Myths Endure is a set of books, mostly based around M/M romances, that are connected thematically but not chronologically. They don't have to be read in order.
Nerites Amid the Stars tackles politics and Mars and merfolk--which got me thinking: why are merfolk such a staple of romance? Especially if one expands merfolk to include Selkies and Odysseus's sirens?
It could all come down to the unruliness of nature resembling the unruliness of love. Whatever the "we have a theory; therefore we control nature, and it is nice to us" environmentalists like to believe, nature inevitably proves humans wrong about, well, everything. Volcanoes are an obvious case.
The ocean specifically is a constant reminder of nature's deep abiding indifference to human endeavor, no matter how many dances of adulation the humans perform.
The ocean has it all!
My merfolk are more about self-control than randomness--they respect nature and know exactly how out-of-control it can be. But even love stymies them.
