***WHAT DOES YOUR MUSE LOOK LIKE?***

BCM_KDP 1.0

I have no idea why, but I picture my Muse as a woman who escaped from a fairy tale. She’s got long black hair, a purple robe trimmed in ermine, and vivid blue eyes.

She generally comes to me around three a.m. and whispers in my ear. My muse tells me stories that I need to tell, characters I need to write about, social issues that need to be aired, and solves the problems I’m having with a story lines and situations. I never know when she’s going to pay me a visit, but I’ve learned to keep notes after each visit!

The first time she appeared it was in Palm Springs, California. My husband and I were at a wedding and it was 107 degrees in October. The wedding was to be held outside. The old boutique hotel the wedding party had taken over had recently been renovated and the air conditioner was completely silent. Words tumbled out of my mouth that only could have come from the Muse. “Tom,” I said to my husband, “wouldn’t it be interesting if someone put a ‘feel-good drug’ in the air-conditioning and everyone felt good all the time?” I remember thinking, where in the devil did that come from?

He pointed his finger at me and said, “There’s your book.” And so it was. The Muse opened the door for the Coyote Series. First came Blue Coyote Motel, the tale of guests who stay at a motel and become inadvertently addicted to a “feel-good” drug and the havoc it wreaks on their lives. I thought that would be the end of my writing career, but everyone who read it wanted to know what happened to Maria, the protagonist. The Muse whispered that a book should be written about Maria in Provence, oh, it said, and be sure to weave in something about your experiences as an art and antique appraiser and don’t leave out the fabulous food in you ate when you were in Provence! Coyote in Provence  was born. Then the Muse whispered that people wanted to know what happened to Maria and Jordan, who met in Provence. And what about Noor, the little Afghan orphan? I answered the Muse and wrote Cornered Coyote.

While I was finishing up that book, one night the Muse urged me to get up and write down what she was going to tell me. She told me of a woman who could see numbers above people’s foreheads and that Slade Kelly, everyone’s favorite private investigator, who’s prominent in Coyote in Provence and Cornered Coyote, should have his own series and this should be the first book in the series. The working title is Red Zeroes. I’m about half-way finished with it.

Two nights ago the Muse was at it again, telling me about the second novel in the series. Now I can’t wait to get to it.

My question for all of you, how does a Muse become born and how do you get one? Or is my Muse unfaithful, visiting other authors in the middle of the night? And why did she wait until this time in my life to appear? Did I have to go through a lot of experiences to merit a Muse? Inquiring minds…

What does your Must look like?

Blue Coyote Motel  http://smarturl.it/bcmo

Coyote in Provence  http://smarturl.it/cipr

Cornered Coyote  http://smarturl.it/CorCoy

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