Literary Nonfiction Merlin Hermes is the author
of The Lunatic the Lover and the Poet and Careful What You Wish For. A graduate of Reed College and the University of London, she was raised in Hawaii and currently lives in Portland, Oregon.
Q&A
1. What are your sources of inspiration? There are a handful of short high-concept poems or stories, as well as a few other creative artistic projects I’ve done, that I can point to as the result of “inspiration”: a ticklish idea like a bolt from above, which becomes an obsession that must be manifested in a manic fury. But it is by nature unpredictable, and a difficult energy to sustain over a long-form project. In writing a novel, I think inspiration is less important than momentum: remaining committed to a journey that (compared to reading, at least) can be a painstakingly slow and tedious slog through a story. I like writing humorous fiction, because if I can make myself laugh with a funny or clever line, it keeps me entertained while I’m writing as well as (hopefully) entertaining the reader as well. 2. How would you describe your creative process? Writing, for me, is much like trying to remember a vivid and complicated dream. You can see and understand the entire scene in a flash, but it gets slippery when you try to pin down the details. I write quite slowly—perhaps five hundred or a thousand words a day—partly because I don’t write a narrative through from beginning to end, but
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