surfaces to the water, to the. Like, to the air, carrying a dead body that has been dumped by a serial killer. Like, it's wrapped up in plastic and she's like. She, like, found that. She saw him dump it. Like, she's been seeing this man dump it. And he. And she's like, I. I have to figure out, like, who this man is. She has. Because obviously he's doing very bad things. The problem is she has two. So Shelley is half mermaid. Her dad, I think, is a human. And she has two sisters who are full mermaid, and they all, like, live in the water. And the sisters are like, okay, this is great that you wanna get to the bottom of this and commit vengeance on this terrible man. We agree. And mermaid justice is real and we can enact it here, but you are now messing with a crime scene. Like, so we have to figure out what's going on. And Shelly's like, no, no, it's fine. I've long been in love with the sheriff, of course, because Shelley's human job, you guys, is she's a swim instructor. And so she works at the Y, teaching your feet.

[Zoraida Cordova]

They don't get too far.

[Sarah MacLean]

So she has known the swim instructor because he has a brother who takes swim from her. Like, takes swim lessons from her. And so she's kind of pined after him. And he is, like, at his wits end with this serial killering thing. The serial killer, like, sees Shelley in the water one night and like, throws a knife which, like, lodges itself in her tail. It's like a whole. It's very exciting. She ends up, like, revealing herself to the sheriff because, you know, she knows all these things about the murder. And he's like, you know a lot of things about the murder. Is it possible you are the murderer? Which is what happens when you tamper with crime scenes. Mermaids. And so it ends. It's like. It's a very sort of, like, fun, fast contemporary. Like, it's a fun, fast category romance. Like, it goes exactly the way you think it's gonna go. Everybody's like, you know, everything's tied up great at the end. And I do think there is. And then I think the other two mermaids are the. The other two sisters are the heroines of the other two books. Anyway, it's kind of adorable, but I will say I checked this morning. Cause I had read it a million trillion years, and I just want to point out that they only have sex in human form. No pockets. Yeah.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yeah.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I mean.

[Sarah MacLean]

Which might have been a part of the Harlequin, like, rules.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yeah, I bet that was like a rule, right?

[Sarah MacLean]

This was published in 2013.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Are there more recent ones?

[Zoraida Cordova]

I feel like there's some recent ones. So I. I haven't read this. So I. I didn't put it as. Cause I. I just started it on audio, and so I haven't gotten very far. But I do like the writing style. It's called Whispers of the Deep by Emma Hamm with two M's. And it's in a fantasy, like a underwater world, where the heroine is an architect or engineer who keeps the city called Beta. It's an underwater city running. And there's. So she has this like, awful foreman kind of person yelling at her. And then there. But there are, like, merpeople around there. And the reason I picked this up is because his name is Argus. I don't know how to pronounce it, but he takes her because they form a bond together. And so he steals her away from her. Is this he that he's trying to destroy? You know, messing with his people? And I picked this up because somewhere in one of the. When I was looking for new mermaid books, this one says that there's two penises. So I can't vouch for it yet because I haven't gotten very. I haven't gotten. I'm still in chapter two because I found it last night. But. But yeah, so there's more recent mer books. The covers are so much nicer, but a lot of them are in the indie space and because publishers are just not going to take the risk until something does.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Well, you know, Holly Trent has a. I like Holly Trent's books a lot. And she has a two. A two item series of the Hooked series that are both merpeople. It's like a brother and sister and they each have their own book.

[Sarah MacLean]

Oh, I like Holly too. Is that new? That must be new.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I don't think it's 2021, but you know that was pandemic times, right? Exactly. It's called Wish out of Water is the first one and it has a terrific cover. And the second one is called Water under the Bridge. And I. So I was. I like came across these too late to read them, but I was really like, oh, I really like Holly's books a lot. And like I said, this Wish out of Water book has a. A hot cover. So I am. That's on my list of things to read.

[Sarah MacLean]

So I just got one sent to me this week from Tor called. I got an email and they were like, here's a. We're publishing this.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Oh my God. What?

[Sarah MacLean]

Isn't this cool? I'm everybody. Zoraida's responding to the, to the COVID tore some an email and they were like, we've got this book coming out in February and it's. It's mermaid fantasy. Is that something you're interested in? I was like, well, if you can get it to me before this weekend, I would love to look at it before our podcast. So I have sort of. I have begun it.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Say the name.

[Sarah MacLean]

I will. Okay.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yeah.

[Sarah MacLean]

It's called Upon a Starlet Tide by Kel woods and it has this real. I mean, the COVID is gorgeous. It's also historical. Is set in France in 1758 and it's a mashup of Little Mermaid and Cinderella.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Oh my God.

[Sarah MacLean]

But the premise is like the heroine has been. She is the daughter of a shipbuilder and she has these sisters who are all sort of running around historical romance style trying to find like great marriages. And she, she is obsessed with the ocean and no one knows why. Maybe you could imagine why. And so she is. She rescues a drowning person, a drowning man from the ocean. She. He's very mysterious. He seems to know a Lot of things about her and about her world. And then like, kind of draws her in this world of magic and paranormal creatures. And then she puts on a sea glass slipper and discovers that she is more than it seems. And I have sort of flipped through it to figure out if it's. It looks like it's just a standalone. It is not a first book in a series, but it also looks great. There's an old friend, her best friend from childhood is a sexy dude who's also romping around through this book. So I think there's probably. If I had to guess, I would say there's probably a little bit of a love triangle or some sort of mysterious triangle happening in this book. But it's certainly gorgeous. And if you love fantasy and historical, this one might just be for you. That's Upon a Starlet Tide by Kelsey.

