Description: December on 5C4 is a vibrant tale of magical realism set during the Christmas season, weaving together threads of Jewish folklore, New Testament narratives, and Santa Claus legends. This story unfolds in the unique environment of an urban psychiatric hospital, where the boundaries between reality and the supernatural blur. As the winter holidays progress, Josh and Nick—two very different patients, one with similarities to Jesus and the other Santa—find themselves on an unexpected journey of self-discovery and transformation. Their evolving friendship and shared experiences challenge them to reconcile their pasts, embrace their identities, and navigate the complexities of mental illness. December on 5C4 is a compelling exploration of belief, identity, and the magic that can emerge in the most unexpected of friendships.
Author bio: Adam Strassberg is a retired psychiatrist living in Portland, Oregon. His stories have been published in Fiction on the Web, Cafe Lit, Total Quality Reading, Please See Me, among others. His novella, December on 5C4, pubs on December 1st, 2024.
“In the slow, skillful development of the relationship between these two men, Strassberg plays on the initial gimmick of having Jesus and Santa analogues meet, and steadily broadens the story into a more ambitious meeting of the minds, drawing on elements of philosophy.” — Kirkus Reviews
“An intense novella of ideas that looks into the heart of faith and generosity.” — Kirkus Reviews
“December on 5C4 is an original, entertaining, moving, and even enlightening tale of psychic, spiritual, and personal discovery.” —Ethan Herschenfeld, Actor and Comedian “Thug Thug Jew”
“As an uncertified therapist, and as a certified human, I recommend December on 5C4 with my whole Gestalt.” —Dr. Samuel Benjamin, Author of “Today is Now!”
“Thought-provoking and magical. Full of humor, pain, and insight.” —Felicity Niven, author of Convergence of Desire
“A sweet story of two legendary characters just a little out of sync with the stories we know, thrown together by circumstance and mental illness. Writing with sympathy and understanding, Strassberg pays homage to the holidays with rollicking aplomb.” — Michael Allen Rose, author of Jurassichrist
Interview:
Where are you from? Tell us a little about yourself!
I was born and raised in Monsey, New York. I completed Harvard college, then Caltech for graduate school and finally Stanford for medical school and residency.
We raised our family in Palo Alto, California where I worked as a psychiatrist for nearly two decades. I specialized in psychotherapy with psychopharmacology and I was in network with all major insurance companies and so I was very much dedicated to expanding access to psychiatric treatment. I was involved heavily in local mental health advocacy and public education. I also volunteered regularly as a community Santa throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
In 2019, we became empty nesters and I retired from clinical practice, then soon after, during the COVID pandemic, my wife and I, with our two cats and one dog, all relocated to Portland, Oregon.
I have been publishing essays, articles and stories since the 1990’s, however I have been focused on writing fiction exclusively since 2021. My stories have been published in Fiction on the Web, Cafe Lit, Total Quality Reading, Please See Me, and other online portals, and also in various print magazines and anthologies. In my writings, I try to use the intersection of psychology, religion, mythology, and magical realism to explore the human condition. December on 5C4 is my first novella!
I am a proud geek who loves fantasy, science fiction, comic books, chess, poker, board games, and dungeons and dragons. I also enjoy traveling and adventuring with my wife and family. When I’m not writing, napping, cuddling my wife, petting our cats, or walking our dog, I often can be found updating my website at www.adamstrassberg.com
Tell us about your book? How did it get started?
December on 5C4 is a lively work of magical realism with a Christmas holiday focus in which many Jewish tales, New Testament stories, and Santa legends are all re-enacted – sometimes metaphorically, sometimes literally, sometimes both – in an urban psychiatric hospital setting.
During the winter holiday, on locked ward 5C4, Josh, a homeless, Jewish, gay patient with some similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a wealthy, Turkish, married patient with some similarities to Santa. The two at first dislike each other and argue, but they reconcile, learn to appreciate their differences, then ally together in a daring plan to escape the unit before Josh’s thirty-third birthday. As the story moves forward, it is unclear if each protagonist is growing more psychotic, after refusing their medication, or simply becoming more magical, and thus each specifically more like Jesus or Santa respectively. They use their various Jesus and Santa powers throughout their adventure as they grapple to accept past, present and future identities and struggle to cope with chronic mental illness.
The book got started as a short story that grew and grew until it insisted on becoming a novella. At 3AM on a Christmas morning a few years back, a fun idea came to me. During my medical training. I had heard many stories from my residency years, some real, some apocryphal, of involuntary hospitalizations of various patients with delusions of being either Jesus or Santa. It occurred to me how interesting it would be to see what might happen if a patient with similarities to Jesus were hospitalized concurrently with a patient with similarities to Santa. Would they be friends? Enemies? Both? I also enjoyed retelling and re-enacting a very large number of Jewish myths, Christian tales, and Santa legends via these two main characters, all within the confines of a locked psychiatric unit.
What inspires you?
I am inspired by the power of words.
In my fiction, I often write about characters with magical powers or special abilities, but nothing is more powerful to me than our ability to affect each other’s thoughts and emotions through the use of words.
This is a magic power and a special ability we all get to share in our actual reality!
What would your advice be for authors or aspiring writers in regards to writing?
Consider why you write?
For me, I write for joy. There is nothing more joyful to me than the flow state of dissociation which occurs when one is writing. The story scenes and sequels play out in your mind; you are generating them, but also observing them, and you achieve this mystical state wherein you transcribe what your inner eye experiences directly onto the page. There is craft in writing the sentences, it’s akin to painting a picture, but with words instead of a brush. Time speeds, minutes pass like seconds. The experience of this flow state is powerful, transcendent, and utterly joyful. Then, when it’s over, after some editing, I have a story that I enjoy reading. And my hope and hubris is that, if I enjoy reading the story, perhaps others will as well.
Anything else you’d like to share?
The winter holidays are a time when physical books frequently are purchased to give to one another as gifts. (This Icelandic custom (Jolabokaflod) has been making its way to the US for many years now.) I imagine this short novel as a fun gift for the holidays for adults – sort of akin to The Autobiography of Santa Claus or A Christmas Carol meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I hope it will have a general holiday appeal, and then a more specific appeal to adults who enjoy the intersection of magical realism, mythology, urban fantasy and psychology.
If you have a family member or friend who is very interested in: mythology, the Bible stories, the life of Jesus, the life of Santa, the Christmas holiday, Judaism, Chasidism, the Jewish antecedents of Christian culture, magical realism, psychology, psychopharmacology, mental illness, progressive religious denominations, then December on 5C4 is a perfect winter holiday present!
