Latest 'Lunatic' news...

Hello to all the lunatics, lovers, and poets out there. Sorry I haven't updated in a while--I've been preparing for a few upcoming events, including a staged reading/cabaret performance with San Francisco's GuyWriters in May and an appearance at Bloomsbury Books in Ashland, home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. I'll give more details on these readings as they become available, so watch this space.

Coming up a bit sooner, I'll be in Seattle on March 16th at 7:00pm, reading at the University Book Store, 4326 University Way NE. Molly Bauckham of Fremont's own Dusty Strings will once again be providing musical accompaniment on the Celtic harp. Everyone had a wonderful time at the Powell's launch, so I hope if you're in the Seattle area, you'll come by to see us take the show on the road! Here's Molly performing her own interpretation of "Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind" from As You Like It:
YouTube - "Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind"

The Week in Reviews:

Zachary Stewart of TheaterMania.com gave The Lunatic, the Lover, and the Poet its most glowing review yet! Calling it a "remarkable book," he says:

Myrlin Hermes delivers the kind of wit, creativity, and verbal eloquence which is rarely seen in contemporary novels in The Lunatic, the Lover and the Poet...Hermes blends history with fiction and makes nimble use of Shakespeare's characters for her own story with a shameless audacity comparable to Tom Stoppard (the author of another Hamlet variation, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.)[...] Like Shakespeare, the author's love for language and its possibilities shines through on every page. Hermes is truly a master of the bawdy double entendre.



James Piechota of the Bay Area Reporter also praises the book, calling it a "a great gay adventure," if "more than a little quirky..." It's great to get a rave from the largest and oldest ongoing LGBT newspaper in the country!

Less enchanted was Brent Hartinger of AfterElton.com. Though he says "This book is terrifically well-written, " and that it has "...more than a touch of genius..." he found the shifting POV "distracting" (the first reader I've heard who hasn't loved Lady Adriane's scenes!) and felt like "the author and her Shakespeare-aficionado friends were sharing a conversation that I only half-understood."

But my favorite response to The Lunatic, the Lover, and the Poet last week wasn't from a media outlet, but a Facebook message from a fan, Mary Logan. Mary is a high-school English teacher and knows Hamlet backwards and forwards, so it really meant a lot to me that she loved my interpretation! Mary not only wrote an amazing review on Amazon.com, in which she calls the book a "..marvelously crafted gem.." she also left a comment on the YouTube video, and even emailed my editor, Rakesh Satyal, to thank him for publishing the book! Mary has also created a desktop wallpaper and a Firefox Persona (like a "skin" to customize your browser) based on the novel's cover art! You can find the links to download them on my Facebook group.

I knew writing this novel, and especially during the long struggle to find a publisher for it, that it wouldn't be for everyone; but that the one reader in a thousand, or a hundred thousand, who "got" it would love it passionately, and maybe it could become, if never a New York Times bestseller, at least a sort of "cult classic" in certain circles. So thanks to Mary Logan, and to fans like her, for justifying my obsessive perserverance with what seemed for so long like a crazy little dream.