A Town of Secrets

A Town of Secrets

Town of Secrets

Colony Island is a town of secrets. Of course, the biggest secret of all is that the place is populated by merfolk. That Island residents are pretty much like the rest of us probably qualifies as another secret. There are even more secrets to be discovered. These are the secrets of the individuals who live there.

Individual’s Secrets

One of the characters who populate this – allegedly – fictional town is Carl Fisher. Around town, he is better known as ‘Carl, the Pizza Guy’. For those of you who have yet to read Urban Mermaid, Carl manages the two pizza joints in town. In addition to cranking out some pretty decent pie, he is considered to be the ‘unofficial mayor’ of the town. In the course of making deliveries, he visits most of the homes on the island and usually knows who is doing okay and who is not. He is everyone’s friend which means he is no one’s friend in particular.

Carl is also lonely. Very lonely. He’s had an on-and-off relationship with a feral mermaid which is destined to go nowhere. Those of you who both know and love Carl, may rest assured he will finally find love and happiness in Book # 3.

Carl’s secret is that he copes with his loneliness by playing bass guitar. It’s something he picked up along the way to fill the empty spaces in his life. Bass players are often considered to be the least sexy of all band members but Carl never took up the instrument to be popular.

Syrena

Syrena, Book # 2 in the Colony Island series, is about music, among other things. In the story, Carl is recruited to fill an unexpected vacancy in a backing band. The three bridesmaids, from Penelope’s wedding, are being pestered to death. Everyone wants to hear them sing just one more time but ‘one more time’ is never enough. The idea is to put together a small band, put on two or three concerts, and everyone will leave the girls alone. That’s the plan, anyway.

In what is supposed to be the final concert, the girls perform multiple encores but the crowd still wants more. The girls need a break so the guys perform a set of their own.

This morning, I stopped by the Pharmacy to pick up a couple of prescriptions. The sound system was playing Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing. In my mind, I could hear Carl’s bass guitar and picked out his voice in the chorus.

Sometimes, the characters you create will really get into you.

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