Meet the
Merpeople of River Road
As
an author, it’s always a fun challenge to take a mythology and put a new spin
on it. Which parts of the traditional lore do you want to keep, and what do you
want to turn on its head?
In
River Road, my new urban fantasy (with
a dash of romance) that comes out this week, I wanted to take some of the water
species—primarily Merpeople—and figure out a way to bring them into my world of
a post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. It’s a world already peopled with
wizards, werewolves, and a species I call the “Historical Undead”—formerly
famous New Orleanians kept alive by the magic of human memory. Think that guy
walking down the sidewalk looks a lot like the late Louis Armstrong? Are you so
sure it isn’t the REAL Louis Armstrong? And the undead pirate Jean Lafitte is
everywhere!
These
books have a very deep sense of place. You couldn’t uproot the characters and
set them down in another city and have the book make any sense. So I wanted to
make sure my Merpeople were tightly woven into the fabric of South Louisiana.
And what does one find in South Louisiana? Cajuns. Fishermen. Alligators.
Swamps.
Meet
the Merpeople, River Road-style. They
are aquatic shapeshifters (not wereanimals, so they’re not tied to the cycles
of the moon and are born, not made). They can shift halfway into the classic
human head to waist, with the fishy lower half and the big caudal fin. Or they
can fully shift into big fish. Different mer clans shift into different types
of fish.
Oh,
yeah, and they’re Cajuns who work in the South Louisiana fishing industry,
mainstreaming with humans who don’t have a clue. (You know, if you think about
that too hard, it’s kind of cannibalistic—LOL.)
I
have two feuding clans of Merpeople in River Road, the Delachaises and the
Villeres. Merpeople in my world are a little cranky, tend to be on the shortish
side (twins Rene and Robert Delachaise, at 5-10, are quite tall for mers), and,
well, they like to fight. Diplomacy is not one of their finer-honed skills.
They are long-lived but not immortal, and can mate with humans—although their
kids will not be mers. (Probably just good swimmers, I’d think!)
And
how are the Nymphs different from the Merpeople? Um…let’s just say the local
group has unionized into the Greater Mississippi River Nymphs and their human
mainstreaming occupation is a French Quarter escort service. Last I heard, they
were bringing in some satyrs for the female clientele…
Want
to win a copy of either River Road
(or Royal Street, book one in the
Sentinels of New Orleans series)? Leave a comment to win
a signed copy (US and Canada) or a copy of the print book plus a signed
bookplate (international).
Royal
Street
Sentinels of New
Orleans Book One
Suzanne Johnson
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Tor Books
ISBN: 978-0765327796
ASIN: B006OM459U
Number of pages: 337
Word Count: approx. 94,000
Cover Artist: Cliff Nielsen
Book
Description:
As the junior wizard sentinel for New
Orleans, Drusilla Jaco's job involves a lot more potion-mixing and
pixie-retrieval than sniffing out supernatural bad guys like rogue vampires and
lethal were-creatures. DJ's boss and mentor, Gerald St. Simon, is the wizard
tasked with protecting the city from anyone or anything that might slip over
from the preternatural beyond.
Then Hurricane Katrina hammers New
Orleans' fragile levees, unleashing more than just dangerous flood waters.
While winds howled and Lake Pontchartrain surged, the borders between the
modern city and the Otherworld crumbled. Now the undead and the restless are
roaming the Big Easy, and a serial killer with ties to voodoo is murdering
soldiers sent to help the city recover.
To make it worse, Gerald St. Simon has
gone missing, the wizards' Elders have assigned a grenade-toting assassin as
DJ's new partner, and undead pirate Jean Lafitte wants to make her walk his
plank. The search for Gerry and the killer turns personal when DJ learns the
hard way that loyalty requires sacrifice, allies come from the unlikeliest
places, and duty mixed with love creates one bitter roux.
