Straight From the Mouth of Tracy Shawn

 

   10 Things You Might Not Know About Floating Underwater

By Tracy Shawn

 

Ten Things You Might Not Know About the Novel Floating Underwater

1. The first working title for Floating Underwater was The Girl from the Edge of the Ocean. Author Tracy Shawn decided that Floating Underwater was a bit more poetic, if not a lot shorter!

2. Sunflower Beach is a fictional beach town in Floating Underwater. It was inspired by the small beach towns near San Diego, California, where Tracy has enjoyed several beachside vacations. Also, Sunflowers are symbolic of the hope that we can turn to something bigger than ourselves (as the sunflower turns to the sun) and learn to embrace our authentic selves—themes that run through Floating Underwater.

3. Tracy Shawn named protagonist Paloma Leary’s husband Reed because he eventually learns to be less rigid and “bend with the wind,” as reeds naturally do.

4. Floating Underwater went through so many revisions that it took over nine years to complete. During the last two years that Tracy was working on it, her mom was diagnosed with uterine cancer and later died in 2020 (Floating Underwater was released in 2021). The scenes in which Paloma misses her mom hit Tracy that much harder, and she found that like her character Paloma, she, too felt connected with her mom’s spirit.

5. Tracy’s first childhood dog was named Bonnie and after Bonnie died, Tracy’s mom sang the song “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” to try and make young Tracy feel better. That was one of the reasons Tracy Shawn included this song in her story, as it has always reminded her of love and loss.

6. Ramiro Summers was inspired by Tracy’s grandfather John, who was quite spiritual and often visited with ghosts over tea in his Devonshire cottage.

7. Tracy wrote Floating Underwater because she wanted to write about a character who is dealing with the grief of miscarriage, while at the same time, learning to accept a life that is different than the one she had planned.

8. The name Serena means calm and serene—and is also very similar to the word sirena, which is Spanish for mermaid.

9. Paloma’s spiritual crisis is due, in part, to her having held back her grief for too long.

10. The cover picture was created to depict a dreamlike state—much like Paloma’s visions.

Award-Winning Author Tracy Shawn lives and writes on the Central Coast of California. Her debut novel, The Grace of Crows, won several indie book awards. Floating Underwater is her second novel. Tracy Shawn’s short stories have appeared in Literary Brushstrokes, Psychology Tomorrow Magazine, and Steel House Review Literary Journal. She’s written numerous articles for print and online publications and is currently working on her third novel.

You can visit her website at https://www.tracyshawn.com/ or connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads.