What Books I would Compare This Series with...

I thought about this for a while.

There would be times when I would be asked, "Veronica, what inspired you to write [Dolphin Princess]? What books would you compare this with?" In other words, people want to know some of the books I've read over the years.

First of all, I grew up reading many books. A lot of these said books were, of course, fiction. Though, fantasy was always a guilty pleasure of mine, because you get to visit strange worlds that differ from the real world. You also get to meet characters that aren't average, but extraordinary (I emphasize the word "extra" in extraordinary); they're either magical or superhuman (or both).
Though, back then, there were lines that I wouldn't cross with books. My family didn't want me reading about killings, nothing with curses, and I stayed away from anything controversial. In fact, I wasn't allowed to read something like Goosebumps back in elementary school, because my mom didn't like the cover that it had (I think it had something like a kid trying to tear off a scary mask); and she made me go back to the school library to get another book. After that, I was careful not to bring home anything that would offend anyone in the household... that was until high school, where I snuck in some bold reads like
Cirque du Freak

(the manga adaptation about meeting a vampire at a freak show),

the House of Night series by Kristin Cast

(a series about a vampire school with swear words).
Apparently, I had a thing for vampires, back in my high school years... I'm glad I broke free from that genre when I was writing my book. (Not that there's a problem with vampires, but I wanted to strive for something different, because at that time, vampire stories were trendy.)

Now, for the Dolphin Princess series, I took inspiration from the following books:

the Waterfire Saga by Jennifer Donnelly

(I've already read the first two books, and they're awesome!)

the Ingo series by Helen Dunmore

(To be honest, I read the third book first, because at the time, I didn't know that it was part of a series. But it was still a good read.)

And yes, that means that I'm very familiar with The Little Mermaid (both the movie and the original story by Hans Christian Andersen). Fun fact: When I was showing my book to a couple of people, one of them said, "This reminds me of The Little Mermaid." It makes me smile whenever the book sparks interest. It's always nice to hear someone say "Wow!" or "Amazing!" when you show them what you've made.

So, of course, books were what sparked my imagination for creating this series. But also (and I'll talk about it in the next blog post), an aquarium visit in Corpus Christi was where I ultimately got the idea for this series.

TO BUY MY BOOK: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dolphin-princess-veronica-gonzalez/1129202183

Veronica Gonzalez