Calliope will Always Find a Way

I am about to embark on a wonderful adventure. For fifteen weeks, I will be deeply immersed in technical training that will result in at least two professional certifications. I put myself through all sort of fun hurdles to get into this training program because I truly believe at that the end of the process, I will benefit greatly, not only in terms of knowledge but in terms of a day job.

But this blog isn’t about my day job and you wonder why I bother to allow Real Life to intrude here… I’ll tell you why.

As I got deeper into the process to get into the training program, I became hypersensitive to my environment -- partly because my opinion of the Bronx has been tarnished since my last foray into the borough decades ago.

Of course, I am vigilant of my environs whenever I find myself in places I do not know well. You should always have an idea what is happening around you, in case you have to make a quick getaway!

What I saw inspired what has become a series of notes on my iPod to supplement the back story of Love and the Android.

I have a character back story. I have a setting on earth. I have the motivation for my heroine to ascend to the heavens and live there…

And despite the very real, very contemporary setting, I saw the vestiges of it with a futuristic city built upon it – not masking a broken past, but solidifying what was strong about it and taking it to a whole new level.

In short, the Bronx, in a scant few days, has become another character in what will be the Act I of my novella.

A place that inspires the level of euphoric creativity that I have experienced in the last week needs to be reconsidered and forgiven for its past sins.

The reason I bring up Real Life here is because the Muse found a way to squeeze past all the vicissitudes and create fiction that sticks to the page.

This is exactly the point I had been trying to make earlier. Don’t despair when the Muse falls silent for a moment, she is looking out for you. Relax and let her do her thing. When she is refueled, Calliope will whisper the most wonderful things in your inner ear.