ABOUT MERLIN AND MEREDYTH
My Merlin is an atheist. His father was a Jew, his mother, a Pagan. He despises both magic and religion. He is a healer specializing in birth control, abortion and impotency. Like many healers of today, he cannot solve his own problems. Impotency or what is called in the book “a broken Man Sword” is one of his problems; wanting to believe in a Higher Power another. He lived at the time when the Roman Church was warring on all who did not believe as they did, but mostly on Pagans.
Merlin’s mother was a Pagan and one of a group known as Sisters of the Heart. The Sister’s believe sexual pleasures are the Life Forces greatest gift to humankind. Only two sexual pleasure are forbidden. Rape including sex with children, animals, and others not able to freely consent is not only forbidden but punished. Sex with a brother, sister, mother or father, close cousins and aunts or uncles is forbidden, but not punished.
The Sisters believe the demonizing of sexual pleasures as dictated by the Roman Church’s edict “Better to wed than to burn,” oppresses both men and women. The Sisters also believe that failing to provide women with the ability to control their bodies by contraception or abortion is oppressive and related to man’s need to control and dominate.
Meredyth comes to Merlin seeking an abortion. She believes her half-brother Gydaffee is the baby’s father. Gydaffee forced her to marry him believing a child of incest would grant him special powers and aid his quest to become the next Great King.
One of my small hopes is that both men and women struggling to enjoy what should come naturally will find in the book hope and release from guilt about sexual pleasures.
My initial goal was to publish the entire book on my 75th birthday. Didn’t happen, maybe my my 76th. But instead I will be publishing a series of short stories, what some might call back stories to the novel Merlin and Meredyth that I had originally intended to publish first. The first of theses short stories Begetting Merlin will soon be posted on Smashwords. Sign up to be notifed when the story is available.
Blog Image by: hen-gapel.co.uk
Begetting Merlin editing, formatting, and cover image by Harvey Stanbrough
