Readers my recall an edition of Supporting Friends Friday dedicated to Mariella Hunt, an Idaho-based author who also dabbles in cute water colors of birds.

Before she started painting birds, Mariella was a writer—a prolific one, at that.  I discovered her first through her paintings, through Andrea the Ilustrator’s blog, but have come to appreciate and enjoy her writing as well.

Mariella is a talented non-fiction writer, but her real passion is fiction.  She tells me that she is hoping to make a living as a freelance writer, and is currently publishing her novella The Sea Rose via Amazon’s Kindle Vella service.

Kindle Vella allows authors to release stories serially, in short little doses or chapters, much the way much of Charles Dickens’s work was published.

I’ve read the first chapter of The Sea Rose, and it’s good—really good.  I am eagerly awaiting the second chapter (which should be available by the time you read this post!).

The world of The Sea Rose is an alternate Regency England, one in which the style, panache, and suffocating social conventions of the era still exist—but so do mermaids.  Mariella loves the mythical creatures, and the story weaves them into the narrative.

From what I have gathered so far, the mermen are regarded with suspicion and even malice.  While they don’t figure in the first chapter, beyond one bawdy mention at a botched engagement party, I’m excited to see how they fit into this story.

The story opens with Lord Peter West facing the sorry prospect of an unwanted marriage to Lady Bannister, and overbearing social climber with the unbridled ambition to make Peter marry her, no matter what.  Readers find Peter on the cusp of an unwanted engagement at a carefully choreographed soiree planned specifically for his proposal to Lady Bannister.

As the reader can guess, things don’t exactly go as planned.

Don’t take my word for it:  go read The Sea Rose for yourself.

After that, share it with your friends and family, and leave a review (those really help authors on Amazon, and most people don’t take the time to write them).  I know Mariella will appreciate your support.

Let’s help out other writers—and enjoy some excellent new fiction in the process!