Author April Fools

Did you know muses love April Fool’s Day? As if authors don’t have enough to contend with, that  claim is true. My Muse certainly does love a good joke, and because I have a lot of writer friends, I know everyone else’s does, too. Why? Because, when they aren’t helping with creativity, every muse that pairs up with an author loves to make its writer look or feel foolish once in a while.

Not every muse chooses April first on which to play pranks—that would make the rest of the year too boring. But, mine happens to have chosen the prankster’s favorite holiday—today—to play a winding and intricate trick this year. And she (I have a smart but very silly female muse who is friends with my very creative but naughty female internal editor) set it up weeks ago!

Thalia, the muse of comedy: my muse's muse!

What’s the dastardly trick, you ask? Let me take you back for one minute to my history of being a great April Fool’s dupe. I might be the easiest person in the world to trick. I never think of the obvious explanation for anything first, and I never remember an old prank so will fall for it multiple times. The best example is that for at least ten years, my son would tape the trigger on my kitchen sink sprayer down and I would turn on the water and get soaked. Every. Year. He even did it a couple of times after he moved out. The sneak.

Fortunately, I’m a pretty good sport. You have to be when you’re a serial dupe. I’ve always wanted to put a chronic fall guy in a book and, so, I included April Fool’s Day in my brand new, soon-to-be-released Sottish Contemporary novel Never and Forever Scotland. I even included a brother who pulled the sink sprayer trick on my hero, and it was darn funny (okay, it was funny to me). Well…the first inkling I should have had that my muse was taking advantage of me being a good sport was when I realized, so sadly, that favored scene didn’t fit into the book. I had to leave it on the cutting room floor.

No worries! April Fool’s Day still played a part. In fact—in a GLIAS exclusive, here is the first line of Never Forever Scotland (an actual thank you, Muse):

“Ewan Portman hated practical jokes.”

Maybe you can see now why that line tickles me! And it sets up our hero Ewan’s receipt of a letter he’s certain is an April Fool’s joke—a letter telling him he’s inheriting a big piece of land in the Scottish Highlands.

Spoiler: it’s not a joke.

My muse dropped her prankster persona while we wrote this story—and we both ended up loving it—adoring it even. But then Ms. Muse picked up her impish mantle again and started leading me toward April Fool’s Day. The first thing I did was pick a release day in mid-March and Muse suggested, “No, wait, the book starts on the first of April—let’s release it on April first!”

Brilliant.

Here are four things that happened: 1) Editing took two weeks longer than anticipated; 2) There were technical issues with the cover; 3) A beta read got postponed; 4) Ms. Muse taped the sprayer down and I got soaked.

Okay, not that last one—but the other three were the writer’s equivalent of getting doused with water, aka, reality. Reality happens to writers.

So it is that Never and Forever Scotland got April Fooled and will not release on April Fool’s Day. Haha—April Fool’s! On a serious note, I just read an article aimed at authors, telling us not to be harsh with ourselves or the world when deadlines, publishing schedules, and writing progress gets changed or thwarted. It’s the world right now—pandemic brain hits authors AND it hits readers. The world is still crazy and not back to normal yet, so we have to continue rolling with the punches. I believe that. We should all be kind to ourselves and others while we get to the end of this stupid time -- and beyond.

BUT! I also believe this: I don’t think my muse has pandemic brain. I think she simply likes messing with me. And in a month—when the book DOES release—I’m gonna get her back!

 Happy April Fool’s Day, everyone! I'd love to know – do you like April Fool’s Day or do you pay it no mind? Have you ever played pranks on anyone? What was your best-ever AFD joke?