ocean

Salt Of My Blood by Jae Mazer

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Jae Mazer’s Salt Of My Blood is a tale of two vastly different characters, revealed through snapshot windows into their respective lives as we wait for what we’re sure will be a tumultuous meeting when the two come together. From childhood through the setbacks and disappointments of adult life, we witness the two characters grow and evolve along separate paths. Living in post-war Denmark, Lærke and Harald are deeply tied to the treacherous North Sea, but their relationships with the water are as distinctly different as their personalities.

Lærke’s lifelong love of the sea transforms into something far more peculiar–equally disturbing and beautiful in the way Mazer tackles a fascinating taboo–when she discovers her only true friend where the sand meets the sea. Harald’s love of the sea is deeply tethered to his cruel and predatory nature, and piracy becomes his sole passion. When their two worlds collide, it is truly captivating; a spectacle sure to feel like a reward to the reader.

Mazer addresses heavy topics in this modern-day fairy tale; sexual assault, mistreatment of women, the antiquated concept of the wife’s role within marriage, and the misogyny that underpins all of those things.

This story can be found on the Godless platform by clicking on the link below:

Salt of My Blood by Jae Mazer

Trench Mouth by Christine Morgan

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Trench Mouth begins with a series of vignettes.
It begins with human intrusion into the ocean depths upsetting a balance that existed in an alien world on our own planet, drawing a cruel and vicious attention to our existence–our delicious flavor–and ultimately to the surface waters where unsuspecting prey is in abundance.
It begins with eight people who have nothing left to lose signing up for a chance to become something more, something new, something better than they are. In the dark depths of the ocean, where Fathom-5 illuminates a tiny patch of ocean floor just beyond a seemingly bottomless trench that carves down into the crust of the Earth, experiments are being conducted.
Will Dr. Yale and her colleagues advance the next stage of human evolution, preparing us to venture into a massive new realm largely off limits until now? Will monsters, both man-made and ancient, tear everything apart before we even have a chance to find out for ourselves?
We know how it begins. I guess you’ll have to read past the beginning to discover how it ends for yourself.
It’s appropriate to talk about how it all begins, because Trench Mouth feels like a beginning, the origin story of some larger tale that might unfold over years to come. I, for one, would gladly join Christine Morgan in the depths again if she chooses to tell us more of this world she’s created.
Reminiscent of my favorite underwater science fiction/horror novel, Starfish by Peter Watts (the beginning of his Rifters series), Morgan has done something fantastic with Trench Mouth in telling a story that stands up next to a novel written by a man with a Ph.D and a long history of working as a marine biologist. Nothing feels out of place or poorly researched within these pages, and it makes the whole experience feel that much more immersive.
Perhaps my favorite element is the Morgan makes the denizens of the deep feel like fleshed out characters in and of themselves, by sharing perspectives that are at once alien and strangely familiar.

You can obtain this book for yourself wherever books are sold. I will include a couple of links below:

Trenchmouth by Christine Morgan