The Lunatic, the Lover and the Poet . . .

I discovered The Lunatic, the Lover and the Poet by Myrlin A.Hermes in such a roundabout manner.  Reading Nathan Bransford’s blog in January, Myrlin A. Hermes discussed how she put together a book-video on the novel for Youtube.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBvQItaRdJc

She was so inspiring and made it seem so easy, that readers of Mesmered will know I straight away had a brainstorm and decided I could do one for my first novel.  Of course I couldn’t, as the blog archive will indicate, and had to get my brother to do it for me.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivQK4AAVZrc

The next step was to order the book through one of my favourite bookshops.  It arrived three weeks ago and I’ve just begun what is claimed to be “Shakespeare turned topsy-turvy.”  It’s a wonderful read!  Clever, witty, metafictional tricks that leave me laughing.  And stunning writing.

For example, in a main character narration, the Baroness de Maricourt talks about the writer Horatio and his doomed relationship with the Prince of Denmark.

She says:  “But every loom must be warped before the tapestry can be woven.  And as our scholar might attest, ‘text’ and ‘textile’ share a common root.  Which suggest that no story is ever cut new from whole cloth, but instead woven together from ends and scraps: ‘found yarn’ if you will; I always did prefer to leave my tapestries a little unravelled around the edges.”

This sort of rich writing resonates with me.  As writer Marc Acito says: ‘There’s a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on in Hermes innovative take on Shakespeare’s Hamlet.  A novel most wondrous strange.’

Highly recommended!