Hello! Should you be perusing works for 2025 awards, please consider my novella, THE DROWNED MAN’S DAUGHTER. Published by NeWest Press in September 2025.
Naia never wanted to be a goddess. But the legend of her as the miracle child of the ocean and a drowned man who washed up on the shore has overtaken her life, forcing her to lie to survive. Desperate to escape from the stalwart adoration of the people she loves, Naia longs to leave the island. But the ocean, filled with deadly mer, and the mainland, filled with noxious moss that drives anyone it touches to madness, block her way on either side.
There’s nowhere for Naia to go. She can’t keep pretending, and soon she is going to be found out…
