Kae-Leah Williamson

My last couple of books have all featured death/mourning as a plot point. What are some fairy tales, that could be adapted into a mermaid world, that do not feature death/mourning as a plot point? Something fun and lighthearted, yet at the same time lengthy and detailed, would be perfect.

The two main themes of my next book will probably be "trust" and "beauty"

How would you tier rank my books?

Which recent book of mine do you think is stronger overall, Pearlina or A Baker's Tail?

Who's your favorite romantic couple in my "Merfolk Tales" books?

How do y'all feel about a male romantic lead who is NOT conventionally attractive in a male model-like way? I'm working on the outline for my next novel, and I'm planning on the male lead being a young human man who has a third-degree burn scar on his face and is much shorter than average, so he is not popular with the opposite sex. "Adriana and the Apothecary's Apprentice" will be a Snow White/Little Mermaid mash-up with a dash of Beauty and the Beast.

Two more ideas I have kicking around in the back of my head that I may or may not write eventually:
          (1) A Pride and Prejudice/Little Mermaid retelling mashup, with Lydia, the youngest, impulsive Bennett daughter in the role of the Little Mermaid 
          (2) A series of books called Six Sisters of the Sea, about six human sisters who have a family secret: they can turn into mermaids at night. Each book would focus on one of the sisters and be a loose retelling of a popular fairy tale.

No outline yet, and I don't plan on writing it for a couple months, so this in the very vague, early planning stage, but my next Merfolk Tales novel will *probably*(keep in mind, not 100% sure yet) be a Snow White/Little Mermaid mashup called Adriana and the Apothecary, and it may also include dashes of Beauty and the Beast and Little Red Riding Hood.

What sounds more interesting, a Robin Hood/Emperor's New Clothes mermaid-themed mash-up, or a Snow White/Little Mermaid mash-up?

Another obscure fairy tale I'm considering adapting is The Golden Mermaid. There aren't many fairy tales other than Little Mermaid that contain mermaids, so it seems like an obvious choice. 
          Adalmina's Pearl, an obscure Finnish "King Thrushbeard" variant, also seems like an easy choice, as it involves a pearl and an anti-heroine with a very mermaidy-sounding name. The potential downside is Adalmina is a VERY intentionally unlikeable character initially, probably the nastiest princess in the whole European fairy tale canon. That could make her fun to write though, as Nixie in A Tail of Two Mermaids was a lot of fun to write too.
          I also keep going back to Maid Maleen, because the title already sounds mermaidy, but that's a very dark story. I thought of Maleen's father cursing her to be a human for seven years instead of locking her in a tower. 
          Also researching both Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast/Cupid and Psyche variants from around the world. BATB/Cupid and Psyche are challenging to get right, as it requires a lot of attention paid to character development and nuanced relationship dynamics for it to not come off as Stockholm Syndrome-y and creepy. I tend to be wary of "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" variants for that reason. 
          As for Cinderella, I already did a pretty Cinderella-like heroine with Melinda in "The Servant Girl and The Sea Prince", and I feel Cinderella retellings are overdone, but the basic barebones of the story can be pulled in so many different directions. I like the Biblical Queen Esther story for having a Cinderella-like heroine who is part of a persecuted race who saves her people, but it could be cultural appropriation of some kind to make a direct link, although I can still do that basic theme because Cinderella can go in many different directions.