The Boy and the Mermaid or Pretty Boy Saint

By: AJ Diaz

Narrated by: AJ Diaz

IN THIS MOST NICEST and NEAT NOVELLA...

Jake is an effortless young man whose best friend is the gremlin he accidentally wrote into existence when he was a little boy.

Now, when he saves a mermaid from a reef off the coast of beautiful Laguna, California, he’s not sure if he brought her into existence through his dreams or why it is that she came into his life.

Are they meant to be lovers? Friends? Is he meant to save her? Is she meant to save him?

She brings with her terrible danger from her underwater kingdom, and Jake’s life will hang in the balance, even as he must make the biggest and most bittersweet decision yet.

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:

This NOVELLA is my love letter to Laguna and southern California, where I was born and raised.

The story came to me while I was hanging out in a coffee shop in Seoul, Korea.

I wept right there in front of everyone as the story played in my mind. Like a mad and pretty boy genius. Who had just received a most interesting vision.

Of a gremlin and a mermaid and a boy from Laguna and a fading final sunset and the closing of the curtains. And even new beginnings.

Now I bring it to you, a little gift.

I wrote it for all of the truest and most beautiful little things in our lives. Which aren’t little at all.

And I wrote it because I like writing.

& I love these—my—eternal dreams....

©2025 Allen Diaz (P)2025 Allen Diaz