Omnibus in Progress, Comfort in Limbo

Monday, November 3, 2025 – Orlando, Florida

“Work. Don’t Think. Relax.” — Ray Bradbury

There’s a certain comfort in structure, especially for those of us who live by stories. As much as I love the creative process—and I do, or I wouldn’t be doing this—I try to keep my writing life tethered to a Monday-through-Friday rhythm. Weekdays are for building worlds, revising sentences, and navigating the ever-shifting terrain of self-publishing. Weekends, ideally, are for rest.

From Spring 2023 through Spring 2025, that weekday discipline carried me through the writing, editing, and release of my first novel, Reunion: Coda. I thought that would be the major milestone of the year. But then summer arrived, and with it, a surprise: Comings and Goings – The Art of Being Seen, a novelette that emerged almost unbidden and demanded to be written. Now, as autumn settles in, I find myself promoting not one but two new Garratyverse titles—while also shepherding their audiobook adaptations into the world.

Fall 2025 has become a season of echoes and expansions. I’m overseeing the production of audiobook editions for Reunion: A Story, Reunion: Coda, and Comings and Goings, and preparing an omnibus Kindle edition that gathers all three Jim Garraty stories under one digital roof. It’s a lot. But it’s also the kind of work that, once the narrators and producers are in motion, doesn’t require my constant presence. And truth be told, my enthusiasm for The Jim Garraty Chronicles has cooled a bit—enough that I now guard my weekends more fiercely than I once did.

There was a time, back in New Hampshire, when I’d break my own “no weekends” rule if a line of dialogue or a plot twist whispered too loudly to ignore. I thought I’d finish Coda by summer 2024 back then. I was wrong, of course—but the impulse to chase a story when it calls hasn’t entirely left me.

These days, though, weekends are quieter. Not always by choice. Most of my books, music, and movies—my comfort objects, my creative talismans—are still stranded in Miami. I don’t know when I’ll see them again. I have a few digital copies of films through Movies Anywhere, but because Paramount and other studios don’t play nice with Disney (MA’s partial owner), my Star Trek and Indiana Jones collections are mostly inaccessible. I can watch Dial of Destiny, but that’s it. And yes, I miss my stuff. Deeply.

Still, I make do. I have a handful of books, CDs, and DVDs here in Orlando. My computer gives me access to Amazon Music, Prime Video, and my Steam library. So when I’m not working, I read, I listen, I watch, I play. I try to stay connected to the stories that shaped me—even if I’m doing it with a partial toolkit.

What I’m Reading

• The British Are Coming: The War for America – Lexington to Princeton, 1775–1777 by Rick Atkinson
• The Fate of the Day: The War for America – Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777–1780 by Rick Atkinson
• The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clark

What I’m Watching
With my favorite Blu-rays and DVDs still boxed up in Miami, my viewing habits have shifted. I can’t afford Disney+ anymore, so that door’s closed. I did pick up one new 4K Blu-ray last month—James Gunn’s Superman. It’s not Donner’s 1978 classic, but it’s a solid, heartfelt take on the Man of Steel. Better, at least, than Snyder’s version.
Beyond that, I dip into the DVDs I managed to bring with me. They’re not the ones I reach for first, but they’re here. And sometimes, that’s enough.

What I’m Listening To

• Kiri Sings Kern – Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, London Sinfonietta, conducted by Jonathan Tunick
• Romantic Moments with Mozart – London Symphony Orchestra
• James Galway Plays Mozart – Concertos K. 299, K. 376, and K. 296

What I’m Playing

• Sea Power: Naval Combat in the Missile Age – Currently immersed in the “Strike Back” scenario from the Jane’s Redux mod

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Even in this in-between season—between projects, between cities, between shelves—I’m still here, still working, still listening. And maybe that’s enough for now.