1. I did not think that setting a story in a National Park was a thing that would turn out to be remotely topical. Wow, this timeline. But I do adore Rock Creek Park, and it has a mill, and well, there are a lot of fairytales about mills as it turns out.
2. One of the discords I'm in had the idea to each take a Grimm's fairytale and remix it as a romance. I wasn't super familiar with The Nixie and the Mill Pond, but making magical deals, the woman completing challenges to get her beloved back, yeah, I had ideas about that.
3. I have been trying to write a story about a mo'o for a while. Because I love geckos, and the idea of a water protector with a gecko and a dragon shape. And nixies, as far as I could tell hung out near mills mostly because mills were on the water. So a mo'o nixie combo seemed sensible.
4. I've been working a lot of museums into my stories, because DC has so many. (I briefly referenced the Zoo in this one.) But DC also has a ton of parks. There's a guy trying to visit all of them. Rock Creek Park is basically next to my back yard. I sometimes forget that it's right there, that I can just wander through it whenever I feel like it .
5. I don't always make playlists for my books, that's just not how my brain works. But nixies are known for their music and well, for reasons, I made the male protagonist a tour manager for his dad's rock band. So there was a lot of music research for this book.
6. I also got to do a little cavern research for spoilery plot reasons. There are so many caves, caverns, and other underground spaces around here. Nature is amazing.
7: I Belong to You - A Fairytale Remix
Makena meets Leif at an open mic night. They hit it off and she feels comfortable sharing about her mo'o and nixie abilities - her attachments to Rock Creek, where she has taken on water protection duties. Leif never stays in one place too long, travelling most of the year as tour manager for his dad's rock band. But for once he's considering what he might be leaving behind. But his parents are concerned once they learn he's been hanging out by the old mill. There may be a bargain left undone, and Makena and Leif together may have reminded the gods to finish things. Links to buy here: https://books2read.com/u/4XkO19
