Cecilia Lynn-Jacobs

Just the small arrogance any writer needs to have, but...

Of course that's what you focus on.

Caldwell, your predecessor, would leave books on my headstone, if I asked him, as a reward for being good.

I can absorb them into me now, consuming the book's whole.

Caldwell said it changed how I looked, like I was made of the text itself.

Is that how I still appear, Mal?

He brought me books when I was good.

I wasn't always good.

But Mal... Who wouldn't want a muse?

Someone to whisper ideas into their head.

Someone to take a sledgehammer to all those petty pieces of wood damming up their voice.

Someone to do the actual work of writing for them.

So many people want to be writers.

They're in love with the idea of writing.

But the writing itself, it's difficult.

You give away a little piece of yourself to the page.

It's so much easier to let me in.

I only tried it on one person.

An MFA student.

Family money that made sure his education was taken care of, like to walk Graybrier, thought it would give him inspiration.