May: A month for mothers, Star Wars, scribblings, the ponies -- and more
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May is among the most eventful months of the year, as the headline on this newsletter suggests. It’s home to May Day, Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, the Kentucky Derby, Star Wars Day, Armed Forces Week, the Indianapolis 500, the start of the WNBA season, and Lost Sock Memorial Day among the many events we will chronicle here.
But before we get to those headline acts, I want to make a brief mention of a day that’s near and dear to my heart:
Make a Book Day on May 8.
Ostensibly, this is a day to encourage bookmaking as a form of creativity, but as it turns out, it occurs in the same week I will be publishing my new novella, Scribbles From Space, as an eBook on Amazon.
I’ll be joined by nine other writers who also will launch their own short stories that week. Ultimately, this collection of weird tales will be assembled into an anthology to be published as a paperback book later in the year titled:
The Light Fantastic 2: Amazing Pets
It’s a sequel to an earlier collection of stories, all with humorous twists, by a group of Florida authors.
But here’s the thing: Until this project, I’d never published anything but full-length novels, and my publishing company, Tropic Press, subcontracts out to a vendor all the formatting. This time, I’m doing it myself since we’re just talking about eBooks, not paperbacks and hardcovers and audiobooks.
So, I’ve been learning some new skills using a program called Kindle Create. But rather than wait until launch day to see if I’m doing it right, over the past couple of weeks I’ve published three other eBook offerings. Two of them are short sci-fi stories, and one is a collection of newspaper columns in honor of Armed Forces Week.
The good news is it seems to have worked.
When Scribbles launches in a few days, I’ll send you a link on where to find it. But in the meantime, here are links to those other stories I practiced my new-found formatting skills on. Hope you enjoy:
There are codes. And then there are nuclear codes. And the guardians of the nuclear football, where those world-ending codes are stored, swear an oath to perform their duties faithfully. But sometimes its not easy. Like when space aliens land.
The space aliens could have landed anywhere on Earth. But they chose the Florida panhandle. In deer season. What could go wrong?
For eight days, newspaper editor J.C. Bruce and a group of other civilians traversed the country with the American military. They flew out to an aircraft carrier at sea and explored the inner workings of attack submarines. They witnessed live-fire assaults, Marine beach landings, and were rescued by Special Forces from the American Embassy in Nogoland. In a series of five reports, Bruce recounts what that was like and what it means to be a member of today's armed forces.
Mark Your Calendar
Okay, back to our originally scheduled programming. Here are the key events and dates you need on your calendar this month.
May 1 is May Day. In some calendar-impaired corners of the world, this is celebrated as the beginning of summer. It is also celebrated as International Workers’ Day, but in America that takes place on Sept. 1, Labor Day. Also, for you theater buffs, the 2025 Tony Awards nominations are due to be released today.
Mother Goose Day is also on May 1. So, here’s a tip of the hat to my favorite cartoonist and former newspaper colleague, Mike Peters, and his longstanding hit cartoon strip, Mother Goose and Grimm.
May 2 is Space Day. And who among us doesn’t want to explore outer space? But, to be clear, getting shot up in a rocket to the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere by your rich boyfriend does not qualify you as an astronaut.
May 3. Press Freedom Day. Democracy is messy. But the cornerstone of freedom is the right to express ourselves and to have unfettered access to the news. We forget this at our peril.
May 3 is also the Kentucky Derby. Grab your mint julep (the drink has its own day on May 30) and settle in front of the TV to watch “the most exciting two minutes in sports.” The horserace will be broadcast on NBC. Post time is 6:57 p.m. EDT.
May 4. Star Wars Day. Because of the pun, of course: May the Fourth be with you!
May 5. Cinco de Mayo. On this day in 1862, outmanned and outgunned Mexican troops defeated Napoleon III at the Battle of Puebla. It’s a time to celebrate Mexican-American culture. Oddly, National Margarita Day isn't until February.
May 6. Touron Day. Okay, I just made that up. It’s Tourist Appreciation Day. But if you live in a place with lots of tourists doing stupid things like feeding alligators and making left turns from right-hand lanes, you quickly learn to rename them “tourons” — a portmanteau of “tourist” and “moron.”
May 7. Real ID Enforcement Day. Congress passed a law earlier this year setting standards for personal identification. Most state drivers licenses are already Real ID compliant, but you can check for more information on this here:
May 8. The 60th Academy of Country Music Awards, hosted for the 19th year in a row by Reba McEntire, will be streamed on Amazon Prime Video from the Ford Center in Frisco, Texas, starting at 8 p.m EDT.
May 9. Lost Sock Memorial Day. A day of mourning. Where do lost socks go? This question has stumped detectives for generations. And why do they run away in the first place? Nobody knows.
May 9 is also Scribbles From Space publication day!
May 10. Clean Up Your Room Day. But don’t get your hopes up. You won’t find that missing sock.
