Green Beans & Gloria!

Please welcome Wild Rose Press author, Gloria Marlow to my site today! She is talking about our pesky muse, the thing that pops up at the most inopportune moments! Boy, don't we all get that!


My Muse is Crazy

I haven’t cooked a pot of fresh green beans in years without burning them. You may wonder what that has to do with writing, so I’ll tell you. My muse is crazy. She feeds off of chaos or at the very least pressing matters that are not related to writing.

This is an example of how she works:

I pick green beans from the garden (or the store). I snap the green beans, my full concentration on nothing but snapping green beans (and the fact that I haven’t cooked any in years without burning them). As I near the end of the bowl, a scene pops into my head. I mull it over as I wash the beans and put them in the pot. I fill the pot with water, most of my mind still on the beans and what I’ll cook to go with them but the scene growing a little larger as I work. I turn them on, telling myself I should go jot the scene down before I forget it. I sit at my computer and begin to “jot”. I remember the beans when either the sound of the smoke alarm or smoke brings me back to reality.

Give me a house full of kids or a weekend crammed with plans, and I guarantee you she will come knocking. In her hand, she’ll carry the best idea I’ve heard in months and the temptation to dump everyone and everything to spend two blissful days locked in my room.


For the last decade, I’ve dreamed of empty hours I could dedicate solely to writing. When we moved a few years ago, I thought I’d have that opportunity. And I did. There I was with hours of opportunity…and no muse in sight. Until the holidays or supper time or American Idol night, that is.

So I give up. If Hollywood’s portrayal of bestselling authors as hermits who hide themselves away for days is true, I’ll never write a bestseller. Maybe their muse likes the peace and quiet, but mine is crazy. She likes kids and green beans.


Gloria Davidson Marlow is the author of romantic suspense novels Flowers for Megan, Shades of Silence, The Butterfly Game. Her latest novel Sweet Sacrifices is scheduled to be released in December 2010. A native Floridian, Gloria has been married to her high school sweetheart for twenty-four years, raised three children, and is now enjoying being "memaw" to her first grandchild. From "Once Upon a Time" to "Happily Ever After", Gloria loves every moment of being swept away by a great romance. To find out more about Gloria and her books, visit www.gloriamarlow.com

A blurb for Sweet Sacrifices:

With few clues to go on, and a newborn baby in tow, Kendall James Templeton sets out on a journey to find her wayward husband. What she finds when she arrives at his family’s estate in Larrimore, Florida is a lifetime of secrets that shatter her illusions, put her life in danger, and offer her a love she never expected.


Gloria Davidson Marlow
Romantic Suspense Author
www.gloriamarlow.com
www.gloriamarlow.blogspot.com
www.beachesbackroadsbooks.blogspot.com
www.associatedcontent.com/gloriamarlow

Thanks for being here today, Gloria - your article really made me smile, totally understand where you're coming from. Oh, and I LOVE your cover. Bring on the comments people, I am sure you all have your own inconvenient muse stories to share!