Dear Reader, Let Me Tell You a Story…. of Unexpected Breakthroughs

Midday, Wednesday, March 26, 2025, Miami, Florida

“We are all storytellers. We all live in a network of stories. There isn’t a stronger connection between people than storytelling.” ― Jimmy Neil Smith

Yesterday was one of those strange yoyo workdays that started off badly but ended unexpectedly triumphant. A cloudy morning in South Florida turned into a stormy afternoon, and my resolve wavered so much that I ended up playing Sea Power for an hour, thinking I had lost a writing day. But then, I got a “second wind” of creativity that helped me complete the fourth and final scene of the 29th chapter of Reunion: Coda.

But wait, there’s more. Just as I wrapped up the latest chapter of my first novel, I had a rare burst of creative clarity and—are you sitting down, Dear Reader?—cracked the code to Reunion: Coda’s final scene.

Sometime around 7:30 PM, right after a delicious dinner of filet mignon and mashed potatoes and boosted by a 12-oz can of Classic Coke, I put the finishing touches on “Across the Room, Across the Heart,” the conclusion to Chapter 29, which is part of Reunion: Coda’s denouement. It’s not a long scene—it clocks in at 530 words, or slightly longer than a typical college-level English Comp essay. However, it’s a crucial scene in Jim Garraty’s emotional journey and encapsulates Reunion: Coda’s themes of love, loss, and the healing power of connections.

(I like to think of Chapter 29 as Jim’s “Move Forward into Broad, Sunlit Uplands” moment—a phrase shamelessly borrowed from Winston Churchill’s ‘Finest Hour’ speech of May 1940. It’s fitting for a professor specializing in military history, don’t you think?)

I was so happy to finish Chapter 29, my brain had a “Eureka” moment, and I wrote a rough draft of the novel’s final scene! Talk about serendipity.