Author: Sarah Gribble (https://pseudopod.org/people/sarah-gribble/) Narrator: S. Kay Nash (https://pseudopod.org/people/s-kay-nash/) Host: Alasdair Stuart (https://pseudopod.org/people/alasdair-stuart/) Audio Producer: Chelsea Davis (https://pseudopod.org/people/chelsea-davis/)
“Muse” first appeared in Tales of Blood and Squalor in 2017
I noticed him on a Saturday morning. He was fingering tomato plants across the square, nodding every so often at whatever the stall operator was saying. His eyes crinkled when he smiled, but too much, like he’d read the cliché about smiles not meeting eyes too many times and decided to reverse the idea—his never quite reached his mouth.
He didn’t buy a tomato plant. I followed him the rest of the morning; he didn’t buy anything.
Whether or not I had been drinking that morning is of no importance. What is important is when I returned to my dilapidated two-bedroom ranch, I wrote more than I had in months.
Listen to this week's PseudoPod. (http://traffic.libsyn.com/pseudopod/Pseudo695_Muse.mp3) Follow us on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtLeMuTcFDtF2C3MiF6GPfQ) and Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/7ahtswbjEhqKQifCwMX8o1?si=GMgBgLFHRsCzJ8xlvf9nOw)!
Title: Re: PseudoPod 695: Muse
Post by: Languorous Lass on March 31, 2020, 04:52:41 AM
This story swung back and forth between horror and humor in a way I’m not sure was completely successful. But I liked the setup—the 180-degree twist on Stephen King’s Misery, with the writer as perpetrator rather than victim. And portraying “Calvin” as a less than completely sympathetic victim was a nice touch.
Title: Re: PseudoPod 695: Muse
Post by: Scuba Man on April 06, 2020, 06:44:11 PM
I was surprised by Muse. As in, I had to nope-nope-nope out of this episode.