MUSE MONDAY
Thank you for having me over on the blog, Brenda. My Muse
Monday topic is exactly that – Muses. Like all writers, I live in an imaginary
world for many hours every day. That world needs fuel to run on, and the
inspiration I pump into it, in order for the words to flow out, are the people
or places or objects, or even ideas, that become my Muses. Sometimes a solitary
muse is enough to keep pulling the creative strings, and at other times I need
a whole team.
In ‘Musing’ I go with whatever feels right for that
particular story. For my futuristic erotic romance, Between Fire & Ice, my Muse was a statue of a winged fantasy
figure carrying a dragon and a crystal ball, which I had bought in a village
renown for magic in Brittany, France, the place where this story idea was
conceived. Not only did she inspire the physical traits of the heroine, Elena,
but she also kept me on the straight and narrow, from her guarding place
For The Winemaker
an unexpected Muse landed in my lap. She came in the form of a Monster High
doll, and her name is Frankie Stein. The bolts through her neck, the
Frankenstein-style stitches tattoos, and the one-blue-one-green eyes set the
foundation for my protagonist, Zenna’s rebellion character. I had a lot of fun
with Frankie. Together we explored paranormal elements that gave this sensual
romance a thrill down the very elegant book spine. And then of course there was
the wine… The wine became a personification of the characters in the book, and
some characters adopted the attributes of interesting bouquets. Cheers,
Frankie. You, and Chilean wine with sex appeal, made a great team.
When I was looking for Muses for my latest drama romance, Second Best, I turned to experiences
and memories that left me with a lasting impression. I paged back to the imprints
of my childhood when I grew up on juvenile delinquent school grounds where my
father was a teacher. The character of Molly, a troubled young woman, wasn’t
born overnight. In fact, I lived with Molly for a good many years. I always had
her somewhere in my mind, growing and developing into a fictional Muse that
gave birth to a literary personality. Emotions born from reminiscence and real-life
episodes became my Muse in creating this book. Molly’s tale was not an easy one
to write. Some of the events were traumatic, but my Muse, in this case my very
own psyche, gave me the insight and empathy needed to take Molly to the end of
her healing journey.
As for the hot, hardened, emotionally dark hero, Mal, in Second Best, his Daimon complimented
Molly’s Muse in my mind like a yin would fit to a yang. Mal has spent his two
years of compulsory military service fighting in the South African Border War,
and when the seasoned soldier becomes a war journalist and meets Molly, the
battle becomes a fight for their souls. To feed Mal’s complex character, I had
my brother, who served his military service at the dog unit in Bourke’s Luck,
as inspiration. His kindred spirit taught me to never be afraid to be myself, and
that ideal became the Muse that grew and pushed the boundaries of my writing to
a different level.
After every full stop of every last sentence, it is with
much nostalgia that I bid my Muses farewell. No matter how hard I try to hold
onto them, they seem to flow through my fingers into the ink of my sentences,
and blend into the blank spaces between the lines. Their task being fulfilled,
they dissolve into thin air, or ride off into the sunset even before the protagonist
has played out that final act that will take the cast to Happily Ever After.
But there is always that moment of overlapping faith, from one story to the
next, when they manifest again in a different disguise.
For The Astronomer,
due for release in October, I’ve used roses as Muse. The color of the week was
determined by the scene I was writing. I’ve just noticed the last bunch, a
blush of pink embedded in an outer layer of youthful-green petals, has wilted. It’s
kind of sad. But there is a gift from a friend on my desk. It’s a box,
elaborately decorated with funeral-purple flowers. Inside lives a Mexican death doll. I open her
coffin, and start up my computer. What I see is no longer a skeleton in a clingy,
red dress. I see the opening line of a new story materializing on the screen of
my laptop.
Charmaine Pauls
was born in Bloemfontein, central South Africa, and has lived in Gauteng and
the Cape provinces. She obtained a masters degree in Communication at the University
of Potchestroom, after which she followed in diverse career path as Public
Relations Officer for the South African National Council for the Deaf;
Marketing Officer for short-term insurance company Auto & General; Public
Relations Officer for the Performing Arts Council of the Orange Free State;
Advertising Manager for an international vegetable seed company Hygrotech Seed;
Internal Communications Manager for Nedcor Bank; and Brand Manager for Royal
Canin.
During her professional career from 1990 to 2005, Charmaine
also qualified in Natural Medicine and manufactured a herbal range under her
own label; completed a 3-year course in photography and practiced
professionally as wedding, social and advertising photographer; as well as
trained in graphic design and established and ran a one-woman graphic design
company.
After relocating to France in 2005, and to Chile in 2009,
she fulfilled her passion and turned to full-time writing. Charmaine has
published three novels since 2011, and another two is due for publication in
2014.
When she is not writing, she likes to travel, and to look at
the world through the lens of her camera. Charmaine is married to a Frenchman,
and with their two children they live in a world of animals and imagination,
expressed in a linguistic mélange of Afrikaans, English, French and Spanish.
Charmaine’s books
How long will you wait for the man you love
when he disappears from the face of the earth?
BETWEEN YESTERDAY & TOMORROW
***
If you were the last fertile woman on
earth, would you indulge a man forced to marry you to save the world?
BETWEEN FIRE & ICE
***
“He’s not seriously proposing to recite a wine label like a poem, is
he?”
THE WINEMAKER
***
Can a person doomed to social failure break from the chains of
prejudice?
SECOND BEST
***
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Charmaine on
www.charmainepauls.com
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