A Brand New Muse

Four weeks ago I was kneading bread dough and a little whisper in my ear caught my attention. This was not the voice of my usual muse, Brighid, but someone far darker and more sinister.

I’d heard the voice once before when I wrote my first foray into horror, titled The Wedding Feast, coming soon to Wild Child Press. At the time, I didn’t think I had a permanent visitor, but sure enough, in mid December the dark lady starting whispering to me again.

Once the dough had reached its proper elasticity, I left it to rise and sat down at the computer to make notes for a new manuscript. Twenty-seven days later, my new muse and I have pumped out 38,000 words for a book entitled Clean–and we’re only about half way through.

Clean is the tale of Della Jordan–a tough woman with a dark past. Making the best of the cards life has dealt her, she works for a private security company as a cleaner. The Agency specializes in dirty deeds, though they aren’t dirt cheap. DJ ensures that nothing ever gets traced back to her employer. Crime scene clean up, frame jobs, and burying the bodies is all in a day’s work. But when she finds a survivor she inexplicably takes a shine to at a scene she’s processing, she finds herself breaking all the rules to find out who put a hit on him and why. In saving this target from certain death, she just might save herself.

My partners in literary crime, Kensi and Brea, told me it was about time to get to know my source of wicked inspiration. This morning I took the time to do just that…Here’s what I found out: Her name is Lilith. She’s an ancient Mesopotamian demon of destruction and stormy weather who does not take kindly to being mistaken for the Judeo-Christian succubus. She looks an awful lot like Siobhan Fahey in the Shakespeare’s Sister video “Stay.” Lilith nags and pokes and prods me–even occasionally busting out a whip–to write at least 2000-3000 words a day. And she’s not very nice. Thus far she and Brighid have been staying out of each other’s way. I don’t even want to know what will happen should their civil relations degrade. Say a little prayer for me, guys!

Want a sneek peak of what Lilith can come up with? Visit my website and click on The Wedding Feast.