Monday, June 9, 2014

Full Moon Rising

       
Have you heard about the full moon Friday the 13th?
         Dave DeBruyn, curator emeritus of Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium, mentioned it in his West Michigan Skies column in Sunday's Grand Rapids Press.
        I talked with Shelly Irwin about it this morning on the WGVU Morning Show. 
        And, of course, the internet is abuzz with references from Syracuse to New Zealand
        This Friday is a very rare  occurrence. The full moon coincides with Friday the 13th. That's right. Two mega superstitions at the same time. It won't happen again until 2049.
      In reading the stories online, my favorite is about an emergency room doctor who didn't believe in superstitions, but tells a very funny tale about what happened when he worked on the last full moon Friday the 13th in 2000.
     Some people say one superstition cancels out the other so it will be a lucky day.  I hope so.
      That's the day I'm releasing my next book, Full Moon Friday.  It's the third book in the Jordan Daily News Mystery series. It's about all the things that go wrong on a full moon Friday the 13th. Silly things, like a loose gutter pouring water on our heroine, City Editor Josie Braun. But things go seriously wrong, too, like a school bus that disappears with 23 school children, including Josie's son, Kevin.
          I don't know if I am really superstitious. I think it is unlikely the full moon really causes people to behave differently. But who am I to disagree with Aristotle? He believed the full moon caused people with certain mental illnesses to become agitated. The words lunatic and lunacy come from the Latin word for moon.
          Personally, I'm more agitated by Friday the 13th. I know it is silly, but would you plan a wedding on Friday the 13th? It's just something I prefer to avoid, usually. So why am I releasing a book on that day? Betting everything on a double whammy of bad luck?
          Guess I'm taking the advice of philanthropist W. Clement Stone who is credited with saying "Aim for the Moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."

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