[The Muse of our Fiction of the future] will lead you--if you are humble and honest with her--straight into a World of Working Men, crude of speech, swift of action, strong of passion, straight to the heart of a new life."

~ Frank Norris 

Muse [myooz] --verb:

In Greek Mythology, the Muses were  a sisterhood of nine goddesses or
spirits, who embodied the arts and inspired the creation process with their
graces through song and stage, writing, traditional music, and dance.

Amused:

Inside every artist stirs an unquenchable desire to create and inspire. Yet behind every artist is also the need for a muse; the power by which these sacred yearnings can be realized; the seedling of inspiration wherein sleep the paints and inks necessary to author their masterpieces-in-waiting, give life to their burning fires within, and create in ways never before imagined lives and worlds without end.

With the gentlest yet sternest of expectations, the Muse can guide the artist down paths rarely traveled--toward ideas and feelings full of excitement and possibility. Under her hand, the potter's clay is shaped and molded. With her keen eye, canvases fill with color and light, and paper with words--simple words--full of wisdom and seeds of change. Her whisper finds voice through the rustling of trees; and her laughter in the babbling brooks. And in her presence, all inanimate objects come to life, bowing head and knee until life, as we know it, becomes beautiful.  

Our pens then scribble furiously. Our paints splatter with passion. Music bursts from our very souls. And voices, having this long-time slumbered, rise from the dust.

So, my friends, it is your responsbility to find that muse and hold tight to it. For some it may be the loved one sitting in the room next to them, or a moment of joy and laughter. For others it is, perhaps, a friend long gone, their fading memory stirred like coals before the poker of their mind. Yet for many, it may very well be nature's music that speaks loudest in their heart.

But remember, whatever it may be--real or imagined--it must find home within you. From therein will come the inspiration and courage to do what you were meant to do, to write what only you can write, to explore and create and live and learn and love--and change the world--like only you can do.

This then is your chance to find that muse and hone your craft--whatever medium that may be. From time to time, I will post something below as a means to spark the creative genius inside each and every one of you. It may be an idea, or picture, or a sentence, or even a single word... But if you put your mind to it, it will open up before your eyes like a chest full of treasure, and you will see as clear as day the path which you must follow.

Good luck! But, above all, have fun! And if you'd like, please feel free to send me what you've come up with. I would love to read it!

--Arthur

Something to Muse Over:

You are driving on the freeway. As you make your way through traffic you see a plane flying overhead, high in the air, poking in and out of the clouds like a needle and thread through cloth. You tap your breaks and for a moment time slows down; your mind clears and the distractions around you disappear. It is as if the distance between you and the plane has lessened and you find yourself able to see into a window on the side of the plane, a window through which someone else is staring--someone just like you. They too are watching the scene play out before them; cars scurrying this way and that, zipping across the land like ants over a log--heading home. But then the person in the window shifts in their seat. Your eyes meet. And just like that you know them. ...You know everything.