As I mentioned previously, my first attempt at publishing was not historical fiction. My first attempt at getting published was a series of vignettes poking fun at my own marriage. I called it Honey, You’re Annoying Me: Coping with Irritating Man-erisms. I thought I’d found a niche with this book. I could make it cross-cultural, since my wife is Japanese and I’m American. So I studied the market and found the following types of marriage books: professional (spiritual), professional (non-spiritual), women preaching to the choir, men getting in touch with their feminine side, and famous people. Given that my effort wasn’t getting in touch with my feminine side, I was none of the above.
Then, one morning, in the midst of my daily, hour-long commute, I came to the realization that marriage was like Michelangelo’s statue of David. Michelangelo sculpted David from a fractured block of stone that no other sculptor wanted. In my epiphany, I visualized that when couples walk the aisle, men see themselves as a finished work of art. Women see their men as a block of stone where imperfections can be chipped away. I was proud of myself, proud of my epiphany, at least until a discovered about a year later that some psychiatrist from Holland had already developed this theory and called it The Michelangelo Effect. Oh well, at least the theory states that this is indicative of a happy marriage.
Still, my vignettes remained, and over the years, I learned that people agreed with many of them. Now it’s time to release them. I will be publishing them on this site. I’ll try to get them up weekly. The habits fall into several categories:
1) First comes “I Do.” Then Comes “You Don’t.”
2) House Rules
3) That was cute before we were married
4) DNA Conspiracy Theories
5) Free Throws from the Line of Scrimmage
6) Why Can’t Daddy Be In Charge
7) Cooking is a Contact Sport
8) If a Tree Falls in the Office…
9) The Practical Species
I hope people enjoy them. As my marriage has lasted over 25 years, I’d like to think of it as a happy marriage.
One last thing. Special thanks to my good friend, NY Times bestselling author Haywood Smith, for coining the term “man-erisms.”
historical fiction/fantasy | Author Walt Mussell 