Desktop

I ask you, how can I be stuck with the novel when my hero looks like this? He’s been on my desktop (I wish) for years; as with all things taken for granted, eventually I stopped “seeing” him. I considered replacing him last week, then I took a moment to look at him with intent.

I couldn’t do it. Aside from having nothing and no one worthy to replace him, I realized that I don’t want to replace him, probably because doing so would also be admitting defeat. He is the sun around which my novel orbits. Taking him down would be like going dark.

My computer desktops have rarely featured cute animals or pretty flowers. My pics of natural beauty generally pack an alpha Y-chromosome—even the androgynous shot of Jonathan Rhys Meyers was savagely alluring—and almost always provide me with the blueprint for a hero, a villain, a lover, a poet, or sometimes all four. I like to have inspiration close by, especially at the office, where it’s easy to forget how to be creative except when interpreting financial policy. Sometimes I’ll shut down the myriad of windows and take a sec to renew acquaintance with my man o’ the month just to remember what I do for fun … or would do, given half a chance. Or will do, once he’s woven into the fabric of whatever tale one has to tell. Some writers veer away from likening a character to a living person, but come on. Everybody looks like somebody else, and if a man like Joe Elliott can spark a fictional hero like my Lucius, how is that an insult?

By the way, it’s Joe’s birthday today. Happy birthday, Leppard King!