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IFWG Publishing is extremely pleased to announce the acquisition of LA-based Robyn L. Coburn’s middle grade novel, Mermaid Summer.

Eleven-year-old Jenna Hanson is fed up. She has to start all over yet again in yet another new place. Hopefully someone in this little crowd of local girls will accept her. Then Jenna meets an orphan mermaid, living in secret, and she learns what it means to be truly lonely. When the mermaid is in real danger, to save her new friend, Jenna has to do two things she never thought she would – break a pinky promise and lead a team.

“We have a good track record with middle grade fiction,” said Gerry Huntman, Managing Director of IFWG, “and Coburn’s manuscript definitely adds to this quality trend. We are pleased to have acquired this and look forward to sharing it with readers, both young and adult.”

After a life designing theater in Australia and Texas, Robyn Coburn moved to California to work in the Art Department of indie films. Then when her daughter was born, she pivoted to become a writer and visual artist.

Robyn wrote the authorized biography of the Oscar-winning actor, James Coburn, DERVISH DUST: THE LIFE AND WORDS OF JAMES COBURN published by Potomac Books in 2021. Her writing on alternative education has been featured online, and she was a columnist for Natural Life Magazine writing about green crafting. 

When not making art or writing, she helps creative professionals build careers in entertainment. She self-published the WORK IN PRODUCTION series for Kindle and has written successful grants for nonprofit groups in the creative arts. She has an action screenplay in development with production company That’s Hollywood.Robyn lives in Los Angeles with her husband, a production sound mixer and college professor, her young adult daughter, their standoffish rescue cat, and a desert tortoise. 

Mermaid Summer will be globally released in print and ebook formats in the last quarter of 2026.