Doctors, stories, saints

I spent much of the morning with a friend I haven't seen for a while. It was good to catch up. He's had some health problems, but things are better now. I have reached that age where too much of my conversation with friends is about our doctors' appointments! He had one in Madison this afternoon. I have one in Madison tomorrow.

I did some more work on the novel and am happy to report that I think I have filled the gaps in the story and have a complete version in hand. Now I have to sit down and read it straight through again to see what's missing. Word count for this draft: 60,620. I think that is about what the word count was for my John of the Cross mystery.

This novel is a sequel of sorts to a novella (or long short story, oxymoronically-speaking) that I wrote and published as an e-book. When I have the novel complete enough to publish, I think I will include that novella in the print volume, along with another short short story (repetitively speaking) that has a slight connection to the others.

Happy feast of St. Raphael of St. Joseph (Kalinowski), OCD. He was a Discalced Carmelite who lived and was buried in the town where Pope JP II grew up. He is a bit of a Polish civil hero, as well as a religious figure. I guess he was having a tedious day when that photo was taken. JP II canonized him, along with about a zillion other folks.

A friend recently commented about my frequent feast day notices. What can I say? I spent 30 years in a monastery. Just be grateful for all the feast days I don't mention!We were all about finding an excuse to have a good meal.