When my coworker casually mentioned working as a mermaid at a tiki bar out west, I was flabbergasted and mesmerized. So when I heard about Lara Ehrlich’s Bind Me Tighter Still, I had to read it.
The story focuses on a young siren named Ceto who decides to see what living like a human is like. She gives up her tail, marries the first man she meets, and has a child, Naia. But it’s clear that this life is not what Ceto had hoped. She runs off with baby Naia and starts a mermaid burlesque in a bar on the coast, which grows with other entertainments like a Mermaid Coney Island known as Sirenland. Ceto leads her band of mermaids and attempts to protect them, and especially Naia, from the rest of the world. But when Naia turns 15, she naturally starts to push against the world of Sirenland and nothing will ever be the same.
After reading the book, I found that Ehrlich had written an article about her experience in a two-day Sirens of the Deep Mermaid Camp at the Weeki Wachee State Park in Florida, which is known for its sold out mermaid shows. It was astonishing to find out how far back folks in the United States have been performing as mermaids; Weeki Wachee opened in 1947. (There was also the Aquarena Springs, San Marcos, Texas where aquamaids performed going back to the 1950s). I was astonished to learn that the tradition goes back even earlier in the US: Australian swimmer, vaudeville performer, and movie star Annette Kellerman worked as a mermaid on the vaudeville circuit and the silver screen in the beginning of the 20th century.
I sat down to talk with Lara Ehrlich about all things mermaid/siren and her new book.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Elisa Shoenberger
Where did the idea for Sirenland come from? Was it based on Weeki Wachee?
Lara Ehrlich
I discovered Weeki Wachee after I began writing the book, although [the book] wasn’t finished by the time I went. [The idea] came from the themes that I was already working with in my first book Animal Life, which is a collection of short stories. [In the story in the book] “The Vanishing Point,” a woman creates a biomechanical deer suit and goes to live as a deer in the woods behind her childhood home. I was really still very interested in the ideas of transformation and living as a creature outside of yourself that allows you through that transformation to become more yourself. I wanted to do something like that on a bigger scale through a novel.
I came across this man, Randy Constan [who lives his life as Peter Pan] and I was just fascinated by the authenticity of what he was doing. It was not performance art. It wasn’t for anyone else, but it was for himself that he lived his life as this fictional character.
I was thinking about that, and then also thinking about Disney World, where you have to stay in character when you’re in the public eye. Behind the scenes, there’s this network of tunnels and backstage areas where you can take a breather. All of these things together, I wanted to create a world, like Disneyland, with a public facing side, where the performers would stay in character/ Behind the scenes, they could come out of character. But what would happen if there was at least one of them who lived all the time as that character? That led me to think about mythical creatures. I circled around back to my love of fairy tales, and came back to the Little Mermaid.
All of those elements came together into the world of Sirenland, where the women perform as sirens, but when they retreat back into the backstage areas, they can take off the tails and clean up. But the woman who created Sirenland stays in character, and it’s more than a character for her, it’s her identity and her existence.
Elisa Shoenberger
Did you base Sirenland on Weeki Wachee?
Lara Ehrlich
I had conceived of Sirenland and of the story [before going.] Elements of Sirenland were drawn specifically from Weeki Wachee. For example, the sirens would enter the underwater theater [through] a tube that sort of snaked down into the spring. [The sirens at Weeki Wachee] had to climb down a ladder to get in because of the current that was pushing back up against them. I got a chance to see the tube. It’s no longer used because it was so dangerous. They have different ways to get into the spring now that are safe. It was so helpful to see that technical detail and talk to the women who had been working there to understand how logistically they would get down that tube with the current pressing against them.
I had never swum in a tail before. [I learned] what it felt like, and how you had to move your legs inside of this sheath, and which muscles were activated when you’re trying to swim in a tail. [And learn] the breath work of staying underwater for an extended period of time. All of that was helpful to experience for myself and talk to the women who ran the camp. They were legendary sirens at Weeki Wachee who had performed for Elvis. [I got to] hear about those early days and the sisterhood that they created amongst themselves through this experience, so it absolutely influenced subsequent drafts of the book.
Elisa Shoenberger
In the Lit Hub article, you wrote, “alluring women have performed as mermaids—they call themselves sirens.” How do you see sirens and mermaids as different or the same?
Lara Ehrlich
Mythically, sirens are distinct from mermaids. Sirens are vicious. Odysseus learns that the sirens are luring the sailors in order to devour them. They’re not actually sea creatures in the Odyssey. They’re not the sirens we face today. They are hungry and they’re covered in blood. They’re kind of disgusting, and maybe untraditionally beautiful.
