Although the mermaids insisted I start writing their stories in 2004, an interest in mermaids had already infiltrated my life, probably around 1992. That’s when I purchased my first statuette, a lovely Mexican terra-cotta mermaid to join the menagerie of shaped pots in my flower bed. She plays an instrument resembling a mandolin. The neck of the instrument may have been broken when I bought it. That’s too long ago to remember. Since she was purchased in Albuquerque at Jackalope, a large Mexican import mercado, she is a fragile desert mermaid. She sits in my current patio garden, almost hidden behind the flowers. She is in the photo to the right. Can you find her?
