User:DoctorWho42/Muscadine

"Muscadine" is a short story by American author Ron Goulart. It was first published in the April 1968 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

Background
The author notes the electric sitar mentioned in "Muscadine" was later advertised in DownBeat.

Plot
Norman Gilroy feels screws in the dark room. He surmises the android novelist Neil Muscadine mailed one of his hands to a girl. Gilroy works public relations for Muscadine. Turning on the lights, he finds it empty. He calls the front desk. Muscadine mailed his left hand so he could still do autographs. The night desk says Muscadine left. They're out of spare hands. Gilroy works for the publisher Dacoit & Sons. He goes to the lobby. The pharmacist tells him he has a cure for his San Francisco throat. He hands him a throat sprayer. Gilroy asks the doorman if he saw Muscadine. The doorman informs Gilroy he went somewhere to revel until dawn. Gilroy takes a taxi. At sunrise, Gilroy is in Berkeley. Muscadine has a signing and an interview. Gilroy visits Dr. Pragnell. He tells him that Muscadine is missing and worsening. Muscadine mailed his left hand to a girl. Pragnell tells Gilroy he programmed in quirks so Muscadine could write best-sellers. Gilroy responds a publisher has two android writers while another has one. Pragnell affirms his breakthrough. Gilroy thinks Muscadine is falling apart. Muscadine believes himself a betrayal of talent. Pragnell points out the success of his last two books should redeem him. Gilroy notes neither did very well. Pragnell thinks Muscadine should be back by now. Pragnell will hold back next time. Gilroy tells him about Muscadine's hand. Pragnell hands him a sack. It contains a pair of hands and some screws. Gilroy returns to the hotel. He finds a blues singer and a reporter with Muscadine. They leave while Muscadine remains. Gilroy gives him a new hand. Muscadine laments on loss. At a naked restaurant, Cullen Frimmer does a talk show. He calls his novels crap. The manager tells him about FCC regulations. Frimmer says crap again. Frimmer opens the lines. An old lady calls. She asks if he was abandoned by a church in Youngstown, Ohio. Muscadine calls himself her son. She asks if he's coming home. Muscadine tells her he's going to a better home and leaves. Gilroy pursues him. The chase ends in Sausalito. Gilroy finds him strewn across the beach. His head hops into the ocean. Gilroy drops off two boxes. He asks Pragnell if he could just make a novel writing machine and they'll split profits. If Gilroy stays, maybe Pragnell could cure his ailment.

Reception
In 1970, Analog Science Fiction and Fact's P. Schuyler Miller reviewed it with "a kooky android author undergoes quite literal disintegration in ways that "Lewis Padgett" would have appreciated."