Muse for ‘Gene

The first time I ever conceived of being a writer was in my sophomore year of college. I was a napper. I worked twelve to sixteen hour days with a combination of class, school work, and a campus job (not to mention a wee bit of partying when I could), so I was, as you can imagine, always in need of a few extra winks.

One day, at the student center, they were giving away free music CDs. My roommate grabbed one, came home to our house just off campus and started playing it on my friend’s ultra-loud stereo with its refrigerator-sized sub-woofer. I was asleep in the next room and he didn’t know I was home.

I was so tired, the song, “Se Tu M’ami (If You Love Me),” an 18th century Italian song sung by Cecilia Bartoli, weaved its way into my sleep, into a lucid dream.* Immediately upon awakening I ran to my roommate to tell him the awesome dream I had. He told me to write it down before I forgot it, and I did (write it down, that is). Then, over the next few months and that summer, I crafted the story into my first novel.**

Last year, as a writing exercise, I was chosen to bring in a “prompt,” or an item which would serve as a story inspiration for my writers group. I chose the Cecilia Bartoli song that had, many years ago, inspired me. I printed out both the Italian lyrics and the English translation, and I played the mp3 through a small computer speaker. The prompt went over well. Everyone wrote about 500 words in half an hour. Eugene Myers wrote a piece of flash fiction.

Well, I’m happy to say that Eugene’s flash piece just sold to Farrago’s Wainscot for their 2008 Exhibition. His story is called “She Has a Nice Personality.” I’m glad that operatic song was an inspiration to more than just one!

Congratulations Eugene!

* the dream was about, if you’re curious, a navigator on a military space vessel parked on a bucolic planet next to an orphanage. Using some experimental device at the behest of his commander, the navigator (me) is transported outside the vessel where he determines that he can move the sun just by thinking about it, and he leads the children away from the orphanage and the “evil” military commanders in the vessel who, he has determined, have been using the children for experiments.

** the novel was never completed, though I did write about 90 pages of it. It was the first thing I ever wrote with the intention of having it published and therefore it’s very rough and tumble. But someday I may come back to it as I like the story.