Origin Story of “The Player”
I wrote the very first page of this story when I was in Ireland.
I believe it was 2019, and I had been brainstorming ideas for a new world all that evening before, in my Nana’s house. It was very windy that night, the house was being buffeted this way & that. I had been thinking about tattoos imbued with magic, and the people who might use them. Thinking about Avatar the Last Airbender, and about Roland of Gilead, the Gunslinger from Stephen King’s The Dark Tower . . .
That next morning, my Nana’s house was quiet as it could be. The sun was pouring in through the windows, and the wind was now calm. Everyone was asleep as I crept down those wooden steps and sat down at the dining table. I opened my bright green notepad, and I let the words spill out of me.
The start of the story as I wrote it then, is the same as you will read in Chapter One “A Sunrise Song”
Previous to this I had written a number of short stories set in a vague cowboy/ sci—fi world. Something resembling the Zepish of today, I wrote those for my college creative writing class, and I still keep those ideas in my back pocket, one day they may see the light of day.
On that quiet morning, sitting at my grandmother’s table, I had no way of knowing I had 400+ pages left in me to write. But here we are.
The Player — Rush Awan Grimshaw — was inspired heavily by Robert Johnson. You would know this if you have ventured all the way to the final page of that book. Robert Johnson was a very talented musician from the early days of the 1900’s. A blues musician who has inspired an unbelievable number of people. I recommend you listen to this album: King of the Delta Blues Singers. It's a dusty red album with a god shot view of that great guitarist.
If you need more, then I highly recommend you read the biography of that mans life. His story is what moved me to make my art.
Gosh, isn’t music amazing? With it we are able to hear the voice of a human being who died long before even our parents were born.
That is true magic.