The Patreon Forward to the Introduction
Yes, it’s strange to have a forward to an introduction. It’s bit of text that will only exist in the version published here on the website. Sure, there’s an introduction already written for the Print and eBook versions. You aren’t buying a book off Amazon – you’re investing in me. For readers like you, you get access to bit more content like this. There’s no way to say how much that investment means to me.
Well, I mean, beyond saying “Hey, that means an amazing amount.”
The forward to the introduction might also gain a little extra information over time. Questions about the story might end up here, or end up at the end when I’m done. Who knows.
There’s a good chance that without the backers, Cycle of the Muse would never see the light of day. I’ve talked about it before before, and some sample stuff was sent out over email to a couple people. Five or six people have even read the original version in it’s un-edited existence. When it came to actually releasing it on a wider scale, I kept stalling out, and have for well over a decade. The Patreon pushes me to release it to more readers. At the same time it means I can do the re-writes I wanted to do as I go along and handle proper editing.
The original title was “Muse”, and I loved the name. Thing is, there’s quite a few uses for just “Muse”, including the band. So I kicked around names for quite a while until I came up with “Cycle of the Muse”.
Cycle of the Muse is technically the first book. Yes, there are other books behind it, but those have separate inspirations. For many writers it’s common to plan out an arc spanned over multiple book s- it’s great for sales. Get people hooked on the first book, and they’ll have to keep buying to finish the arc. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but it’s also nice to read a book and have the entire adventure in one go.
Cycle of the Muse tells the entire story. The other books aren’t part of the arc.
Who knows what the next ones might end up being called, if they ever see the light of day. And, while they’re also good stories, they’ll never be as personal or as raw nerve as writing Cycle of the Muse was.
If, as you’re reading Cycle of the Muse, you think “Huh, this is a bit like Pixar’s ‘Inside-out'”, well, you’re not wrong, but it’s not inspired by it. Inside-Out came out in 2015, the first Muse short story was written in 2009 or 2010. I launched into writing Cycle of the Muse right after the first story. The closest inspiration might be “Herman’s Head”, as pointed out by one of the readers. Even that really didn’t do it – Herman’s Head didn’t have much depth. I’m not saying Cycle of the Muse is deep, but it’s deeper than Herman’s Head was.
(Even before the Patreon goes live, I realized I still had more to say about all this… 😉 ) If there were ever a theme son for Cycle of the Muse, it would be The Hollies “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress” – that’s actually part of the inspiration for the Muse herself, and for one of the characters. It’s explained a bit further in the afterward. That’s how close I was to feeling like publishing it at one time, the afterward had been written. I’ve embedded it here for you to enjoy in prep for the first section of Cycle of the Muse.
Thanks again for backing me, and taking the time to read Cycle of the Muse!
Davis Ray Sickmon, Jr
November 24th, 2022
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