Musings & Thoughts for Wednesday, January 31, 2024, or: A Day in the Life of a First-Time Novelist in New England…(Reunion: Coda Update)

Late Morning, Wednesday, January 31, 2024, Madison, New Hampshire

Hey, everyone. As I begin my 1,415^th post on my WordPress blog, it is just past 9:30 AM Eastern on the last day of January 2024. Since it is midwinter in New England, this third day of the workweek is gray-tinged and frigid. Currently, the temperature is 24°F (-4°C) under cloudy skies. With the wind blowing from the south-southwest at 1 MPH (1 KMH) and humidity at 67%, the feels-like temperature is 34°F (2°C). Today’s forecast calls for mostly cloudy skies and a high of 36°F (3°C). Tonight, we can expect partly cloudy skies and a low of 15°F (-10°C). No snow is expected for the next few days, either.

On Writing & Storytelling: Work on Reunion: Coda’s Chapter 13 Continues

Despite a rocky start to my working schedule, yesterday was a productive day, at least on the writing front. (The other “fronts” of my new life in Madison are, for lack of a better word, stalled.) Even though I started later than I wanted to (at 2 PM), once I got going on Scene Two of Reunion: Coda’s Goodbye, Farewell, and Adios, I got into a nice, comfortable rhythm and ended up writing a complete second scene for the final “Jim Garraty in 1983” chapter.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been working on the Reunion Duology – on and off, and certainly without a Grand Scheme to create a “duology” in the first place – since 1987, or maybe because many of the episodes set in early 1980s South Miami High School are – by necessity – drawn partly from my own high school experience, but Goodbye, Farewell, and Adios (the title of which is a tip of the hat to the series finale of M*A*S*H, which aired less than four months before Commencement Day for South Miami’s Class of 1983) is shaping up to be less difficult to write than “The One with the Emails.”

Yesterday’s session lasted approximately two hours and 35 minutes; I started shortly after 2 PM and called it a day at 4:35 PM after producing 1,554 words, or roughly three pages’ worth of story for Reunion: Coda. And even though I doubted that I’d be able to write a complete scene – waking up at 2:15 in the morning thanks to cold-induced diuresis and a rare but strong panic attack made me feel tired for much of yesterday – I ended up with one anyway.

Wanna see how it starts?

2

10:30 AM

“Hold still, will you?” Mark grunted impatiently as he fiddled with my tie. I felt his fingers tug at the fabric, making a neat Windsor knot around my collar. I glanced at the mirror and saw his light gray suit contrast with my navy blue one. We both looked sharp, but he looked more confident than I did.

“Sorry, man,” I muttered, trying to calm my nerves. “It’s just…this is it, you know? The end of high school. The beginning of…something else.”

Mark smiled and slapped me on the shoulder. “Yeah, I know. But don’t worry, Jim. You’ll do great. You’re smart, you’re funny, you’re…well, you’re you.”

He paused and looked at me more closely. “Hey, did you sleep well last night? You look like you have bags under your eyes.”

I shrugged. “Not really. I woke up at five freakin’ AM when I could have slept till seven. Forgot to reset the time on my alarm clock. I guess I’m nervous. And scared.”

Mark nodded sympathetically. “I hear you. Me too. But you know what? There’s a trick to make those puffy eyes less noticeable. My mom taught me this. You just need to put some ice cubes in a cloth and press them gently on your eyes for a few minutes. It reduces the swelling and the dark circles.”

He walked over to my dresser and opened the top drawer, where I kept some handkerchiefs. He took one out and headed to the bathroom across the hall from my bedroom. “Come on, let’s do this. We have time. The ceremony doesn’t start until one.”

I followed him, feeling a sudden surge of gratitude for his friendship. He was always there for me, ever since we met in Mrs. Turtletaub’s fifth-grade class at Kinloch Park Elementary. He was like a brother to me, especially since I didn’t have a father. He taught me things that my mom couldn’t, like how to tie a tie, how to shave, how to talk to girls.

As we entered the bathroom, I saw the morning sun flooding through the window, casting a warm glow on the tiles. The light and the shadows played on our faces, making us look older than we were. We were no longer high school kids. We were adults. Or at least, we were about to become ones.

We stood in front of the bathroom mirror, about a yard apart, and stared intently at our reflections, looking for any imperfections. I couldn’t help but notice how calm and well-rested my best friend looked compared to me, even though my Pierre Cardin suit was as immaculate as Mark’s. 

“You look like you’re ready to take Harvard by storm,” Mark said. “You could probably even start teaching history your first day on campus.”

I’m sure that at least some of what you’ve read will look a bit different in the finished version of Reunion: Coda. For now, though, this’ll do.

On Writing & Storytelling – Again: Action This Day

My agenda for this last day in January – gosh, I’ve been in New Hampshire for almost two months now – is both familiar and straightforward:

1. Work on A Certain Point of View, Too in the morning (a)
2. Take a “Midday” break for lunch and “R&R”
3. Return to my desk and work on Reunion: Coda till either sundown or the completion of Chapter 13, Scene Three

There. A plan, short and simple. I believe I can execute it.

I don’t have much else to write about, Constant Readers. I started watching Silver Bullet last night after I logged off from my computer, but I had a lot on my mind and couldn’t get into it. I’ve only seen it once – back in 1985 when Paramount released this adaptation of Stephen King’s novelette Cycle of the Werewolf in theaters – and I was looking forward to rewatching it. It is one of the better movie versions of a King horror story; the screenplay was written by the “Master of Horror” himself, and for some reason, I’d never bought Silver Bullet on home media till I ordered it a couple of weeks ago from Amazon in a two-disc 4K UHD/2K HD Blu-ray set from the Shout! Factory. I’ll have to watch it again, hopefully at a time when my mind is less preoccupied by more serious and pressing matters.

Okay, that’s it for this look at a writer’s life in Madison, New Hampshire. Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and stay warm. I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things…and remember (especially if you live in Snow Country)…spring is coming.