“In early June the world of leaf and blade and flowers explodes, and every sunset is different.” ― John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent
Hi, there, Dear Reader. It’s late morning here in Lithia, Florida, on Thursday, June 1, 2023. It’s a warm (77°F/25°C) first day of (meteorological) summer and the Atlantic hurricane season. As I write this, the cloud cover is increasing, and the forecast for our area calls for rain in the afternoon.
Well, if you’ve been a Florida resident as long as I have – I’ve lived in the Sunshine State for 54 and 2/3 of my 60 years, 46 in Miami, and eight here in the Tampa Bay area – you know that this is the typical weather pattern in this part of the South. The only thing I can grouse about is that, despite what the fossil fuels industry and conservatives want you to believe, the temperatures have gotten gradually hotter since I was born, and I don’t venture out as much as I ought to because of it.
Also, I can’t say that I’m surprised that rain and thunderstorms are in the forecast now, and that they will be there from now till November, along with the possibility that at least one or two tropical storms/hurricanes will make landfall somewhere in Florida. To borrow a phrase from the 1992 Presidential campaign: It’s the geography, stupid.
Action This Day
“You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will. Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up.” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Since today is an “official” writing day for me – I usually work on my manuscript during the Monday-Friday workweek and try to take weekends off – I plan to work on The New Story. Yesterday I finished Scene Three of Chapter Nine (at least in “first draft” mode), and even though I know that I’ll have to revise much of it, I think it came out nicely, even though it was hard to start it. I wrote the first 441 words on Tuesday, and yesterday I added 1,701 more. I shared some of it last night here, and I am tempted to show off a little more of it today…but I won’t because I want you to buy the novel – let’s call it that now that it’s past the 140-page count on WriteItNow and the 90-page one on Word – which I can now officially announce as a follow-up story to my 2018 novella Reunion: A Story.
I am not sure, though, if I should write the next scene as I imagine it in my head (it involves my two 1983 timeline leads, Jim and Marty, practicing the song “Somewhere” from West Side Story for their Spring Concert duet). I want to quote a couple of lines from Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics, and I have contacted Concord Music’s permissions department requesting their okay to go ahead with that. The problem is, though, that I emailed Concord Music on Tuesday, and here we are on Thursday morning, and I still have not received a reply. (Leonard Bernstein’s estate was much faster since that’s the entity I contacted first, and they referred me to Concord, so…)
If I don’t hear from Concord Music soon, I’ll have to figure out a creative workaround to avoid using the lyrics. I can’t ditch the song; it was originally mentioned in Reunion:
“I’m sorry,” she said unexpectedly.
“Huh?”
“That we never got to perform that duet together. Don’t you remember? For the Spring Concert?”
“Oh, yeah. What was that song we were going to sing?” I asked.
She placed her right hand on her hip and mock-pouted at me. “James Garraty, don’t tell me you forgot.”
I gave her an impish who, me look. When she smiled, I said in a more serious tone: “‘Somewhere,’ from West Side Story.” I hummed the song’s first measure; it sounded a half-octave off-key.
Marty frowned. “You haven’t practiced lately,” she said disapprovingly.
“No, I haven’t,” I said, and as I said it waves of melancholy washed over me like a cold dark tide. Marty saw my expression change; she walked up to me and placed her arm around my shoulder comfortingly.
“I know,” she said softly, “how much you were looking forward to it, Jim. I was looking forward to singing that duet with you, too.”
(Diaz-Granados, Alex. Reunion: A Story (pp. 30-31). Kindle Edition.)
I will probably – just for the scratch sheet till I hear from Concord Music – just go ahead and write the scene using the song lyrics, then worry about workarounds later if the word is given and it’s “No.” Otherwise, I’ll “freeze up” with apprehension and not get any writing done at all.
In any event, I will be working on The New Story later today. I’m going to take a two-hour rest break, so I’ll just close this post here. Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.
“All novels are really letters aimed at one person.” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
A Certain Point of View, Too 
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