A Dark Fantasy Mermaid Romance (death, magic, mayhem…)

I found a new image that I adore and redid the Shearwater cover (again). Personally I love it, but after posting on Facebook and Twitter a lot of people preferred a version of the original.

This is the one most people liked best.

These are some of the earlier versions.

Someone said the girl in the red dress (on top, my favorite) was not great for the story because it had too much resemblance to Ophelia… but Shakespeare actually compares Ophelia to a mermaid in Hamlet, and I bring up the association by planting in a few dead girls.

I want it to be a beautifully tragic, heartbreaking dark fantasy (and my protagonist has a fear of drowning) so I like the red dress one the best. But I don’t want her to look like a victim… and maybe that’s why people like the pinkish dress one better – it looks like she’s struggling to stay above water; there’s more action.