Writing, Weather, and the Unexpected Turns

Afternoon, Thursday, June 12, 2025 – Miami, Florida

Hi, all.

Today was Laundry Day, Part Two of the week—bedding on Day One, clothes today. It wasn’t difficult; I know my way around washers and dryers. But it did throw off my usual morning blog-writing routine. As a result, I’m posting this later than planned and setting aside Comings and Goings, the new short story I’ve been working on in earnest these past few days.

Earlier, I found myself revisiting some of the posts I wrote during my time in New Hampshire, and I was struck by the contrast between June 2024 and now—not just in terms of geography and emotion, but also in my writing journey.

A year ago today, I was in the mountains, just seven miles west of the Maine border. It was a rainy, unseasonably chilly day, and though I was slowly acclimating to the New England climate, I’ve never been fond of dreary weather—especially when I was trying to be more physically active than I am in Florida’s torrid landscape.

As I recorded at the time:

“The weather today is a disappointment. I usually like to stay indoors by choice and habit, but I don’t like being trapped against my will. I wanted to go outside for a short walk during my midday break, but now it’s raining, and I don’t know when it will stop. According to the radar images on my PC’s weather app, the Conway/Madison area might catch a break from the dull and wet weather and get some sunshine later. That’s what I’m hoping for, anyway.”

Rain in New Hampshire wasn’t my friend—just as it isn’t in South Florida, where June is hotter and stickier. Snow, on the other hand, was more of a curiosity. Having never lived up North for long periods, I found it both inconvenient and strangely photogenic. It could be depressing at times, sure, but at least it had a certain aesthetic appeal.

A year ago, I was also deep in the writing process for Reunion: Coda, a few chapters past the halfway mark but nowhere near the “endgame stage” of my first novel. I was in one of those frustrating “low output” spells that plagued me throughout the two years I spent on the project. As I noted then:

“I didn’t get around to writing Chapter 18 yesterday—the weather was bleak, and I felt drained and dull. But I did scribble down a rough outline for the opening scene. It’s not very elaborate, though. It gives a glimpse of the place and the problem; it’s a Jim-in-action scene in his classroom at Columbia University, and it sets up a confrontation with a minor bad guy in the novel. It even hints at a plot… or something like that. But it’s still a skeleton outline that needs some meat on its bones.”

Twelve months later, Reunion: Coda is complete and available on Amazon, as well as via special order at Book Culture—or, if you’re feeling adventurous, at highly inflated prices on eBay. It’s out in hardcover, paperback, and Kindle editions, though there are no plans for an Audible version. Kindle users, however, can use the text-to-audio assisted reading option.

It took longer than I anticipated, and I finished the manuscript far from the quiet rural spaces of New Hampshire—but I got the job done.