Macbeth and Kozy Shack

I know, it's going to be a trick to yoke Macbeth and pudding.  You just watch me.

But, dessert first.  Can I just say I would like to hug whoever the heck makes Kozy Shack pudding?  It's the yummiest "natural" food I know.  Lowish in fat, at least in the worst kind.  Delicious.  Smooth and creamy.  Firm in the way that pudding should be.  If I could get it slightly warm that would be better, or if it were made out of organic milk so I knew I wasn't getting any more estrogen than I should have.  Still.  Kozy Shack is king.

And Holly G?  GLUTEN FREE.  Run, don't walk.  Get yourself some Kozy Shack.

Speaking of kings . . . see?  I told you I'd yoke them.  Little rough, but it's done.  Kings.  Macbeth.  Today I am loving Macbeth, because it is the myth at the core of my story, and praise be to Ganesh, I'm unblocked.  I've moved beyond outline and into synopsis territory, which is always a very good sign.  And as I write the synopsis the last little wrinkles are irony out. And I'm starting to itch to tell the story again. 

I swear one of the funky Iowa City downtown stores has got to have a Ganesh.  I'm going to go find one.  The necklace alone is not enough. 

Tangent, sorry.  Back to Macbeth and pudding.  Well, to be honest, unless we go for another round of how great the pudding is, we're pretty firmly onto Macbeth.  I added a character a few days ago, put her on the collage and everything. (I'm really sorry, Laura Bush.  Despite your unfortunate husband, I do not see you as a villain in real life.  It's just that your picture was too perfect to pass up.) And as she unfolded, she really started to look like my faded memory of Lady M, so I looked her up and what do you know.  My whole story has Macbeth echoes.  Which was a magic moment for me because I knew I had my myth.

This theory that all good stories have a mythological base comes to me via Jenny Crusie, though I suspect she picked it up from somebody else.  For a long time I watched her and others find myths everywhere in stories, and I very quietly wished mine would have one, too, but that was a ways back and my confidence was low, so I was pretty sure I didn't have one.  Then Jenny got her hands on my story (not this one, another one) and told me I was writing the Fisher King.  I was thrilled – I had a myth! Except I was sure it was still a mistake because I didn't know anything about the Fisher King excepting the movie by Robin Williams, and I was pretty sure I hadn't written that.

So fourteen Google links and a lot of conversation later, I knew all about the Fisher King, and sure enough, I had that in my story, and it was okay that I hadn't known it before: my bones knew.  Go me.  I will always remember that as a magic moment where I felt like a real writer.  Okay, having Jenny saying to me, "Are you kidding?  This is a great story," helped a lot.  But teaching me to look for the myth was one step better.  It made me feel like I'd tapped into a deep, mystical well, especially since I'd done it "accidentally."

Until I started thinking about Lady Macbeth yesterday, I'd forgotten the myth for the new story.  I don't know why, but the myth really lined things up for me.  I think it's because it feels like a fence I can trust.  I hate it when the story feels like it's always running off the rails on me, but this particular story is Exhibit A why I can't just put up any old fence and say, "Now, stay in there."  The guardrails a guiding myth gives me feel like they've got post depth that probably touches the molten core of the earth, and yet at the same time they're wide and forgiving as far as stepping outside of their boundaries. I've got a Lady Macbeth who is almost more Macbeth than she is lady.  She's also manipulating her son more than her husband,  and she's not offing herself, I can promise you that.  I've got a false earl instead of a false king.  I don't have witches, but I think the beau monde is standing in for them.  I'm not sure if my hero or my heroine is Macduff or if they share the role.  But I do have a Malcolm.

I also have Carolyn the nurse and Aunt Althea, who will kick the pants off any comic relief that old Bill had in his version.  If I may be so arrogant.

So today is a better day.  I also have a duke in the mix now, in the very back, and on the collage he's Ian McKellen.  And Ian, I can't make him gay, but I can promise you that he's the sort of man who wouldn't turn down a handsome footman if he were offering.  Well, that won't appear in the plot, but I'll give it to you regardless.

And now back to the synopsis.  Go get your pudding.