I suppose I have a Muse. She’s that part of me that wants to write stories for people to read. The thing is, she’s erratic. Sometimes she turns up for work and puts in a good day. Other times she seems to prefer to make paper-clip chains (do people still do that?). And sometimes she mutters ‘sod that’ and disappears. Everybody deserves a break, don’t get me wrong. I can accept a week or two, maybe even a month. But folks, last year she was off partying on the beach (or something) for a whole year. Or more.
During that time, I had two manuscripts that I’d more than just started, but without her help I couldn’t finish. They languished in the ‘to do’ pile while I read books, gardened, even cleaned the house to avoid doing any writing.
The Muse came back for a while late last year and together we wrote The Admiral and the Rebel. The catalyst for her return was Disney’s latest Star Wars offering, Ahsoka, which revolves around my favourite book boyfriend, Grand Admiral Thrawn. The Muse fancies him, too, so she came back to watch the series with me.
That finished, I went on holiday to Europe on what will have been my last long-haul flight. It took a week or two to recover from that trip and write up my series of blog posts, published on my blog under Europe 2023.
And then we took another look at my ‘to do’ pile. The Muse looked over the unfinished work and said ‘hmmm’ in an interested sort of way.
One of those stories has been finished and will be published in an anthology later this year. More about that later.
We (the Muse and I) have turned our attention to the second MS. We’re getting a much better feel for where the story is going. It’s about a lost treasure woven into the legend of an Yrmak pirate who many believe never existed. Our hero finds a tantalising clue. But he needs an expert in Yrmak history to follow where the clue might lead. Enter the heroine. Unfortunately, they have attracted the notice of a modern day Yrmak pirate, who also wants that treasure. So, the book will be my usual mix of history, mystery, politics, and a dash of romance. And action adventure. Watch this space.
In the real world, Peter and I look at each other and wonder why, given a population of 330 million, the best the US can come up with as contenders for President of the most powerful country in the world is a pair of octogenarians, both with obvious issues quite apart from their age. Biden presents as “a sympathetic, well meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”. [source] Trump comes across as nasty and vindictive, obsessed with power, and interested in his own welfare. Alternatives? Who knows – but one of them is not vice president Kamala Harris. Never has America been so divided. Putin and Xi (and the Ayatollahs in Iran) must be rubbing their hands. Just as well they have their own problems.
Meanwhile in Australia, our Defence Force is a shambles. Some of the Navy’s ships are in mothballs because there aren’t enough people to crew them. The Defence Department has acknowledged that in this modern era we need drone capability and anti-drone capability. They will commence an eight-year investigation to come up with a good solution. I wonder if anyone has thought about looking at what’s happening in Ukraine and Gaza – just for starters. And wondered if the time frame may be a tad long, given the state of the world?
I’ve sometimes (quite often) wonder why I write. I certainly don’t earn much from it. Actually, I think it’s simply that getting involved in a story is a welcome escape from what’s happening in the real world.
All images via Midjourney
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