June 17, 2009 (07:58 AM EDT)

Two Women and a Nightengale is my homage and subversion of Max Ernst and Surrealism generally. I've decided to give away the first chapter as a free download to anyone who wants it.

Part fantasy, part word-play, the fragementary narrative comes alive when read aloud.

This collage novel follows the classic format: images culled from nineteenth century sources, painstakingly rearranged and reassembed into entirely new, seamless tableaux.

This is the first chapter from the novel, complete with Betancourt's artwork and story. It is a riff on Ernst's 1926 painting "Two children are menaced by a nightengale," taking up the story years later from were Ernst left it.

The story chronicles the adventure of Rose, her sister Marcella, the insane landscapes they travel through (including a sea where mothers drown their naughty sons), and the eponymous Nightengale on their way to the Moon.

The sheer lunacy of the tale is accentuated by the strangeness of the images.

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