What about when the Writer deserts the Muse?

Do you remember my muse, the "Fancy" Caped Jones, and the conversation we had last year about her deserting me for two angels on sabbatical?

I keep telling you they weren't angels, angels don't sunbathe in the buff and these guys were definitely buff...

Yeah, okay, quit trying to distract me. Anyway, as I was saying, I was left to write on my own. It was fuzzy, soundless, blah blah blah. It sucked, but I persevered and wrote on without her.

Yeah, keep telling yourself that.

Quit interrupting.

But what happens when the writer deserts the Muse? It's my understanding that a Muse cannot write on her own. She is only capable of helping humans create and unable to create on her own. At least that's the way they explain it it the movie Dogma. Go Kevin Smith! ANYWAY, as our current situation would have it, I have deserted Fancy. I've had things happen in my personal life that have changed my daily schedule and unfortunately writing has had to take a back seat to life.

This has put quite a crimp in Fancy's life and she has taken her revenge by following me every where I go and singing Henry VIII I am and reminding me that I made a promise. Not only a promise to myself, but also a promise to her. I promised that I would finish Megan's story.

She did and she hasn't.

She's right, I did promise and I haven't held up my end of the deal. Having said that I don't think the punishment fits the crime this time, no offense Fancy but you can't carry a tune all that well. I thought Muses were suppose to be all inspiring.

We are!

There is nothing inspiring about your singing. I'm sorry.

Apparently there's nothing inspiring about your writing either, otherwise you'd be on top of it!

Hey now, I've been busy. I have lots of things going on.

Whatever!

I'll make you a deal,

What kind of a deal?

Quit interrupting and I'll tell you,

Fine!

You did it again.

Sorry.

Okay, if you quit singing I will make a concerted effort to write 100 words a day.

You've said that before...

Yes, I know, but I will be better this time.

Promise?

Yes, Fancy I promise.

Alright, but if you fall off the wagon, I'm grabbing my microphone and there will be NO SLEEP FOR YOU!

Deal. I've announced it publicly and everything. You have it in writing. You heard it here, I promise to write 100 words a day or else Fancy has permission to drive me to drink.

Drinking is an option? You never mentioned that before....

Have you ever deserted your muse? Is she evil like mine?

Writing, the toughest job you'll ever love . . .

Okay, I know I stole the title from that old Peace Corp commercial, but I thought it appropriate.

Webster defines the word author as: one that originates or creates, which is a pretty generic description. I know a lot of authors, some published, some not, and to define them as "one that creates" seems a little nondescript. The women that I know, who write, spill their blood on every page. They can spend thousands of hours, creating a new world and every single thing that lives inside it. A new race of people, a new language, new rules that make an age-old paranormal creature new and exciting again.

It all starts out with an idea. An idea that comes from out of nowhere. One day, you're driving in your car and a crazy woman driving faster than her beat up old Toyota appears to be capable of going, cuts you off. After you swear at her in multiple languages and give her an obscene gesture the thought runs through your mind that she just might be chasing after that idiot in the Hummer who tried to kill you just moments earlier. Maybe the idiot in the Hummer has stolen her prize Chihuahua and she has only minutes to get to the poor beast before she'll collapse from not having her seizure medication. And so it begins. The hours and days of researching Chihuahuas and endless hours talking with vets. Do Chihuahuas really have seizures? What would cause such a thing? Is there a cure? Can a Chihuahua have epilepsy?

We pour hours of our heart, soul and anything else we can possible put into the mix into this woman with the crazy Chihuahua fetish. We discover things about her and her life, that honestly, we didn't need to know. We learn so much about being a veterinarian and what kind of person would truly kidnap a dog that we dream about it. A lot. We keeps pads of paper and pens by the side of our bed, on the off chance that something brilliant comes to us in sleep. We do all of this, so that we can tell the crazy woman's story with a little bit of realism. So that the readers that we one day hope to have, get a true sense of her fear, her love for her animal and the understanding of just how much the anti-depressants really do help.

We go through all of this, so that we can submit to an agent/publisher/CP who will say. . . insert negative comment here.

Why do we do it? Why do we subject ourselves and our talent to this kind of criticism? Why can't we just write for ourselves and be happy with it? Be happy with knowing that we did the best that we could? Because we want the world to love it as much as we do. It's an illness really.

Why do you write?

Originally posted 2009

Glee - 19 Emmy Nominations

I have been a fan of Glee from the beginning. I like musicals, as I mentioned in an earlier post, and I enjoy comedy. I am so excited to see that I'm not the only one. I wanted to share a couple of my favorite Glee "acts" with you. I hope you all enjoy them too.





Tell me, are you a gleek? I am.

Top 5 Reasons to Watch As The World Turns on CBS

So You Think You Can Dance

I know a lot of you don't watch this show, so I post the really AWESOME dances so you can see them too. The dancers in this are Twitch, the All-Star (seriously) and Alex, the contestant. Alex is the dancer on the couch. He's a ballet dancer. You heard me, ballet. Check him out in this amazing hip hop routine....