It has been a long-time wish of mine to write about the sea. I wanted to create a story that was personal, with characters who are close to my heart and who I hoped would resonate with others the same strong way they do with me. And so came the idea for The Sea Whisperer.
I want to start by telling you a little something about my ideas for the settings in the story.
I was born in an Eastern European coastal town on the Black Sea, and wandering the beaches barefoot and climbing rocks long after sunset is not unfamiliar to me. Surely, no man who has ever seen and felt the fearsome might and vast beauty of the sea can ever love any other natural phenomenon as much.
At least that was the case with me, ever since I was a child. The taste of the sea was constantly on my tongue, the stone-cracking zenith heat of the sun on my skin, and the briny scent of dried seaweed in my nostrils. (And yes, roasted mussels are not just my main character’s favorite, they’re also my favorite.) But it was not just during the summer. I was on those shores every season.
The Black Sea was called that because metal objects from ships, dead plants, and animal matter that sunk deeper than 150 meters for a long time became covered with black sludge due to the high concentration of hydrogen sulfide in the sea. Or they called it that because of the severe black-clouded storms that occur there. Either way, the name has an ominous sound. It didn’t stop me from loving it, though.
I was blessed once, for having been so close to the sea in my childhood and then second time, when in 2019 I was accepted at a university in another coastal town, in the far windswept northeastern UK, and thus never had to part with the sea.
And oh, the North Sea is so fierce and dark that they had to build solid seawall defenses to contain it and prevent it from devouring the entire coastline of the town. Even so, the rumbling waves utterly destroyed half of the wooden groynes last winter, and the wind whispered and howled for days.
No wonder the Danes called this sea The Old Gray Widow-Maker.
Here’s a short video of mine to show you what a majestic thing it is.