Miami, Evening, and a Novelist’s Reveries

Evening, Tuesday, April 29, 2025, Miami, Florida

Some thoughts as this last Tuesday of April 2025 winds down here in my corner of South Florida:

• 10 years ago, I lived in South Florida, but in another neighborhood and under different circumstances. My mom was bedridden, suffering from the effects of dementia and other ailments, and although I didn’t know it, she had less than three months to live
• It feels strange to not be working on Reunion: Coda. More specifically, I sometimes miss coming to my desk, turning on my PC and opening the document file with the incomplete manuscript, and wondering “Well, what was Jim doing, feeling, or thinking about when I last left him after an afternoon’s writing?”  After two years of working on the novel – albeit with those two moving-related hiatuses – I feel adrift, even though I am working on a Reunion-related project for either the fall or winter reading season
• I wish I could afford to give away a few copies of Reunion: Coda to select friends who I think would appreciate them, even if the novel is not something they would usually read. I never thought I’d write a follow-up to Reunion: A Story, even though quite a few readers either asked for one or even suggested how I could do it…assuming, of course, that I wanted to. At best, I can give out one Kindle copy this month, but the per-copy printing cost for the print editions doesn’t give an impoverished author the ability to gift those to a lot of readers
• This morning, while I visited YouTube to see what popped up on my home page, I noticed that one of the video selections was a performance by the Royal Danish Orchestra of “Hymn for the Fallen” from Saving Private Ryan. This composition by John Williams was one of the themes I listened to back in 1998 when I wrote Reunion: A Story, the novella that introduced Jim Garraty, Martina “Marty” Reynaud, and Mark Prieto and eventually became Book 1 of a duology.  Its solemn and somber tone influenced the moods of my first serious attempt to write fiction, and it continued a tradition in which the music I listen to generates characters, locales, and even situations when I’m writing stories

As the evening settles in, I find solace in the timeless melodies and reflections that have shaped my journey. Writing Reunion: Coda has been an emotional odyssey, weaving together the threads of past and present. I invite you to delve into this narrative, to walk alongside Jim, Marty, and Mark, and perhaps find your own moments of introspection and connection. Consider getting a copy of Reunion: Coda—let it be a companion in your quiet moments, as it has been in mine.