River
Road
Sentinels of New Orleans, Book 2
Suzanne Johnson
Suzanne Johnson
Genre:
Urban Fantasy
Publisher:
Tor Books
ISBN:
978-0765327802
ASIN:
B00842H5VI
Number
of pages: 336
Word
Count: approx. 92,000
Cover
Artist: Cliff Nielsen
Book Description:
Hurricane
Katrina is long gone, but the preternatural storm rages on in New Orleans. New
species from the Beyond moved into Louisiana after the hurricane destroyed the
borders between worlds, and it falls to wizard sentinel Drusilla Jaco and her
partner, Alex Warin, to keep the preternaturals peaceful and the humans
unaware. But a war is brewing between two clans of Cajun merpeople in
Plaquemines Parish, and down in the swamp, DJ learns, there’s more stirring
than angry mermen and the threat of a were-gator.
Wizards
are dying, and something—or someone—from the Beyond is poisoning the waters of
the mighty Mississippi, threatening the humans who live and work along the
river. DJ and Alex must figure out what unearthly source is contaminating the
water and who—or what—is killing the wizards. Is it a malcontented merman, the
naughty nymph, or some other critter altogether? After all, DJ’s undead suitor,
the pirate Jean Lafitte, knows his way around a body or two.
It’s
anything but smooth sailing on the bayou as the Sentinels of New Orleans series
continues.
Suzanne Johnson writes urban fantasy and paranormal romance from Auburn, Alabama, after a career in educational publishing that has spanned five states and six universities. She grew up halfway between the Bear Bryant Museum and Elvis' birthplace and lived in New Orleans for fifteen years, so she has a highly refined sense of the absurd and an ingrained love of SEC football and fried gator on a stick.
Website:
www.suzanne-johnson.com
Publisher
Page: http://us.macmillan.com/author/suzannejohnson
I'm looking forward to reading River Road. Already preordered the paperback version that will be out this summer.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the preorder--I hope you like it!
DeleteJust love the Cliff Nielsen covers. Probably just good swimmers, I’d think! LOL!! Love this series. Team D.J. Thanks for the post.
ReplyDeleteLOL, and we all know who's NOT a good swimmer, don't we? That would be DJ!
DeleteI can't wait until my vacation time comes around so I can read both books in this series!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Timitra--hope you enjoy them!
DeleteI enjoyed the first two books in this series. Looking foward to the third.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sandy...coming soon!
DeleteEnjoyed the interview , I'm going to love the merpeople, so very different. If I'm lucky enough to win I would like the first book in the series ,it looks so good!
ReplyDeleteIrene (international)
Thanks, Irene. I really enjoyed the merpeople, too, and one of them--Rene--will play a big role in Elysian Fields as well.
DeleteI really loved the mer people... it was my first try with this kind of paranormal creature and i just want more
ReplyDeletethanks!!!
Thanks, Miki! I had to bring Rene in to help DJ out in Elysian Fields, so you'll see him again. They've become big buddies :-)
DeleteLove this series! The only other author I know who used merpeople in her stories was Mary Janice Davidson.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Liz! I haven't read MJD, but have heard her books are really a lot of fun.
DeleteThere just aren't enough merpeople in Urban Fantasy...although I think there are limited cities in which it could work! :-)
ReplyDeleteTrue, Mel. Louisiana is perfect because of all the wetlands--lots of places for merpeople to hang out!
DeleteI've really enjoyed this series, and am looking forward to more DJ (...and Alex and Jake and Jean, and Charlie!)
ReplyDeleteAlex and Jake and Jean and Charlie are all in Elysian Fields, although maybe in unexpected ways. And then there's Adrian and Rand...
DeleteI love this series! DJ is awesome and Jean is smoking hot! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bonnie! Shhhh....Jean has a big-enough ego. Although the last time DJ admitted he was hot, he thought she meant he was feverish :-)
Deletethanks for the chance to read these books :) since i haven't read any of them, yet *grin*
ReplyDeleteWe have to do something about that, Mariska! :-)
DeleteIt's always interesting to learn more about a series' world!
ReplyDeleteI love how paranormal/UF stories allow authors to create unique stories and worlds. Even if you use the same sort of creature (a vampire for example) you can choose which legends to follow, which to ignore, develop your own reason for them, ect. I think that is why this is one of my favorite genres :)
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the new release!
June
manning_J2004 at yahoo dot com
Don't think I've read any merpeople yet
ReplyDeletebn100candg at hotmail dot com
River Road sounds really good :) Thanks for the giveaway!
ReplyDelete