May 11. Mother’s Day. It’s a holiday with a bittersweet history, which I will share in an upcoming Essential News column you’ll be getting in your inbox. It is the third-largest card-sending holiday in America trailing only Christmas and Valentine’s Day with more than 113 million greeting cards exchanged.
May 13. National Frog Jumping Day celebrates Mark Twain's short story entitled Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog.
May 14. Dance Like a Chicken Day. Today you are encouraged to dance like chickens, flapping your arms and strutting around. It has been celebrated since the 1970s as an alternative to May Day (which definitely is NOT the first day of summer).
May 15. National Chocolate Chip Day — the essential ingredient in the world’s best cookies.
May 16. The Women’s National Basketball Association opens its new season today, even while the NBA championships are still grinding away.
May 17. Armed Forces Day, which concludes Armed Forces Week. The holiday recognizes everyone who has served in the military including those still on active duty, veterans, reservists, and those who have passed away.
May 18. World Baking Day. And, yeah, this is when you need those chocolate chips mentioned earlier because what’s the point of baking if it’s not to create chocolate chip cookies?
May 19 is May Ray Day. This is a holiday custom-made for northerners who have been hibernating all winter long. It’s a day to encourage getting out in the sun — to collect a few rays — to revitalize your body’s vitamin D supply. But be careful. You can have too much of a good thing. May 5, Cinco de Mayo, is also Melanoma Day.
May 20. World Bee Day. Later in this newsletter you’ll discover the Latin word for beehive.
May 21. Talk Like Yoda Day. Easy it is. Your words reverse.
May 22. Canadian Immigrants Day. A time to celebrate the few remaining Canadians in the country.
May 23 is World Turtle Day. As we know, our flat Earth rests on the back of a giant space turtle. Worship her.
May 24. This is National Escargot Day. Hard to believe, but it’s true: Some people eat snails. I’ll be starving during the Zombie Apocalypse before you catch me doing that. But tastes vary.
May 25. Indianapolis 500. Personally, watching automobiles driving in circles is about as interesting as observing grown men and women roll little balls into holes in the ground. But to each his or her or their own. You can catch the race on FOX starting at 10 a.m.
May 26 is Memorial Day. It honors the sacrifices of the men and women in uniform who died while serving. It is a federal holiday and is always the last Monday in May. This is also the evening in which the American Music Awards will be announced. Tune in at 8 p.m. EDT on CBS.
May 27. Nothing to Fear Day. Don’t know who came up with this one, but they clearly have not been keeping up with the news.
May 28. National Hamburger Day. Everyone has their favorite burger joint. Mine’s Jucys in Longview, Texas. What’s yours?
May 29. National Alligator Day. If you're an alligator, every day is Munch on a Human Day if you don't watch your step in the Everglades. That said, if attacked, you can try calling for help, and a Skunk Ape may come to the rescue. Oddly, there is no National Skunk Ape Day.
May 30. Mint Julep Day. This may be the worst-tasting concoction since escargot puree, but you be you.
May 31. The Last Day of National Mystery Month. What makes for a great mystery? Well, ahem, perhaps these:
Letters
Dear J.C.
Portmanteau? As in combining the words tourist and moron? Do you really think your readers have ever heard that word before? Isn’t throwing around jawbreakers like portmanteau a little show-offy?
D. Webster.
Hey. One of the goals of this newsletter is to make you smarter. Now you know two new words: portmanteau (blending sounds and meanings of two words) and touron (what we used to call all the Canadian visitors down here in Florida before they all stopped coming.)
Dear J.C.
So that picture of a dog in a spacesuit at the top of this month’s newsletter — is that the actual cover of the novella you were telling us about? And when will it be available?
I. Asimov
Thanks for asking. Yes. That’s the actual cover for Scribbles From Space designed by amazing graphic artist Charles Cornell, one of the members of The Alvarium Experiment, the hive of science fiction writers involved in the creation of what will eventually be a paperback anthology of sci-fi short stories based around the theme of “pets.” The anthology will be published later this year, but each of the short stories that will ultimately be compiled into the anthology will be released individually on Amazon on May 9. That includes Scribbles From Space.
Dear J.C.
Okay, there you go again. What the heck is an “alvarium”?
G. J. Caesar
Alvarium is Latin for beehive. The founders of this swarm of writers chose the name. I have no idea why. Of course, I have nothing but respect for bees and their role in our environment (as in we’d be dead without them). Because of bees, we have trees. Because of trees, we have paper. Because of paper, we have books. So it all ties together, I guess.
Parting Shot
J.C. Bruce is a journalist and author of The Strange Files series of mysterious novels (available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, other online booksellers, and at selected libraries). He holds dual citizenship in the United States of America and Florida. His latest novel, Strange Timing, was recently named Book of the Year in the Royal Palm Literary Awards where it also won Gold Medals in the Sci-Fi and Thriller categories. When he’s not writing, he’s in training for the International Underwater Ping-Pong Championships.
Sponsored by TROPIC PRESS, publisher of The Strange Files Series of Mysterious Adventures.
