Q1 When did you decide you were going to write a book? From the time I was a young girl, I loved to read and write short stories and poetry, but it wasn’t until I was in my late 20s or early 30's when I seriously considered writing a book. I had tons of material in notebooks tucked away for only me to read but art has always been my first love and I was more interested in painting a masterpiece than writing a book. The Maralee story first came about as an illustration of a mermaid that I did for my daughter after we watched a documentary about sea turtles. The drawing ended up taking on a life of its own several months later to become a book. Q.2 How did you come up with the name of your book? That came about when the idea to take the concept from an illustration of an actual story happened. I had just returned from a day trip where I had mapped out the whole Edgar Allan Poe- Baltimore experience and was in the mood to read some of his poems and stories. I have