My Muses are driving me mad ...

Believe it or not, I think my Muses are a little over-active. Either that, or perhaps I've been listening to them more carefully than I have before. I haven't had such active Muses since I was in junior-high school!

Anyway, my Muses are whispering two different stories in my ear. One is (yes, you guessed it), Harry Potter Fan Fiction. This would take place ca. 22 years after The Battle for Hogwarts (in other words, 3 years after JKR's Epilogue from Deathly Hallows). Main characters would be Rose Weasley, Albus Severus Potter, and Hermione Granger-Weasley. The kids meet what is described as a rather sad, despairing, regretful, remorseful Presence in the Shrieking Shack, and eventually become friends with who they call "Mr. Ghost." They bring Hermione into the mix, and she realises Mr. Ghost is none other than Professor Severus Snape. This eventually becomes HG/SS, sort of - Hermione falls in love with the ghost of Severus Snape, and he eventually acknowledges that he, too, returns her feelings. In the meantime, the kids' relationship with the ghost grows (Snape becomes a mentor of sorts for the kids). Things are touch and go between the ghost and Hermione (thanks, rather indirectly, to Ron, Hermione's husband), but eventually, their relationship develops and strengthens ...

I just sat down and started typing ideas ... and before I knew it, I had 7 typed, single-spaced pages. I think this one will be a novel-length fic once I sit down and get to writing.

The second story: it would be something original, with characters who have been with me since I was in junior high school. I would have to do a lot of research in order to pull this one off, however. The main character is Jim McIllenhy, who just celebrated his first year anniversary of his Ordination to the Roman Catholic priesthood. He is the Associate Pastor at a medium-sized parish in San Diego. He is supremely happy as he is doing what he dreamt of doing since he was 9 years old. He would have wanted to start his studies toward the priesthood earlier in his life, but different voices kept on urging him to live his life before finally committing to the seminary and his path toward the Priesthood. He didn't wait too long - he majored in Psychology in college and just in case he changed his mind about being a priest, he would have been able to have a career as a clinical psychologist. Shortly after he graduated from UCSD, he entered the seminary, and 8 years later, was ordained. The story starts 9 years after his college graduation, and he is celebrating with his closest college friends, who he considers family.

Later that evening, after everyone's gone home, he answers a knock at the Rectory door, to find his estranged sister at the door with a small boy. He hadn't seen his sister for at least 10 years, when they were at the funeral of their parents (who tragically died in a car crash). His sister, 6 years older than him, had run away from home as a young teen-ager, and his family hadn't heard much of her throughout the years. They just know that she drifted around, acquired a drug and alcohol habit. Maureen, his sister, says tersely that she is dropping off the boy and doesn't know when she will return. She then disappears. The boy is no more than 8 or 9 years old, and Jim, examining the boy carefully, realises he is Maureen's child. He had no idea she had any children. His eyes were very much like his mother's. Otherwise, the child's features were probably his father's, very much African-American, but the colouring is a tanned version of his mother's - dark blondish hair, tightly curly but long and unruly, and lightly tanned skin. He had a general air of neglect about him. He had three items in his pocket: birth certificate, social security card, and a baseball card of his favourite player. Who happens to be one of Jim's best friends (college roommate).

The story would cover one year, focusing on the developing relationship between Jim and his nephew, Scott. You can see why I have to do research in order to pull this one off. In my story, Jim is definitely a priest, and I don't want to change that at all, so I would have to do research to see if it would be possible for him to continue his work and ministry whilst dealing with his troubled nephew. There would also have to be issues pertaining to Child Protective Services and how children who would probably be passed from one foster family to another would be handled. The relationship would develop slowly, and Scott would have some issues that Jim and Scott would have to work through together. Of course, it helps that amongst Jim's closest friends, two are early childhood educators, with one of them specializing in special education for special-needs children, and that one of Jim's college classmates also worked with CPS, and would therefore be able to give him advice as to how to deal with his sometimes difficult nephew.

Well. I really should have been working on my next lecture for the Forensics Class, as well as get started planning lectures and labs for my summer courses, but my Muses just won't leave me alone, so I figured I'd better sit down and write down all these ideas, feed the Muses a bit, and hope they'll be sated enough to leave me alone for the moment ...