On Writing & Storytelling: Pressing On with the ‘One with the Emails’ Chapter…and Welcome to My 1,400th Post on WordPress!

Mid- to Late Morning, Wednesday, January 17, 2024, Madison, New Hampshire

Hi, there, folks.

Well, it’s 9:00 AM EST here in Madison as I begin this, the 1,400^th post in this blog. It’s quite chilly here; the current temperature is 16°F/-9°C under partly sunny skies, with a “feels-like” temperature of 18°F/-°C. The forecast for today calls for partly sunny skies and a high of 25°F/-4°C. Tonight, skies will be mostly clear. The low will be 9°F/-13°C.

For me, the morning has been longer than usual; I slept relatively well because I turned on a space heater in my bedroom – I still find it strange (in a good way) that I now have two rooms rather than one – set to warm the area near my bed to 70°F/21°C. I have no idea when I fell asleep; I watched part of the 2003 British documentary The First World War sometime after 9:30 PM[1] but got sleepy before the episode ended, so I probably went to bed around 10: 30 PM.[2]

I would have been content if I’d managed to “sleep in” until 6:30 or even 7 AM, but I woke up at 4:30 AM, and despite the space heater, two Star Wars blankets, and two quilted bedspreads, the chilly predawn air (at one point, the temperature was 12°F/-11°C) still interrupted my sleep and a nice dream I had. (If you must know, I was dreaming about a strikingly beautiful young woman I knew – only slightly, though! – at South Miami High.)

So, here I am at my desk, listening to classical music on my computer’s Amazon Music app and writing this entry in A Certain Point of View, Too while simultaneously doing the following:

• Trying to keep an eye on several important Amazon orders – including my first book purchase since I moved to New Hampshire, plus essential men’s health products and a pack of AA batteries
• Thinking about today’s writing session, which I’ll try to begin earlier than my usual noon-to-1 PM start time
• Attempting to “think positive,” even though the cold weather – a high of 25°F/-4°C does not thrill me, although I am relieved that there’s no snow (or rain) in the forecast – and my worries about…everything are making this goal…challenging

On Writing & Storytelling: An Update on Reunion: Coda

Yesterday’s writing session was similar to Monday’s creative endeavors: After several hours of sitting at my desk, typing, thinking, reading what I’d typed, editing, revising, re-reading, and so forth, I conjured one simulated email for the “epistolary chapter” of Reunion: Coda. Granted, it was a long email – this being a chapter in which my two leads, Jim and Maddie, are temporarily separated by circumstances related to their careers, must communicate via the then-still newish Internet, long emails are necessary – and this one was authored by my protagonist/narrator (or, if you will, my “I-guy”).

Since we’re expressing our feelings for each other in different languages, here’s my attempt to tell you how I feel in another Romance language: Je t’aime de tout mon cœur ma belle pianiste Classique

Alex Diaz-Granados, Reunion: Coda

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: New Topic – Your Big Day (and Other Matters):

Dearest Maddie,

Hey, there, beautiful. It’s just past five in the morning here in New York. Sunrise is less than 90 minutes away, and according to my trusty laptop’s YoWindow latest weather update, it’s 41 degrees outside. I’m making a quick breakfast of Thomas’ English Muffins and a cup of coffee before getting ready to head out to work.

To answer your questions, dear heart:

• Since we’re expressing our feelings for each other in different languages, here’s my attempt to tell you how I feel in another Romance language: Je t’aime de tout mon cœur ma belle pianiste Classique
• And – thankfully – there are no more Faculty Senate meetings scheduled for a while

I do have a busy schedule for today. Most of it is pretty much devoted to paperwork and the not-so-exciting bits of academia, but I do have one afternoon class to teach: The United States in the Second World War, 1941-1945. Today we’re covering the island-hopping campaign in the Pacific Theater – hopefully, there’ll be some interesting in-class discussions after my lecture.

I better get going, hon, but before I go, here’s something I wrote for you last night. I’m no Shakespeare or Keats, but here goes.

You are the music of my soul

The melody that fills my heart

The harmony that makes me whole

The symphony that sets you apart

You are the rhythm of my life

The tempo that keeps me in tune

The beat that makes me feel alive

The crescendo that lifts me to the moon

You are the song of my dreams

The chorus that echoes in my mind

The verse that speaks to me in reams

The bridge that connects us across the sea

You are my beautiful classical pianist

And I love you with all my heart

You are my one and only artist

And I can’t wait for us to never part

Love always,

Jim

JimWWII99@yahoo.com

Sent: Tuesday, March 7, 2000, 5:29 AM EST

I’m not Shakespeare or Keats, either, but I do sometimes write poetry. So I wrote one for Jim to share with Maddie. My friend Juan Carlos Hernandez was surprised that Jim, a historian who teaches at Columbia University, writes love poems, but I explained that history is the passion he allows the world to see; he also has a more private set of interests and inner yearnings. Juan then remarked, ”Love does bring that out of everyone.”

 Juan has contributed much to this project. He reads the manuscript in daily emails, and answers questions such as “Would a woman really say this?” and “Does Jim Garraty sound like a history professor?” He has also created some of the potential cover designs for the novel so I don’t have to limit myself to the few free cover designs offered by Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. So, if Reunion: Coda turns out to be something readable, don’t give me all the credit. I had help from others, especially Denise Longrie – my Beta Reader – and, of course, Juan.

Action This Day: Keep On Writing!

As this is Wednesday and therefore a regular working day, my action plan for the day is – ta da! – to keep working on that epistolary chapter, which is fun to write (at times, anyway) but has proved to be more difficult than I envisioned when I started it back in October. Not only do I have to draft emails that are sometimes longer than what most people would normally write, but I have to write them in two distinct voices – and one of them – Madison, aka “Maddie” – is a British woman!

Since I’m also – occasionally, anyway – a screenwriter, I approach the emails as if they were monologues or dialogue in a one-person stage play. This makes it easier to write Maddie’s side of the conversation because it allows me to think along the lines of Well, how would Maddie say or write X? Would she use this expression or a different one? And after living and working in the States for so long, how much British slang would she still use when she speaks or writes?

Jim’s emails, of course, are easier to write because not only is he the version of me that I wish I’d been, but he has been my “I-guy” for the longest time – I invented him in a class assignment for a creative writing course I took at Miami-Dade Community College back in 1987, and he became the main character in the Reunion Duology when I wrote Reunion: A Story in 1998.  For good or ill, I know how he sees the world and how much he cares about his friends and loved ones, so, yeah…giving him dialogue and the occasional bit of doggerel is not difficult.

My hope is that today I can produce more than one email so I can get closer to finishing this chapter, which I think of, in the Friends’ style of episode titles, as “The One with the Emails.”  Once the chapter is complete, I think I only have two or three more to do, after which I can type “The End” and, after a bit more editing and revising, publish my first novel.

Since I am burning daylight, and since I want to get an earlier than usual start to my working shift, I’ll close for now. So, see you later, gang. Wish me luck, will you please?

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[1] And before that, I played Regiments for a while, but I did not finish the Skirmish between a British armored unit and a Warsaw Pact regiment near Grasleben.

[2] I lead such an exciting life here, do I not?