Susan Fletcher is the author of the new young adult novel Sea Change. Her other books include Journey of the Pale Bear. She lives in Bryan, Texas.
Q: What inspired you to write Sea Change, and how did you create your character Turtle?
A: Years ago, I became obsessed with stories about drowned towns and cities: Old legends about drowned Welsh villages. Atlantis. True accounts of small towns and settlements inundated when dams were built to provide electricity. News stories about ancient cities swallowed up by the sea and newly discovered by modern explorers.
Over time, I piled up pages and pages of notes. But, to my disappointment, I couldn’t find a solid story idea in there—at least, not one that I was excited to write.
Much later, my daughter, all grown up and with a Ph.D. in engineering and microbiology, told me that amazing things were going on in the field of genetics, and maybe I should look into it. So I did. That’s when I stumbled upon CRISPR, the gene-editing technique.
With CRISPR, we’ll be able to eradicate terrible diseases…and in time, we might also be able to create people who are stronger, faster, smarter than anyone on the planet today. People with superhuman abilities—people who can smell as well as bloodhounds, maybe, or see as well as hawks. I’m not saying that’s a good idea. To be honest, I’m just really not sure. I’m just saying it might be possible.
And then I thought: Hold on, there. That’s what happens in “The Little Mermaid,” where a mermaid from an underwater world changes species to be human. And so, my two obsessions—drowned cities and genetic science—came together to make the idea for a single story, which I was very excited to write.
As for Turtle…
Because I was starting with the “Little Mermaid” story, I knew a few things about Turtle before I began to write. I knew she would be part of a small band of teenagers who can breathe underwater—outliers, outsiders. Maybe her group would be discriminated against; Turtle might have a chip on her shoulder.
On the other hand, I knew she would be willing to give up her world in order to be with a “normal” guy she’s fallen for. She’d have to be a little rebellious, and maybe not completely content with the smaller, insular world of the Mer. And I knew she’d be vulnerable to the attentions of a good-looking guy. I started from there, and just tried to stay inside her skin as the story unfolded.
Q: What do you see as the relationship between your story and The Little Mermaid?
A: I’m so glad you asked! I mean, we could say that Sea Change is a 21st century retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s 19th century story, using science instead of magic. Or we could say that Sea Change is partly an homage to Andersen’s tale, and partly sort of a translation of that old story to readers in another world, the world of today.
Confession: Though I adore Andersen’s tale, I’m not happy with the ending, where the prince doesn’t fall in love with the mermaid and, because of that, she dies. (Surely there is a way forward in life for a young woman who takes a risk for love and loses big!)
And another confession: I’m not 100 percent onboard with the Disney “Little Mermaid” ending, either. (Could we think a bit more about changing ourselves completely in order to attract a guy we adore?) I longed for a version where the mermaid takes the huge risk, suffers the consequences, and somehow survives fully as herself.
Q: The writer Nova Ren Suma called the book a “tender, brilliantly woven story of love, found family, and self-discovery amid the ravages of what climate change may bring.” What do you think of that description?
A: Nova’s description absolutely knocked me out! I’m a huge admirer of her work, and I’m so grateful that she took the time to read and comment on Sea Change. What she describes is what I aspired to write: a story of love, found family, and self-discovery among the ravages of a future that the young readers of our books will live to see. Many thanks to Nova!
Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: I wanted the book to be called Sea Change right from the very start, though I knew there are many other books with that title. But Sea Change was too perfect to resist, because it works on so many levels.
First, there’s sea level rise due to climate change.
Second, Turtle goes through an important change, where she can no longer breathe underwater, in the sea.
Finally, with human gene editing, we come to a point in this book where humans will never, ever, be as they have been throughout all of the millennia before. It is a true sea change in human history, an entry into an era the likes of which we’ve never seen before.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m working on a young adult mystery novel, set in California in the 1930s.
My father used to tell me stories of growing up near an airfield in the Los Angeles area, and how he fell in love with aviation then. He flew a whole bunch of missions during WWII and, for a short time thereafter, was part-owner of an airplane in Texas. He took me up in the plane when I was maybe 3 years old, but apparently, I was a total wimp and cried nearly the whole time.
Now, I think flying is a little miracle. I want to keep my window shade open and feast my eyes on clouds and the Earth below, while it seems like everyone else is looking at screens. And I love to think about those early women aviators, and how flying must have opened up their lives.
There’s another, darker, layer to my new novel, too—of course. But I can’t talk about that, yet!
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: It was so exciting to write about CRISPR and human gene editing while so much was going on in the field. Here I was, scribbling away about things that might possibly happen in the future, while, even as I wrote, cures were being developed for previously incurable diseases, thanks to CRISPR.
And then—still while I was writing—scientists Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier were awarded the Nobel Prize for their work in CRISPR, and several excellent nonfiction books for general audiences came out on the subject
Meanwhile, spurred by the global pandemic, CRISPR research made possible a brand-new kind of vaccine, which, before I finished Sea Change, was running in my veins!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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