Musings & Thoughts for Sunday, May 12, 2024, or: Weekend Update, Part the First…and Some Thoughts on Mother’s Day of ’24

Late Morning, Sunday, May 12, 2024, Madison, New Hampshire

Hi, folks. It’s a cloudy but still pretty spring day here in my nook of New Hampshire. Currently, the temperature is 56°F (13°C) under mostly cloudy conditions. With humidity at 45% and the wind blowing from the south-southwest at 3 MPH (4 Km/H), the feels-like temperature is 68°F (20°C). Today’s forecast calls for mostly cloudy skies and a high of 60°F (16°C). Tonight, we can expect partly cloudy skies and a low of 36°F (2°C).

Weekend Update, Part the First: Taking a Break from Novel Writing

Yesterday was the first day of the weekend, so I took Stephen King’s advice from On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft and took a break from working on Reunion: Coda. I did briefly consider doing some edits or even starting Chapter 17. I have been working on the novel since March of 2023 and I’m anxious to finish it, so for a few fleeting moments I opened the Microsoft Word file with the manuscript…then closed it again. As much as I want to type the words The End and upload the finished book to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, I also need to take breaks from novel writing.

First, it’s not like I somehow managed to connect with a literary agent and negotiate a contract with a big traditional publisher, with all the hassles of deadlines and dealing with editors that come with that. Going that route is much too complicated and intimidating for me, and my own “Midsummer 2024” deadline is stress-inducing as it is. So it’s not like I have “X” days before I must hand in Reunion: Coda to the folks at Penguin Random House or Hachette.

Second, I’m only human and I’m not as young as I used to be. As I have written in previous posts, I tend to stay at my desk for far too long, and even though it keeps me busy and doesn’t allow my mind to drift into a depressive state, it tires me physically and mentally. Moreover, when I’m here to work on Reunion: Coda, all of those worries I have about the project (Will people buy the book? Will they like the book? Will they recommend it to their friends and family? Is this just a colossal waste of time and energy?) lurk in my subconscious and make me involuntarily tense.

So…yeah, Stephen King is 100% correct when he advises aspiring authors to have a regular working routine during the workweek but not overdo it. In On Writing, King says he works on his fiction in the morning, then devotes the rest of the day to doing non-writing stuff, such as running errands, hanging out with his wife and family, and all that happy crappy. And, of course, he doesn’t work on weekends.

Thus, I spent my Saturday as I usually do. I wrote my daily blog post. I spent too much time on Facebook and the site I still call Twitter and played a long (40-minute) session of Regiments. In the evening hours, I made dinner – a Bubba’s turkey cheeseburger – and watched Episodes 9 and 10 of The First World War.

So went the first half of the weekend.

Sunday Sentiments

Today is Mother’s Day 2024. If you know me in person, or if you are a Constant Reader here, you know that Mother’s Day is not a holiday I like much these days. First, because my mother, Beatriz, died almost nine years ago after suffering for five years from the effects of dementia and a too-slow recovery from back surgery. I miss her immensely still, and my move from Florida to New Hampshire was one of the unexpected sequels of my mom’s passing that I’m still grappling with.

Second, for many years before Mom even got sick (but especially during her illness), Mother’s Day was marred by the silly and petty “competition” that my half-sister Vicky created regarding the gifts that we’d get for our mother. I have, of course, been living on Social Security disability for all my adult life, and even though I supplemented that income with online writing gigs and taking care of my neighbors’ houses or pets when they went on vacation or worked on cruise ships, I wasn’t able to get Mom pricey gifts or splurge on things like flowers or balloons for Mother’s Day. (There were exceptions, such as when I bought Mom a small HDTV in 2009 and a Blu-ray player in 2011. But I usually bought her a book or movie in home media format. )

Maybe I’m overly sensitive to the thought, fair or not, that I am somehow an underachiever, but I’m not too fond of the games of upmanship that Vicky played on special occasions such as Mother’s Day, or Mom’s birthday, or Christmas. She loved to spend hundreds of dollars on gifts that Mom didn’t need or want, knowing full well that if she asked me what I’d gotten for the occasion, I’d have to say, “Oh, I got her the Blu-ray of Evita,” or “I bought her a copy of Stephen King’s It.”

So…Mother’s Day is a holiday I’m not particularly fond of, especially now that my mom has been gone for nearly a decade.

I hope that sharing these memories of my mom and our complicated relationship with Mother’s Day has not made you feel sad or uncomfortable. I just wanted to be honest and tell you why I don’t celebrate this holiday as much as most people do. Maybe some of you can relate to my experiences, or maybe you have your own stories to tell. Either way, I wish you all a restful and peaceful Sunday, wherever you are and whatever you do.

And please, stay safe and healthy during these challenging times.

Before I sign off, I want to remind you that at the end of this blog post, you can find a free sample of my novella, Reunion: A Story. It’s a story about teenage angst, lost opportunities at love, and the resulting regrets. It’s also the first half of the Reunion Duology, which will be completed later this year. If you like what you read, you can purchase the full story on Amazon on Kindle or paperback. I appreciate your support and feedback, and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Thank you for being a loyal reader of my blog, and I’ll see you again soon. Bye for now!