A REAL LIFE MUSE

(I lifted this from my deviantart journal but I thought it offered a great explanation of how I chose the name for this blog!)

When most authors talk about their muse we take it for granted they’re talking about those creative voices in their heads that have some spontaneous revelation of what would make a good story. A million things can prompt these ideas: a song, a photo, something they see happening and the spark inside them ignites, compelling them to put their inspiration on paper. In the real sense, their muse is… themselves. I’ve had my fair share of inner voice muses, and outside of the movie with Albert Brooks and Sharon Stone entitled The Muse in which Stone plays a troublesome real-life one with gremlin side effects, I pretty much assumed that muses were fictional analogies.

 

Wrong. They’re real (At least in my case!). And sometimes they come in the hyperactive skin of a perpetually horny nineteen-year-old male who talks to you on Skype while nude or near nude, much to the ire of his mother. This happens with such frequency that I’ve told him I now know from memory where every mole is on his body and the exact placement of the cowlick on his scalp that continually makes one side of his hair stick up like a wild patch of weeds.

 

Over the course of almost three years since he entrenched himself in my life, first as an apprentice learning about photography from me, to friend, confidant, and eventually becoming an accidental and very real “muse.” I’ve stolen so many of his true-life personality traits and incorporated them into my characters that I’ll actually study his quirks and strange ramblings to see if I can use them. I have come to call them “Dirk-isms” after him. Dirk… my muse. I chronicle his weirdness all the time on my social  media pages since they seem to delight so many people.

 

My blind character in the Sci-Fi novel, Xperiment, Chris, talks in Dirk-isms and even sits down to pee like my muse, who says he can’t stand still long enough to ensure 100% accurate aim. In the outside world, he appears shy. I’ve come to believe that’s a disguise for him. He’s intensely cerebral and observes everything quietly, almost as if he’s scientifically dissecting it all.You don’t realize that until later, as he begins talking and surprises you. Sparks of youthful genius appear as suddenly and unpresaged as when he announces he’s horny and needs to get off. Yes – that happens… usually with him grabbing his crotch and diving into some corner to watch porn on his phone… while he continues talking.(Never missing a beat..verbally or…um..otherwise.) This is his ADHD version of multi-tasking.

 

I don’t believe he’s aware of half of the brilliantly funny things that tumble out as part of his word flow. I’ve found myself making mental notes of them. Like, “Masturbation is how the most of us non-writers write stories.” I.E. ” Like how I met Harry Styles and he fell madly in love with me. We had hot sex!” Then there’s that cute but somewhat perverse giggle that comes afterwards. You’d never know if he’s kidding or making up stuff until out of sheer curiosity you finally have to ask. For instance, he told me the first time he had sex he was Legolas from Lord of The Rings (the Orlando Bloom character) and he got sucked off in the back of a Toyota Corolla by Nightwing. I waited, then when I could stand the mystery no more.. asked. It was a true story… a Halloween party when he was sixteen. Then you’d just sit there stunned, left with the peculiar vision he’s presented you with.

 

To date he has given me the ideas for three new books. A Summer of Guiltless Sex was an impassioned fantasy he spun and divulged to me about one of the models I shot.(Pictures of model inspiration included here and also on the book cover itself) So now… I take notes. Muses don’t come with stenographers. Hence… the Disney-like name for this blog… That Darn Muse!

 

 

The Book,  A SUMMER OF GUILTLESS SEX By Dan Skinner — inspired by this stud is  available, of course, at Amazon . com. I hope you’ll read it and enjoy it!