For me, Terra Sea Merge was different than any of the previous Oceania novels. For one, there was no specific inspirational moment that directed the development of this novel. Instead, I focused on my desire to tell a different sort of Oceania: The Underwater City story. After Shark Station, I wanted to return the main setting of the novel to Oceania. However, I also needed to address the events that occurred in the last few chapters of Shark Station since they led into the story of Terra Sea Merge. More than anything, Terra Sea Merge came out of necessity. The events at the end of Shark Station led to Allie agreeing to have an exchange program between Land Dwellers and Oceanians. This gave me the chance to explore how other Land Dwellers who think and act differently from Allie might view the city. It allowed for interesting and comical moments throughout the story, but also allowed me to reintroduce some characters from Allie’s Return who didn’t make an appearance in Shark Station.
As I wrote this story, I tried to think of the districts
of Oceania and its society that the reader hadn’t been exposed to in the
previous novels. So Terra Sea Merge has a couple of new districts that
Allie and the exchange students visit along with other cultural explorations
you’ll read about in the novel. If anything, this novel inspired me to write
differently. As usual, everything is through Allie’s eyes, but she’s seeing
things in a different light and is forced to handle problems she’s never faced
before.
I know this inspiration for the story was shorter than
the others, but there’s really not much else to say. I hope you enjoy reading Terra
Sea Merge!
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