[The idea of a mermaid is an] alluring half woman, half fish. Now we think of the Little Mermaid with Ariel. But in fact, Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid was a dark story about a young mermaid who gives up her tail and her voice to find love on land, and ultimately has to choose between killing the prince or killing herself.
That’s the kind of mythical siren or mermaid I wanted to return to the idea of a creature that is driven by their hunger, their more animalistic nature, but still feminist in that a woman can embody aspects of womanhood that are terrifying, specifically to the patriarchy. A mermaid is a softer, more feminine, more sort of patriarchal version of what was mythical and terrifying and seductive.
Elisa Shoenberger
Why do you think we are still fascinated by mermaids/sirens?
Lara Ehrlich
I think the mermaid is particularly an interesting mythical creature because it is part human. (There are mermen as well). In terms of the stories that we have grown up with, The Little Mermaid is very human in many ways. She falls in love and has desires, a family, hobbies and all of those things. But [she is] othered by a tail, by the ability to do something we can’t. [She lives] in the ocean, which is a very mysterious and beautiful and strange place; it would be the equivalent of being able to live in outer space. [It’s ] a glimpse into another kind of human-like existence in a realm that is on Earth, but separate, because we can’t exist in the sea.
The modern version of the mermaid is beautiful. Who doesn’t want to watch beautiful half-clothed women swimming in a graceful, fluid, non-human way amongst the fish? The mystery and almost accessibility of a mermaid is something that keeps the mermaid in our consciousness, more so than something that’s more fully mythical, like a manticore.
Elisa Shoenberger
The book explores the darker side of motherhood. You talked about wanting to show your daughter that you had your own life. Could you talk about why you wanted to focus on that?
Lara Ehrlich
I always thought that motherhood equals sacrifice of everything I am and wanted to be. When I decided with my husband that we did want to have a family, I was determined that I would create for myself a version of motherhood where [full sacrifice] wasn’t the case, where I didn’t have to sacrifice who I was and who I wanted to be in the things I wanted to do. That I could do both, even if it was really hard.
When I started writing this book, my daughter was maybe six months old. That was probably the hardest time because I was forming the kind of mother I wanted to be. [My daughter] had just started going to daycare, which hit me a lot harder than I thought it would. I wanted to be the kind of mother who was still writing and exploring life, but I also want to spend all of my time now with this little person. How do I reconcile those things? Part of how I reconciled them was writing about that push and pull of wanting to retain my core identity while also being devoted to my child.
The first Trump presidency fed into the book. I was scared and angry about what sort of future my daughter would inherit. At the same time, my daughter was in daycare, which was as much as our rent in Boston. I was the first one dropping her off and the last one picking her up, because my commute was so long. So I was feeling incredibly angry that our society pushes women to become mothers, but without any structural support once you have a child. I was creating this world in this book to feed all of that rage. If there’s one word that defines how I was feeling when I started this book, it’s rage.
Going back to the theme of motherhood, [there’s] something my mother had said. That line was: “You’ll never be closer [to your daughter] than when she’s in your womb, and then once she’s born, she starts moving away from you.” That’s what’s supposed to happen. At the same time, it’s so hard. I wanted to capture that tension of letting your child go and become who they are, while retaining who you are and how hard that is.
Elisa Shoenberger
I love that you made the Sirenland theme song in the book into an actual song. Why did you decide to make an actual song?
Lara Ehrlich
I grew up in Mystic, Connecticut. Mystic, CT has the Mystic Seaport, which is a colonial seafaring village that was reconstructed here on the coast. They did have a sea shanty festival every year. I grew up steeped in the music of the sea, and found it very compelling and interesting because it was intended to be working music. The rhythm would help the sailors raise the sails. But it’s also music in its own right. It’s art, and it’s beautiful and strange.
I absolutely wanted to incorporate a sea shanty into the book. I was thinking about Weeki Wachee, which has a theme song for their trademark show The Little Mermaid. I wanted something like that for Sirenland. It made sense that [the song was] a sea shanty/ performative song that the sirens might perform.
I thought the idea of translating that into a real song that then we could listen to was something that would be really fun, and that then might be performed at events for the book and used for social media. My career background is largely in marketing, and so I was thinking about which elements of the book, even as I was writing it, [could be used in marketing.] I couldn’t turn off that part of my brain. I intended to record the song and use it for promotion.
Check out Lara Ehlrich’s website with her articles and Bind Me Tighter Still’s accompanying theme song.
FICTION
Bind Me Tighter Still
By Lara Ehlrich
Red Hen Press
Published September 9, 2025
