Halloween Author Invasion Day #1 — Mer World Halloween

Grab your goggles and pumpkin-shaped candy buckets, the Steamed! Halloween Author Invasion has arrived! Are you ready to be invaded?

We have an amazing lineup for you this week Stop by every day to read a new Halloween-themed blog post and a new chance to win a special “treat”:

October 24 — Young Adult Author Tera Lynn Childs
October 25 — Contemporary Romance Author Charlene Sands
October 26 — Young Adult Author Inara Scott
October 27 — Paranormal Romance Author Jacquelyn Frank
October 28 — Young Adult Author Simone Elkeles
October 29 — Paranormal Romance Author Maggie Shayne
October 30 — Young Adult Author Ednah Walters
October 31 — Urban Fantasy Author Jeanne Stein

To kick off our Halloween Author Invasion we welcome young adult author Tera Lynn Childs who’s latest series is about mermaids. She’ll be giving away a copy of her book Forgive My Fins.

Tera Lynn Childs is the award-winning author of the mythology-based Oh. My. Gods. and Goddess Boot Camp, the mermaid tales Forgive My Fins and Fins Are Forever (coming June 28, 2011) and a new trilogy about monster-hunting descendants of Medusa (Fall 2011). Tera lives nowhere in particular and has spent time fleeing hurricanes, making character profiles on MySpace, blogging on her own and with the Buzz Girls, and writing wherever she can find a comfy chair and a steady stream of caffeinated beverages.

Mer World Halloween

As the human world prepares for the most exciting of holidays, there are Halloween preparations taking place under the sea, too. Mer grown-ups are creating haunted sea houses and organizing big spooky parties. Mer kiddies are planning their costumes and getting giddy at the prospect of a trick-or-treating sugar rush. Although both the mer and human worlds celebrate this holiday, there are some distinct differences in the festivities.

Costumes

While some little mer girls dress in traditional human costumes, like witches and fairies, and mer boys enjoy pretending to be ghosts and superheroes, there are some unique costumes in the underwater world. A favorite for mer girls is the Oceanista doll costume, the mer world equivalent of a Barbie doll. They might also go as an octopus, a parrotfish, or a clump of seaweed. For mer boys, they like scary costumes as much as their human counterparts. Popular mer boy costumes include great white sharks, jellyfish, and the sea god Poseidon. Among the most creative costumes are the mer boy who dressed as a shipwreck and the mer girl who went as the Marianas Trench.

Jack-O’-Lanterns

Since pumpkins don’t grow underwater, mer folk have come up with a clever alternative for making their jack-o’-lanterns. In kitchens through the underwater world, palace chefs and home cooks alike stir up a mixture of sugar paste, ground seaweed, and orange food coloring to create an edible, moldable, carvable clay. Once the clay is formed into a pumpkin shape—either freehand or using a mold readily available at any underwater kitchen supply store—and allowed to harden, it perfectly resembles a pumpkin. A scary face is carved into the sugar pumpkin, bioluminescent lighting creates an inner glow, and then, when the festivities are over, the family breaks the pumpkin apart for an extra sugary treat.

Candy

Like on land, the real appeal of an underwater Halloween is the candy haul that mer kids gather on a long night of trick or treating. Most land-made goodies would dissolve away in water—exceptions include cinnamon fire balls and those gold foil-wrapped pirate coins—so the mer world has a special selection of candy for their loot bags. One of the oldest is sugared seahorses—not made from real seahorses, of course, but from sugar paste in seahorse shaped molds. There are also gummy jellyfish, mini Mer Magic candy bars, and rock sugar seashells. But the whirlaway favorite, time and again, is the line of collectible candy sushi. The varieties vary every year and at the end of the night, every trick or treater has to make a tough decision: save it, trade it, or eat it.

So you see, if you ever find yourself in a mer kingdom for Halloween, the celebrations will feel both familiar and foreign. But now you’re prepared! You can get even more insight into the mer world by winning (and reading) my book, Forgive My Fins, about the half-human princess of the underwater kingdom of Thalassinia. To be entered to win a signed copy, either tell me what costume would you choose for a mer Halloween or which mer candy you’d be most excited to try—and you can’t use any of the examples I’ve given above. Happy Halloween and spooky good luck!

Hugs,
TLC
www.teralynnchilds.com