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| Erato, Muse of Poetry and Writing |
Song
titles and love of songs always get my imagination going. Mix this together
with love of literature, and you have the creative source for
my stories. Perhaps this is the way one writes. For all the elaborate stories,
the memes, the jokes and cartoons about writer's block, I've never had it. There
have been days when I could not get any good ideas for new stories and days
when I followed a lot of false trails for stories that never came to much and
had to be finally discarded. But I've never experienced the numbing paralysis
that many people say disables them from writing. I have poor days, yes; days
when it just seems like my writing doesn't amount to anything; but the
inability to write—never. Perhaps part of the matter of creative endeavor,
having creative ideas to work with, lies in the intersection of things you love
in your head. Music, sex, love, literature all swirl around to give me ideas.
The idea for "At Your Desire" came from a similar admixture.
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| Shocking Blue |
The
song was done by a group called "Shocking Blue." They were a Dutch
group and a one-hit wonder group that did music from 1967-1974. There biggest
hit was "Venus," which rose to number in the United States and
England. I liked the way the various elements of the song fit together, of
course, and the music was done well. But what always intrigued me was mention
of the goddess Venus and the line, "I'm your Venus, I'm your fire—at your
desire." I thought it was cool because rather than saying "At your
service," she says "At your desire," which is what I would
expect the goddess of love and sex to say to someone. I saw it as clever and
well-done bit of lyric writing.
This
is a story about Sossity Chandler, and at this stage in her career she is
traveling from town to town doing gigs in bars and at fairs and churches,
barely getting by, trying to kickstart a career, often feeling she isn't
getting very far. She plays in a bar in a small Southern town called Corinth
(not Corinth, Mississippi). The pay is fairly good and she has got good tips.
The only disappointment is that a guy she has set her eyes on doesn't seem to
be interested in her. Sossity cannot enter a committed relationship because she
travels so much and, periodically, she gets it on with someone she meets during
her musical performances. This guy, Justin, does not seem to want to do
anything with her, which arouses her annoyance. She does not see any other men
in the bar she might want to consider as a one-night stand.
As
she despairs, a couple walks into the bar. The woman is one of the most
beautiful and dazzling she has ever seen. The man is handsome, well-built, and
has a cold, evaluating look in his eyes. People move aside when he walks
through the bar. The town tough, she
thinks. Still unable to get any encouragement from Justin, she goes to the
women's room. As she is going out, she meets the woman she thought so
beautiful.
Her
name is Affie Erycina. "Lots of
Greeks live in this town, so we have some odd last names," she tells
Sossity. She also expresses her wish that Justin could get out of his
self-imposed asceticism and find a girlfriend. "Do you have a love charm
to use on him?" Sossity quips. "Maybe I do," the woman replies. Sossity
turns to dry her hands. When she looks back, the woman has vanished.
Before going out on stage again, she walks outside for a breath of fresh night
air. She sees that looks like a Corinthian column with scooped-out basin on
top. In it are coins and one or two pieces of jewelry. She realizes it's a
shrine of some kind. Superstition operated here, she saw, as it did in many
small towns she had visited. She smiles and tosses a quarter in; thinks better
of it, takes out the quarters, and throws in a dollar coin. She goes back
inside for the second half of her show.
Something happens to Justin during the second half
of the show. He sits up and takes notice of Sossity. He can't seem to stop
gazing at her. He seems to be suddenly taken with her. She, too, feels edgy,
sexy, brash, and dangerous and puts all of those emotions into her show. At the
end of the show, Justin leaves another tip and a note apologizing for being so
reticent. He asks if they can talk. She tells him she is a little drunk and
wonders if he could give her a ride to her motel room. They can talk about it
there.
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| Mars and Venus in conjunction below the moon. |
The last sentence of the story reads, On the way out, they passed the frowning, stern-face
man and his girlfriend, Affie. She gave Sossity a knowing smile as she and
Justin walked out the door and into the cool night and the moonlit, star-strewn
sky.
Two of the planets they see are obviously the planet Mars and the planet Venus,
two worlds that always occupy the sky at night; and who, possibly, deign to
live among mortals on earth from time to time.
The
story appeared in Widow Moon and was
reprinted in The Fickle Muse, both of
which are no longer printed.
My newest novella, Sinfonia: First Notes on the Lute is now available. Get a copy here. The Vampire Nelleke Reitsma does not sparkle and is not in high school, but you'll find her intriguing, fascinating, and see how deadly she can be. First in what will be an ongoing series.
For additional titles see my Writer's Page.
I would love to hear your comments.
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