{"id":949,"date":"2022-11-24T19:02:23","date_gmt":"2022-11-24T23:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grimaulkin.com\/ljacob-today\/?p=949"},"modified":"2022-11-24T19:02:23","modified_gmt":"2022-11-24T23:02:23","slug":"the-muse-tempts-but-speeds-off-in-her-ferrari","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grimaulkin.com\/ljacob-today\/?p=949","title":{"rendered":"The Muse tempts, but speeds off in her Ferrari"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I have a vision of my Muse (Calliope) as Christie Brinkley in <em>National Lampoon&#8217;s Vacation<\/em>. She drives by saying, &#8220;You should write, honey!&#8221; I pull out a fresh notebook and write maybe two pages of introduction, and then&#8230;she&#8217;s gone. I tried using the computer, too, and that didn&#8217;t work&#8211;I got a scene out before she took off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I tried editing my huge epic fantasy opus that I wrote in college (or was it right after college at my first receptionist job?) but got disgusted with how much work I was going to have to do to fix the wreck that it was. After three months, I finally put it aside this week and decided to try new things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>See paragraph above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NanoWrimo went to hell after I got in the hospital on the first day of November, and was in for five days. Then Rhode Island Comic Con the weekend after I got out of the hospital, where I sold a few copies of my book, but I was concentrating on selling everyone else&#8217;s. I did a good job with that. I met John Barrowman! At the autograph table, I had a script prepared to tell him all about Grimaulkin. What did we talk about? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pain meds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>See, he had thrown out his back and I had just gotten out of the hospital after going in with chest pain. So I knew about pain meds&#8211;all hail MORPHINE. He said that he had &#8220;hospital grade&#8221; meds but they made him loopy. His handler suggested he use them for the panel or the cosplay photo op he had coming up. I did have him sign the picture I brought (<em>Torchwood<\/em>) and he called me &#8220;lovely.&#8221; I blushed a million shades and said I&#8217;d see him tomorrow for a photo op.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/grimaulkin.com\/ljacob-today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/P-Y40-3N1-1CH-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"819\" src=\"https:\/\/grimaulkin.com\/ljacob-today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/P-Y40-3N1-1CH-1024x819.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-950\" srcset=\"https:\/\/grimaulkin.com\/ljacob-today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/P-Y40-3N1-1CH-1024x819.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/grimaulkin.com\/ljacob-today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/P-Y40-3N1-1CH-300x240.jpg 300w, https:\/\/grimaulkin.com\/ljacob-today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/P-Y40-3N1-1CH-768x614.jpg 768w, https:\/\/grimaulkin.com\/ljacob-today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/P-Y40-3N1-1CH-1536x1229.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/grimaulkin.com\/ljacob-today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/P-Y40-3N1-1CH-2048x1638.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">My son, John Barrowman, and me.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>After the ComicCon, I tried to write. Again, Calliope took off after tossing me a bone or two. I tried a Tamerlane story and got as far as Tamerlane meeting his next patron, and but no reason for her to meet him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I looked up stuff in <a href=\"https:\/\/thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com\/\">Submission Grinder<\/a>, just to see if there was anything I could contribute to. I saw an entry for &#8220;Lost Atlantis&#8221; by Flame Tree Press. They were looking for stories of lost civilizations. I had read <em>Four Lost Cities<\/em> and <em>Forgotten Civilizations of the Ancient World<\/em> this year. Heck, <em>Brothers of the Zodiac<\/em> is set in Mesopotamia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I started a new Word doc, thinking that might force the story out. Nope. I got an introductory scene with the main character out and that was it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I need to stop reading non-fiction and watching murder mystery shows (<em>Longmire<\/em>, <em>Columbo<\/em>) because that&#8217;s all I&#8217;ve got in mind. Reading fiction is harder work. I have to hold the story in my head after I put it down for the night. <em>If<\/em> I put it down for the night. I can hold three, maybe four, storylines in my head at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have decided that on December 1 I&#8217;m going to try and coerce, bribe, or beg Calliope to give me more than bones. I will prepare a place for her to come by and visit, and tell me a story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have a vision of my Muse (Calliope) as Christie Brinkley in National Lampoon&#8217;s Vacation. She drives by saying, &#8220;You should write, honey!&#8221; I pull out a fresh notebook and write maybe two pages of introduction, and then&#8230;she&#8217;s gone. I &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/grimaulkin.com\/ljacob-today\/?p=949\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,23,35,1,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration","category-nanowrimo","category-reading","category-ri-comiccon-2022","category-uncategorized","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grimaulkin.com\/ljacob-today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grimaulkin.com\/ljacob-today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grimaulkin.com\/ljacob-today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grimaulkin.com\/ljacob-today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grimaulkin.com\/ljacob-today\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=949"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grimaulkin.com\/ljacob-today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":952,"href":"https:\/\/grimaulkin.com\/ljacob-today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949\/revisions\/952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grimaulkin.com\/ljacob-today\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grimaulkin.com\/ljacob-today\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grimaulkin.com\/ljacob-today\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}