Merfolk on Mars

Author's Note

Author's Note:

And here we end my first attempt at a spoof and working with other authors.

Since you are still here, I shall assume you managed to stick around this long. It was fun, short, and sweet – and it has also cured me of ever wanting to write about a teenage main character, high school romances, mermaids/mermen, and space journeys revolving around chasing glowing green rocks.

Arveliot and SabrinaBlackburry – thank you for joining me with this. It was fun. Although I think our version of fun possibly drove Nick to insanity.

For those trying to keep track of the Cliches, here are overall themes (some were larger, others mentioned in passing):

Merfolk cliches:

Merfolk transform when coming into contact with water

All mermaids should be good at singing

All mermaids have long flowing hair that never knots

Clamshell bikini

Fish tail and human torso

Favored weapon is a trident

Obsession with clamshells and pearls

Some mermaid stories have magic elemental powers

Standard cliches:

Once upon a time beginning & Happily ever after ending

Lots of clothes and nothing matches

Rebellious teenagers/not listening to parents.

Highschool cheerleader/football jock

Guy and girl in a janitor's closet

Mistake sister for girlfriend

Legendary quest

Teenage heroes

Teens not listening to parents

Men and looking at maps or asking for directions

Possible unknown princess

Love triangle

Writing blunders:

Plot convenience

Failure to describe the scene

Then vs than

Grammar and commas

Information dump

Purple prose (extremely flowery/wordy speech)

Making a character fall in love with an extremely successful person

I'm sure I missed a lot of smaller ones.

Once again, a huge thank you to my editors! You make my work so much easier. Please give a round of applause to: @FireAlwaysReturns, @bellasweetie15, and @Misain.

Some statistics on the story:

This was my eleventh book.

Writing time: 1.5 months (completely written before I began posting)

First chapter was posted on August 5, 2019.

Three updates a week (there were two bonus chapters posted). Small edits were made as it was posted.

Completed: September 16, 2019

~26,000 words (Roughly 52 pages in a word document – single-spaced)