BIR2010: Tera Lynn Childs - An Epic Story

BIR2010

Welcome to back to the BEST I'VE READ 2010! BIR2010 will run from December 6th through December 14th. This will be a annual event and this year its compromised of 9 blogs. Each day each blog will have multiple post and giveaways happening each day until its over. Then on the last day there will also be a Grand Prize Giveaway on the BIR2010 Blog.

Here is a Epic Story written by Tera Lynn Childs author of Forgive my Fins. 

An Epic Story

While I am thrilled to be included in the Epic Best of 2010 YA Event, at first I was a little nervous. When I hear the word "epic" the first thing that springs to mind are the great epic poems of the ancient world. The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer. Virgil's Aeneid. The Epic of Gilgamesh. Massive volumes that tell great heroic tales and journeys. That's a pretty intimidating group to be lumped in with. There is no way my books compare to Homer.

But then I fell back on my academic training and did a little research. I looked up the word in the dictionary (totally word geeky, I know). Turns out that, in addition to epic poetry, epic can also refer to something that is "beyond the usual or ordinary" and, well, I feel a lot more comfortable with that. Usual and ordinary are boring. I'd much rather go beyond that, into the realm of unusual and extraordinary. Mermaids are definitely unusual and extraordinary.

Then I read even further into the dictionary entry (feel free to shake your head in shame at the depths of my word geekery). Going back to the very roots of the word epic, coming from the Latin epicus, from the Greek epikos (I love anything Greek), from epos meaning word. Turns out, the huge and exciting and empowering word epic can trace is ancient roots back to the word for word. Epic means words. That intimidating term that seems to carry such weight and expectation had very humble beginnings.

Keeping things in perspective is always a valuable practice. Instead of being intimidated by the epic label, now I feel inspired. Like the word epic itself, I can hope that one day my words will transform into something beyond the usual and ordinary and maybe one day will become truly epic.

Forgive My Fins 
Author: Tera Lynn Childs
Released June 1, 2010
Published by Katherine Tegen Books 
http://www.teralynnchilds.com/

Lily Sanderson has a secret, and it’s not that she has a huge crush on gorgeous swimming god Brody Bennett, who makes her heart beat flipper-fast. Unrequited love is hard enough when you’re a normal teenage girl, but when you’re half human, half mermaid like Lily, there’s no such thing as a simple crush.

Lily’s mermaid identity is a secret that can’t get out, since she’s not just any mermaid – she’s a Thalassinian princess. When Lily found out three years ago that her mother was actually a human, she finally realized why she didn’t feel quite at home in Thalassinia, and she’s been living on land and going to Seaview high school ever since, hoping to find where she truly belongs. Sure, land has its problems – like her obnoxious, biker boy neighbor Quince Fletcher – but it has that one major perk – Brody. The problem is, mermaids aren’t really the casual dating type – when they “bond,” it’s for life.

When Lily’s attempt to win Brody’s love leads to a tsunami-sized case of mistaken identity, she is in for a tidal wave of relationship drama, and she finds out, quick as a tailfin flick, that happily-ever-after never sails quite as smoothly as you planned.

To enter the giveaway for Forgive my Fins- CLICK HERE