Thresher Shark Man

Photo credit Thomas Alexander - Own work via wikipedia commons.

Hi Everyone! Eric here... One of the most enjoyable and yet challenging aspects of writing SECRETS OF THE DEEP was creating all of the unusual creature characters -- and trying to do it in a way that hasn't already been done a million times before. From the fish-folk of Driftwood to the locust insectoid thing to the half-ogre Noxu warriors, there were a lot of strange beings in this book! LOL. Far more than in most of the other Gryphon Chronicles books.

It seemed like every other day we were brainstorming either brand new creatures, like the colony in the Seaweed Forest, or trying to put a new spin on familiar ones from old legends, like Davy Jones himself, in a new and fresh way.  "Ow, my brain!" So much thinking!! lol. 

The legend of Davy Jones and his Locker, by the way, goes back several hundred years (perhaps as far back as the 1500s), long before the Pirates of the Caribbean movie popularized the dread, undead pirate. (Loved those, but would've preferred a happy ending to the series rather than one that was kind of sad!) In my research, I dug up a lot of fun material on Davy Jones and the Flying Dutchman, which I hope to get to in another blog post, but since we're talking about the weird creatures, how about Thresher Shark Man??

​First Mate Carnahan is truly intimidating (at least Dani thinks so!) in the way he uses his long tail to whip the crew of the Flying Dutchman into action. Watch the video below and you'll see what inspired us to base First Mate Carnahan on this most unusual creature. They really do that with their tails! Isn't Nature amazing? Here's a shark who will smack you upside your head...THEN eat you. :) Well, that's different, anyway! *g*

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