My Madness

Christmas is a’comin’ and if that doesn’t terrify you, you’ve never raised a child.

My beautiful son is now grown and living in Michigan while he pursues his Ph.D in Aerospace Engineering. Yes, my son is a rocket scientist.

(Some years ago, when he was getting his Masters at Purdue, I went to a dinner for the church group in Sacramento for whom I played the bass. I sat at a table with people I didn’t know. One couple went on and on about their 21-year-old son, who was working at a restaurant and had just been promoted. Good for him, I said. They kept talking and talking about how smart he was and that there wasn’t a smarter child on the face of the planet. I kept my counsel until they unwisely asked me, “Do you have a child?” Yes, I said, my only son. “And what does he do,” they asked smugly. “Oh, he’s a rocket scientist.” The conversation at the table quickly turned to other things)

Anyway, said son and his lovely wife are now expecting their first child, a girl, to be born in March of next year around St. Patrick’s Day. The name will be Augusta, which means everyone will call her Gus. Which she’ll be OK with until she’s a teenager. But that’s a long, long way away.

My Christmas has been quiet and unhurried/unharried since the boy moved away 10 years ago. The most stressful thing I do is send Christmas cards, which usually go out around January 31. My rule is, if I get them out before Valentine’s Day, they’re on time.

At present I am NOT writing Christmas cards. I am knee-deep in National Novel Writing Month, or Nanowrimo. This year I nearly took the month off–I am nearly finished with my magnum opus, the Minerva James novel “Minerva James and the God of War.” The novel takes place during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I have been working on it since winning the Black Orchid Novella Award back in 2018. I can’t tell you why it took so long to write, other than I kept spooking myself that it might not be good enough. BTW, you can read the original Minerva story here.

So I thought I might as well finish, as I finally got ahold of the plot and was sailing toward completion. But then I got this idea about a middle-aged woman who talks to the Dead and there I went for Nano.

I am trying to write both at once. Failing miserably. The Nano novel is at 30,000 words. The Minerva novel has been neglected. Sigh.

It is my peculiar madness to be writing two novels at once. As well as a short piece I started last Sunday. And let’s not forget the Christmas cards.

Hey! If you want me to send you a Christmas Card, email me at MCBruce56@gmail.com.

Until then, I plod on in my madness.