Robert Mercer-Nairne Interview - Multiverse

Photo Content from Robert Mercer-Nairne

Lord Robert Mercer-Nairne is critically-acclaimed, award-winning writer whose previous novels include The Letter Writer, Like No Other, Warlord, and The Storytellers: Metamorphosis. He is of American and Scottish decent, tracing his ancestry back to the French foreign Minister Talleyrand among other notable leaders and governors. He currently resides in Scotland with his wife of 47 years.

  

What inspired you to pen your first novel?
My first book was actually a small book of poems published in Malta where I was living at the time. It was wonderfully illustrated by a Maltese friend called Marisa Attard. With stunning originality the collection was called Mercer-Nairne in Malta.

Tell us your latest news.
Like everyone else, I am locked down – which is easy for a writer. My family says I have been self-isolating for years.

Who or what has influenced your writing, and in what way?
After a slow start academically – I am dyslexic – I ended up with more degrees than is probably healthy (a BA in economics, a masters in Business Administration and a doctorate in Organization Theory) and realized that none really captured life as it is. Uniquely the novel does and so I turned to that.

Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.
There have been many rewarding experiences since then. But knowing that you have connected with a complete stranger is always special. Publishing makes that possible.

What do you hope for readers to be thinking when they read your novel?
I’m not sure I want them to be thinking - I want them to be absorbed; carried along by the twists and turns of the story. Perhaps at the end they might allow themselves a moment of reflection even if it’s only to say “Goodness, I’m glad I was reading about that, not living it!”

In your new book; MULTIVERSE, can you tell my Book Nerd community a little about it?
It seems to me that America is at something of a crossroads right now and I wanted to explore the random events and individual actions that might send us down one path or another.

What was the single worst distraction that kept you from writing this book?
Multiverse was the distraction. I was in the middle of another book and it just crept up on me.

What was the most surprising thing you learned in creating your characters?
I think all fiction writers discover that the characters they create come alive and take control. It’s as if the puppets start pulling the strings. That’s a novel’s great alchemy.

What chapter was the most memorable to write and why?
I don’t have any favorites. I learnt something from each of them.

If you could introduce one of your characters to any character from another book, who would it be and why?
I would like to see John Franks, the self-absorbed physics laureate in Multiverse meet the ruthless Mrs. Coulter, the anti-hero in Philip Pullman’s superb His Dark Materials, just to watch the cosmic dust fly!

QUOTES FROM MULTIVERSE

• “I am afraid I have some disturbing news.” 
• “It goes right through you, don’t it.” 
• “We have abandoned God.” 
• “So small initial differences can lead to very different realities?” 
• “Oh it’s bad alright. But bad’s relative. We are building a community: looking after one another. Frankly I feel better about myself than I have in a long while.” 
• “God, my dear friends, is the word we use for the rhythm that runs through everything.” 
• “Dean Jimbalaya has just been telling us about the Multiverse Marjory,” enthused one of his star-struck admirers, an announcement that made even the Dean blush as the subject was tantamount to discussing the joys of oral sex at a prayer meeting. 
• “When a priesthood claims more than it can deliver, Congressman, the people’s anger is fierce.” 
• “This is your girl in the air, Sandy Vanocur, bringing you all the news that is the news from the NBC helicopter high over our nation’s capital. And I have to tell you that the news today is forbidding. Our seat of government is under attack…”

What’s the most ridiculous fact you know?
All facts out of context are ridiculous. Just ask a spider why she has eight legs.

What according to you is your most treasured possession?
It’s probably unwise to treasure a possession because what one possesses becomes an extension of oneself, like king Midas’s hoard of gold. I treasure my family, my friends, my health, but I certainly don’t possess them!

Best date you've ever had?
Well there is one that sticks in my mind. My father must have been short of a date himself and so took me along instead to a dinner hosted by Diana Cooper, one of the great beauties of her day, and J Paul Getty, the oil mogul: just the four of us. I was only eighteen at the time and don’t think I contributed much, but I have never forgotten it.

If you could go back in time to one point in your life, where would you go?
I am not sure one can go back, at least without cheating. Memory is self-serving.

If you wrote a journal entry today, what would it say?
“Wrote a few words: some good, some bad. Must try harder. World in a mess, as usual.”

Which incident in your life totally changed the way you think today?
By the time you get to my age (73) there will have been quite a few and ‘the way you think today’ will be a product of all of them. Give me a few more years and my answer will probably be ‘I can’t remember,’ which may be a blessing.

What is one unique thing are you afraid of?
A nasty surprise.

What was the best memory you ever had as a writer?
Not the best perhaps, but for some reason it has stayed with me. I found myself staring at a couple of rows of empty seats one evening on my first book tour. Eventually a lady came and sat down. I thanked her. Surprised, she asked who I was. She said she’d just wanted a rest. So we got to talking. She was a lovely person and bless her, she purchased a book.

Where can readers find you?
MY WEBSITE HERE

Set in the near future, world trade has collapsed and the American economy has entered a depression. The economically dispossessed are drifting into camps that are being set up in city parks across the country. ln Congress the Nationalists, led by Milo Meadows Ill and Moralists, led by President Henry Dukes are increasingly resorting to the black arts as they vie for the power held by the still dominant Rationalists whose belief in scientific management is being challenged on all sides. While Carrie Holden, a budding astrophysicist is being prevented from getting her doctorate by the backlash against science, her friend Jay Chandler is soliciting support from the billionaire Marjory Anhauser in his bid to run for election to the House on the Moralist ticket.

You can purchase Multiverse at the following Retailers:

And now, The Giveaways.

Thank you ROBERT MERCER-NAIRNE for making this giveaway possible.

1 Winner will receive a Copy of Multiverse by Robert Mercer-Nairne.

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