Completing My First Novel: A Journey of Passion

Midday/Early Afternoon, Tuesday, April 1, 2025, Miami, Florida

“Write what you love, and love what you write. You are your first audience, and if you don’t love it, why should anyone else?” – Caroline Linden

I’m almost finished.

It’s been 754 days since I embarked on writing Reunion: Coda. Not on a mere whim, but driven by a deep-seated desire to write a novel, a dream that has lingered since I was 15. Yet, I had no grand plan, no pre-conceived plot to guide me, only the tender hope of expanding upon a novella I was revising. On that early spring day in Lithia, Florida, I set forth with just a few simple rules:

Reunion: Coda must remain true to my 1998 novella, Reunion: A Story. Its purpose was to enrich the plot points of the original work while continuing Jim Garraty’s journey.

The novel must strike a delicate balance, weaving together serious, dramatic moments with lighter, humorous ones.

Most importantly, Reunion: Coda must live up to the expectations of Reunion: A Story’s cadre of fans. You know, the readers who write reviews like this one by Meg Learner from Great Britain:

A lovely, lyrical book and excellently written. It makes use of flashbacks, yet these are expertly woven into the story so that you always know where you are and how they contribute to the tale. This is quite a short read (I downloaded it to my Kindle and read it on my train journey), but it certainly packs a lot into the story, and the idea is fresh and novel. I have not read a story like this before. It’s not my normal type of reading material, as most of my reading these days is factual or business-related, but I really enjoyed it and was sorry when it was finished.

The book….makes the point that it is better to be sorry for sins of commission rather than regret sins of omission, yet it also shows how the angst of high school and teen fears get in the way of true love. One point I would make: I would LOVE to see a sequel to this, written from Marty’s point of view. PLEASE?

In other words, it must be a story worth reading—a tale that invites the reader to turn each page with eager anticipation.

That was my self-imposed directive as a first-time novelist. I didn’t spend much time pondering over “themes” or “subtexts.” Those elements found their way into the narrative naturally, without the heavy hand of authorial intent. Instead, I simply explored Jim Garraty’s life from the conclusion of Reunion: A Story and allowed his journey to unfold two years after the novella’s “Present Day” events.

One of the reasons I decided to revisit the two timelines format that I first used in Reunion: A Story was that it would not only allow me to show how Jim’s life is in the spring of 2000, but also go backward in time and depict pivotal moments that I could only allude to in the original novella. While I couldn’t give Meg a sequel told entirely from Marty’s perspective (Jim’s high school crush whose presence looms large in his story), the wider canvas of the novel allows me (and the readers) to see how Jim and Marty met as high school sophomores in January 1981. This expanded narrative reveals other landmark moments in their intertwined lives, helping to understand why “the angst of high school and teen fears” kept Jim and Marty apart

Yesterday, I wrote Scene Two for Chapter 30. For a while, I didn’t think I would be able to; I woke up at 4:04 AM and couldn’t fall asleep again. If you’re even a casual visitor to my blog, you know I usually don’t write well when I’m battling both exhaustion and that nagging self-doubt. I felt drowsy when I wrote “Dear Reader, Let Me Tell You a Story…About Finally Becoming a Three-Percenter.” By midday, I was convinced that I’d be lucky if I managed to draft an outline, as there was no way I could produce anything more substantial.

But then, something magical happened. Somehow, I found a second wind—perhaps it was Calliope, the Muse of epic poetry, gently nudging me. By the time I finished my work shift at 7 PM, I had drafted a 753-word scene. It was as if the words had been waiting for me, eager to fill the page and bring Jim Garraty’s story to life. This unexpected burst of inspiration reminded me of why I embarked on this journey in the first place: to follow my dreams and create something truly special.

Now, I find myself just one scene away from completing not only my first novel but also the duology that began in the fall of 1998. I wonder if I will finish writing it this afternoon.