MARCH 2024

So Much in a Single Picture

The occasion for this photo was the launch event for my novel, The Cyclone Release, which most of you know happened in November 2022. At the time, I had no idea how precious this photo would become because the handsome fellow who sits beaming in the front row in his blue Dale of Norway sweater, my father Duane Overby, passed away on February 29th. We celebrated Dad’s life with a funeral mass, as he requested, on March 16th, and my niece, Danielle Tellez, delivered the eulogy with such a remarkable combination of clarity, tenderness, and real emotion, that I didn’t even bother to contain myself. My siblings, my stepmother, and my Aunt Monessa and I had pulled the eulogy together from fond memories of a simple man who nonetheless had an incredible life, a process that spread laughter, tears, and healing from Argentina to Minnesota to Northern California and beyond. We were fortunate enough to have celebrated Dad on his 88th birthday last May, an occasion that generated another series of precious photos, the last that would be taken of him with all nine of his children in the frame.

Everything’s on the internet these days, so you can learn more about Dad here:

• Duane Overby in Memoriam (Eulogy)

• Duane Joseph Overby - Obituary

As the eulogy says, “He will be missed, but he will always be here.”

A Book for an Election Year?

As I mentioned in my January newsletter, I’m working on a new novel, a political drama that I’ve decided to pitch as “Sorkin with the gloves off.” Like Aaron Sorkin’s characters in “The West Wing,” my protagonist, Tristan Heller, has occasion to deliver extensive remarks on the state of the country, and he does so with a very specific bent and an extremely unique, ahem, style of delivery. (Spoiler alert: He’s a notorious F-bomber.)

In the story, Tristan is a Silicon Valley executive who is laid off from his job during the pandemic and subsequently decides to run for president in the 2024 election. Pretty much all readers will find his motives nefarious, but I’m hoping many will find his ideas and the way he presents them to be a breath of fresh air.

I include a question mark above because there is literally no way this book could make it to print with a traditional publisher before Election Day. It is, of course, a perfect book, but that doesn’t matter. That process just takes a long time. Literally the only way the book could get out this year would be for me to self-publish it, which I’m considering. So stay tuned.

A Promise is a Promise

Another thing I mentioned in the last newsletter was that I’d be revamping my website, and a promise is a promise, so the new version is live! A site that was created for the primary purpose of promoting a novel has now been transformed into something more expansive. It now includes windows into my writing on politics and society, along with book reviews and wise quotations that are aimed at writers, but can apply to almost anything in life. Click the pic to have a peak!

In case you missed them, previous editions of the Bruce Overby newsletter can be viewed online here.