Through Nightmare

Today, we gladly give this space to The Naked Filmmaker, where this post was originally published (in a more extended version).

Through Nightmare is my mum's Elizabeth (Libby) Malin’s retelling of Jane Eyre. Since long before I was more than a pair of gametes wandering opposite sides of Baltimore waiting for the right time to get down to business, Jane Eyre has been for Libby what A Room with a View later would be for me. Inspirational – probably magical in a way – the kind of thing that grabs you and tells you a lot about life first, and then a little about writing a long time after.

Libby felt Jane Eyre’s enchantment fading a little, though, as the years went by, so she started a new project to capture what had captured her in that story back when it was new to her. Through Nightmareis the result. It’s not an exact retelling – there are enough twists and surprises to keep it new and fresh even for inveterate fans of the original – but like any good adaptation or homage, it goes beyond simple imitation to capture the original’s spirit and power.

In Through Nightmare, hot-tempered and fortune-slighted John Doyle struggles to find peace – or at least, a steady job – in 1930s Los Angeles. He’s hired as a chauffer and mechanic by the mysterious and sardonic heiress Pauline Sloane, a stunning movie star with wild habits and darker secrets. Their inevitable attraction offers only a mirage of happiness, however, as the two must overcome their past sins and recent transgressions to at last find rest and “love faithfully and well, where they are faithfully and well loved in return.”

Through Nightmare has received glowing praise from many editors over its years of submission rounds – one of whom said it was the best manuscript she’d read a ther current publishing house – but each time it’s come close to publication, the marketing directors have shut it down, claiming it would be “too hard to sell.” We’re trying to prove those marketing directors wrong. Through Nightmare is now being serialized on Libby’s website, LibbysBooks.com, where readers can email Libby with feedback, and where every bit of web traffic counts toward our goal of proving that this entertaining, moving, and entrancing manuscript has a place in current readers’ hearts and minds.

You can read Through Nightmare here: THROUGH NIGHTMARE on LibbysBooks.com
where the first two installments (the Prologue through Chapter 6) are already posted. If you want to share your thoughts on the manuscript, contact Libby via the email address provided on the website. If you enjoy it (and, if you’re anything like me, you won’t be able to stop reading once you start) please share the link with your friends, family, colleagues, and anyone else who would have fun reading it. New segments will be posted regularly, so check back frequently.

Categories: Books, Jane Eyre, Websites