
Afternoon, Thursday, June 26, 2025 – Miami, Florida
Gosh, I’m tired.
Yesterday was long, busy, and—at times—frustrating, thanks to my dual role as both author and self-appointed marketing director in the aftermath of publishing Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen.

My Wednesday started far earlier than I would’ve liked. I was up at 5:30 a.m., checking Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing dashboard for an update on my corrected manuscript—hoping to upload the final version in time for the paperback release on July 1. I could have slept in until 7 or 7:30, but there’s a quiet truth among indie authors: the earlier you submit changes to KDP, especially for print editions, the more likely you are to avoid those dreaded “we’ll get back to you… eventually” delays.
Case in point: I submitted the final, can’t-leave-this-unfixed version of the manuscript before 6 a.m. and didn’t receive confirmation from KDP until 11:50 p.m.—nearly 18 hours later.
In hindsight, I probably should have rested after the copyedits were done. The stress of accelerating this story’s release (it was originally slated for Fall 2025) took a toll. A sense of global uncertainty—and the sharp awareness of how little time any of us truly have—pushed me to act. I slept just three hours Tuesday night, fueled by anxiety and exactly one underwhelming cup of coffee.
But rest wasn’t in the cards. Instead of decompressing with a naval sim or rereading my own work on my Fire tablet with a degree of emotional detachment, I spent the bulk of my afternoon selecting lines from Comings and Goings and pairing them with visuals using Paint.




I leaned heavily on the Kindle cover art and chose one additional illustration—a blonde figure rendered in a style I found evocative of Kelly Moore, Jim’s first partner. Not ideal, perhaps, but close enough in mood and tone to feel right.
Now, I’ll be honest: my hand-eye coordination isn’t the greatest, and something as simple as copy-pasting text onto an image takes me longer than it might for others. I didn’t create dozens of these quote-graphics, but the few I did craft were time-consuming and, at times, mentally draining. I found the creative challenge rewarding, though occasionally I questioned whether the effort would pay off.
Still—I kept going.

Maybe it’s stubbornness. Or maybe it’s that quixotic streak I seem to carry like a birthright. Either way, there will likely be one or two more quote-images before launch day.
As of this writing, Comings and Goings is available on Kindle for $2.99 in the U.S. (2.69 euros in Spain and Germany). It’s not free—but for a tightly crafted piece of emotional storytelling, it’s reasonably priced.

For those of you who prefer print, here’s the good news:
Your book, Comings and Goings – The Art of Being Seen, is scheduled for release on 07/01/2025. On this date, your book’s detail page will become visible to readers to purchase your book on Amazon everywhere you have territory rights at 12:00 a.m. UTC. You can update your book until 06/26/2025.
So yes—soon, this story will be available in two formats. Hopefully, it will find its way to readers, reviewers, and anyone looking for something quiet but real.
And if Comings and Goings resonates with you, I invite you to explore the larger Garratyverse: the full-length Reunion Duology and the quiet ache that lives at the heart of this new standalone story.
For now, I’m running on fumes and momentum. But I believe in this book—and I’ll see it through.
Thanks for walking with me this far.
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