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2017 in Review December 31, 2017 16:00

From Jess: 

Whew! What a year this has been for "Rescue Sirens": twelve months full of fun firsts!

Chris and I started 2017 off with a bang in January by attending NC Mermania, the largest gathering of mermaid fans on the planet, where I swam my tail off and participated in my first panel.

For Mer-May, we ran a giveaway and our first "Rescue Sirens" fan art contest!

Then, at San Diego Comic-Con in July, we celebrated the release of our first children's book, "Rescue Sirens and the Great Fish Round-Up," beautifully illustrated by Dylan Bonner. In addition to being gorgeous, our book is also water-resistant, meaning little mermaids and mermen (and not-so-little ones, too) can safely take the Rescue Sirens with them to the pool or the beach without fear of ruined pages.

At SDCC, we also sold our very first enamel pins!

In August, we debuted the "Rescue Sirens" apparel and accessories collection in our online store, offering T-shirts, hats, tote bags, and coffee mugs on our very own website for the first time.

We wrapped the year up last month with our first book reading/signing appearance, which took place over two days at Denver's BookBar. For the reading of our children's book, I even wore my custom silicone Nim tail! Both events were a blast.

Over on Instagram, you all liked our mermaid photos and inking videos the best, as you can see from 2017's Top Nine!


Instagram Top Nine


Looking ahead to 2018, we have more in store... literally. After a pretty chaotic second half of this year, I finally have plans to open our Etsy shop so we can make the last of our initial run of enamel pins available to fans who couldn't make it to SDCC; we also have what we need to send copies of "Rescue Sirens and the Great Fish Round-Up" to Amazon so our children's book can be purchased online, as well. My goal is to check both items off my list by the end of January, so cross your fingers for me! I will, of course, keep you updated here on the blog and via social media.

I want to take a moment to thank all of you for your patience; I can't tell you how much I appreciate everyone's understanding when we sometimes take longer than anticipated to get our books and other merchandise out there. It's just me and Chris -- there is no "Rescue Sirens" staff helping out -- and Chris is currently working full-time on a new film, so that means that the majority of the social media management, product design, online store order processing (and, in some cases, shipping), and customer service is my responsibility. That can be a lot to juggle, especially when I have a second "Rescue Sirens" novel to write!

In 2018, I'm going to strive to strike a balance, to do more writing and to make more cool products. This means that "Rescue Sirens" may be less active on Instagram and Facebook, but never fear -- we're here behind the scenes, working hard to make more mermaid magic!

I hope that this year to come is full of joy, adventure, and accomplishment for all of you. Best fishes for a safe, fun, fin-omenal New Year!