Sometimes my muse takes a vacation and leaves me stranded, staring at a blank page.
That’s not good. Not good at all!
I have deadlines you know.
She can disappear for days at a time without any prior warning.
It would be nice if she would give me a few days’ notice, but it is not her style. I am not married to you she often says, and I want to see other people.
And off she goes. Damn her!
Her name is Thalia and no, she is not Portuguese.
We have known each other and collaborated for a long time. I appreciate her help but (excuse my French) she can be a pain in the wazoo.
She is flighty, unpredictable, temperamental, opinionated.
The other day she suggested that I write a piece about Jihadists. I know that they bug you she said. Write about it, let it all out. It will do you good.
OK, I said you are right. They bug me.
So I started writing about these bloody buggers and everything was going swimmingly when Thalia suddenly disappeared.
At first I didn’t pay attention, but after becoming stranded a few times in the middle of a paragraph, I realized that she was taking more than a cigarette break.
She has now been gone for a few days and I am stuck.
I hate to admit it, but she can be very helpful. She is full of ideas and she lays it on me, day or night.
Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I rush to Molly, my computer.
Thalia just whispered a few thoughts in my ear and I don’t want to lose any of it.
So I jot down everything and try to go back to sleep.
But sometimes I can’t. Thalia does not care. I told you, she is flighty!
I try to count cows, but it doesn’t always work.
I just received an SMS from Thalia. I am in Saint Tropez for a few days, she said.
-When will you be back? I asked.
-Dunno. I am staying with a nice fellow and he has been good to me.
-Damn it Thalia, you owe me. And who is this guy anyway? He is better than me?
-Hush darling… you know that I love you but I am not a one-man woman, you know that.
I know that and I am not happy about it, but what can I do?
So I alternate between bouts of jealousy and pangs of anger.
But it doesn’t help.
My page remains half full.
In case you didn’t know, Thalia is the daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne.
She is a goddess and she comes from a large family. She has eight ornery sisters and they fight all the time.
I finally (temporarily) abandoned my jihadist paper.
I cannot go on without Thalia. I hope that she will be back soon because I cannot live without her. Hate to say that but I need her.
I try to cope by eating ice-cream/herring sandwiches. Sometimes it works.
I’ll get back to you when Thalia will resurface.
Sorry about this coitus interruptus.
Alain