Fish are mysteriously disappearing, starving the people in Angie Song’s Alaskan hometown. Angie, an aspiring marine biologist and dock worker, enthusiastically joins the hunt to find out where the fish are gathering. When her family and the villagers discover that merfolk are responsible, they vow to destroy every last one. In the midst of the conflict, Angie faces off with a merman and fails to pull the trigger.

Inquisitive Mer-Prince Kaden is just as snarky as Angie, but he’s willing to talk and stop the brutal massacring of his people. The two form a cautious alliance to broker peace between the humans and mer before any more of them die.

As tensions clash between the two races fighting to control the sea’s resources, Angie and Kaden’s forbidden relationship ignites. And as she learns about the mer’s mysterious world and the reason why the fish are gone, Angie starts to question who the true monster is, and where her loyalties lie. Taking the wrong side means choosing between family and her job, or the man she’s fallen for and the merfolk she’s come to respect-or losing it all.

Out of 130+ ratings on Goodreads!

A big thank you to C. W. Rose for taking the time to be interviewed for Hey Hey Books. We warmly welcome you to continue reading, learning more about your favorite mer/human couple (Kaden and Angie) and about the romantasy author herself. Enjoy!

The Interview

1. What’s your favorite thing about being an author?

That Oceansong is finally out in the world, and a lifelong goal of mine has been achieved. I love that I can share my words, my worlds, my characters with everyone and hope that I find my readers and they’ll fall in love with them, with the hope that just one person will see themselves in my characters and/or stories, and feel validated and seen. For example, one of my patients today told me he had read my book and enjoyed it. But more than that, he said he saw himself in Kaden, my merman MMC, and related to his struggles to move around on land (my merfolk don’t shift), and thanked me. These are the little moments that remind me why I wanted to become an author. He’s not part of my target audience, and it goes to show you truly never know who will love and resonate with your story.

2. Do you have any marketing advice you would share with a fellow author?

I have so much that I learned through this debut experience. But my best piece of advice is twofold: one, to not be afraid to put yourself out there and take chances. Go ahead and ask that big-name author for an endorsement, or a book influencer to review/promote your work. Reach out to bookstores and publications who may only seem to carry and feature more popular authors. Got a podcast or blog or book award you want to submit to? I say shoot your shot, especially if it doesn’t cost you anything except a little bit of your time. If you get no response, or get turned down, you’re no better than where you are now. And they might just say yes! And two, don’t feel like you have to do everything that everyone else is doing. When you’re on social media or chatting with writer friends and acquaintances, you’ll hear of people doing anything and everything to market their books. To be honest, trying to do it all will just burn you out. Nobody knows what really works to move the needle for sales (otherwise we’d all be doing it), so do what works for you and what you enjoy, otherwise marketing will just feel like a chore, and it shouldn’t.    

3. What are some similarities between you and Angie?

We’re both Chinese-American and the children of immigrants, scuba divers, and ocean children. But beyond the surface level, we’ve both had people near and dear to us pass away too soon, who we didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to. Angie has lost her mom when she was away at college, and when I was away for college and graduate school, I lost three of my grandparents (who also helped to raise me and my brother), and later, while living halfway around the world from her, an aunt who I called my second mom. I’ll also add that I lost two dogs when they were much too young. I didn’t get to say goodbye to them, and there’s always the feeling of unresolved grief and regret that comes with that, as well as always wondering what else you could have done.

4. What would you do if you ever encountered a merman?

I had a lot of fun thinking of possible ways to answer this! To be fair, I have no idea. I’d probably stare at him as my mind tried to process what it was I was seeing. Hope that he wouldn’t try to attack me. Probably take a photo with my phone and tell all my friends and family about it! I think I’d be too shy and too much in disbelief to try and talk to him.

5. How did you come up with your pseudonym?

An old friend of mine had a young son at the time who was a huge basketball fan, and of Derrick Rose in particular. My first name is Christine, so he would joke around and call me ‘Christina Rose’. The name kind of stuck, and I wavered between using that, and the pen name I currently have. I eventually settled for C.W. Rose because it was easy to remember, and I loved the way it sounded!