[Jennifer Prokop]

And it's gonna already.

[Sarah MacLean]

Oh, no, it's not out. It's not out until February.

[Jennifer Prokop]

February.

[Sarah MacLean]

So you'll have to pre order it.

[Zoraida Cordova]

I'm gonna. I'm gonna be like, bro, Tor, hook it up.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yeah, yeah. Hello. And I am your person. Jen and Sarah know.

[Zoraida Cordova]

I mean, look, I. A lot of the mer books that I have read have been like, in trad have been either literary or horror. And so there's the Deep by Myra Grant and Cassandra Kaw had one that.

[Sarah MacLean]

Was like, why are they horror? I mean, I guess monster.

[Zoraida Cordova]

I mean, they're like. They can drag you into the water and just eat your flesh, you know, this one's ya, but it is that kind of either. But it is a good romance.

[Sarah MacLean]

I mean, I'm not opposed.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Alexandra Christos. Oh, my God. Zandra Christos. It's a YA book called To Kill a Kingdom, and it's about a mermaid who has to steal hearts. And she's not gonna steal this one guy's heart. It's ya. But it's so sexy. Like, the writing is sexy. The writing is beautiful in that way. And it's just. It's like the dark version of the Little Mermaid, but it's ya. And it came out many, many moons ago, but there is. So there's some out there. I wish there was more always. I wish there were more by, like, from different countries and different cultures. What do mermaids look like when they're not, like, redheaded? So, yeah. So I, you know that this could go on forever on my end.

[Sarah MacLean]

Well, well, Sarada, thank you so much for coming today and always being willing to jump in when we're like, we don't Know, tell everybody.

[Zoraida Cordova]

But I may traumatize you.

[Sarah MacLean]

No, not at all. I mean, you did traumatize Jen a little with the whale penis, but I helped.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Oh, was that Zoraida who did that to me?

[Sarah MacLean]

No, no, it was me. It was me. But it was her idea.

[Zoraida Cordova]

It was my idea, so.

[Sarah MacLean]

Right. We talked about the Captain Merman, the Captive Merman's promise.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yes.

[Sarah MacLean]

Which is out now in audio. Print, Ebook, ebook.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yes.

[Sarah MacLean]

Find it all. And then what do you have coming next? Or what else have you got recently that people should check out?

[Zoraida Cordova]

I have so many books, but my. That is what I know about it. My next book doesn't come out till 2026. 6. It's called the Fall of Rebel Angels.

[Sarah MacLean]

Okay, well, we'll talk about angels on the next podcast.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yeah, and so I'm working on trying to get some things out in 2025 because traditional publishing takes so long, so I'll be working on some Zoe Castile things. But it's weird. For the first time, I don't have anything slated for 2025. I just. Like, this year, I published a Star wars middle grade where they let me create a character called Churro the Hutt, who's like a Hutt who loves animals and bugs instead of crime. Fight being a crime lord. And I had an anthology called Fairies Never Lie, which was the next book in the series of anthologies with magical creatures. Also, did you know that in Mermaids Never Drowned, Adriana Herrera has a short story, and that one is a romance about a siren and a bastard sea prince who are trying to revolt against a corrupt king in a very Adrena Herrera way. And so I keep telling her to make that into a book. Comes over to the dark Fantasy side. Or the dark Dark. The dark side of fantasy.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Love it. Fantasy After Dark.

[Sarah MacLean]

You mean that should be the next anthology, Fantasy After Dark.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Yeah, but everywhere else, I'm on Instagram at Zoraida Solo and Threads is the same thing. And I just made a TikTok, but I don't remember my handle.

[Sarah MacLean]

Because I.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Made it and never logged back in.

[Sarah MacLean]

Well, Serata, come back on when it's time to talk about Angel. Oh, I would love to, because that's another one that we're gonna need two years to sort out.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yeah.

[Sarah MacLean]

Right. And thank you so, so much for being with us.

[Zoraida Cordova]

Thank you both. Thank you both.

[Sarah MacLean]

Let's see. So you've been listening to Zoraida Cordova. She's brilliant. Check out all of her books. Find [e-mail] Is that right, Zoraida? I just made that up. Okay, find her at and check show notes for all of the many links and the books that we've talked about today. We will not put we will not put the photograph of the whale penis in there, but we will link to it and then click at your own Description. I'm Sarah McLean. I'm here with my friend Jen Prokop. We are fated mates. You, you can find [e-mail] and every Wednesday in your favorite podcasting app. You can also find us online at all of the social media places. Although now that the election is over, we are closing our Twitter account, so don't find us there. But you can find us on threads and Instagram and bluesky and we love you all. We hope this helped today. We hope if we're. If we don't know what's happened this week, we hope that this gives you a little bit of joy as you vibrate. Thank you so much and thanks, Rida. Thank you.