SYNOPSIS:

Adapted from my novel of the same name, "Fishing the Muse" follows the extraordinary journey of Woodrow "Woody" Wilson Washborn IV--a young man whose life has been spent on the modest dairy farm in Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania passed down from his great-grandfather to his grandfather to his father, with every expectation that Woody will continue the family tradition. The prospect of which, however, Woody dreads with every fiber of his being. For his dream is to become an artist, any kind of artist. An all-consuming but seemingly farfetched dream, given that he evidently doesn't have an artistic bone in his body. He takes trumpet lessons, tries out for the local playhouse, enrolls in painting and creative writing classes, and fails miserably at them all.... Despondent, apparently doomed to milking cows for the rest of days, Woody grows fascinated with the life and genius of the acclaimed "Renaissance man" Ford Sinclair. A jazz prodigy at sixteen, Sinclair went on to become a celebrated playwright, novelist, painter, and Hollywood filmmaker. Until, at the age of forty, Sinclair mysteriously vanished, as if into thin air, and has not been heard from in the twenty years since. Believing that Sinclair holds the secret of what it takes to be an artist, Woody abruptly leaves Bird-in-Hand and ventures off on a quest to find the great man--a journey that takes him to places he never imaged existed; where he encounters the people (the family, friends and colleagues) Sinclair touched so deeply and then left behind along with the many brilliant phases of his remarkable life. En route, Woody learns more about Sinclair than he bargained for. And more about himself than he ever thought possible. "Fishing the Muse" is a story packed with heart, adventure, romance, comedy, and mystery. Populated by a haunted and colorful cast of characters encountered by our unlikely hero throughout. Impossible not to root for the wide-eyed farm boy as he searches for his dream in the damndest places... Only to discover that "the journey is the destination."