On Writing and Storytelling: An Unexpected Boost in Sales!

Wednesday, August 26, 2026 – Orlando, Florida

Hi, everyone — and happy Wednesday from the land of iced drinks, sunscreen, and weather that still hasn’t gotten the memo about fall.

Well, folks, summer may be winding down on the calendar — meteorological fall begins on September 1 — but here in Central Florida, the weather is still clinging to August like it has a lease. As I write this in the early afternoon hours, the temperature is 92°F (33°C) under sunny skies. With humidity at 59% and the wind blowing from the south-southeast at 5 MPH (8 Km/H), the heat index is at 103°F (39°C). According to the forecast, we may get a bit of relief later today; scattered showers are expected to pop up in the area this afternoon. Today’s high is expected to reach 93°F (34°C).

Yesterday, I got a small but heartening report on my Kindle Direct Publishing account: an Amazon customer purchased the paperback edition of Save Me the Aisle Seat: The Good, the Bad and the Really Bad Movies: Selected Reviews by an Online Film Reviewer, my first foray into self-publishing. It was my fourth sale for August — not exactly yacht money, unless the yacht is inflatable — and since the MSRP is $10.99, my royalties for this month will likely be $15.81.

I don’t talk about Save Me the Aisle Seat much, even though it is the first book I assembled and placed on Amazon for your consideration. It began as a selection of movie reviews I’d written for the now-shuttered website Epinions, with a newly written introduction added because I wanted to publish something while my mother was still alive. Seen in that light, it’s not a bad little book. The six reviews on Amazon are all positive, and its average rating is 4.7 stars, so readers do seem to like Save Me the Aisle Seat.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the movie reviews in “Save Me the Aisle Seat” Instead of the oft-times terse movie reviews written by more well-known reviewers, Diaz-Granados offers a more laid-back experience while remaining on point throughout. If you enjoy movies and are interested in what others’ experiences have been in the viewing of them, I heartily recommend this book. – Deborah L. Jones, Amazon Review (June 8, 2017)

I have a soft spot for the book, too — partly because I still like the introduction (the best part of Save Me the Aisle Seat, in my not-so-humble opinion), and partly because it’s the only title I published before Mom died in 2015. That gives it a place on the shelf that has less to do with polish and more to do with memory.

That said, I don’t promote it with much enthusiasm these days. Aside from the introduction, there’s not much in it that makes me want to grab strangers by the lapels and say, “You must read this.” If you leaf through its 114 pages, you’ll see a book that was well-intended but put together too hastily. If I hadn’t been racing the clock — or, more accurately, racing my mother’s declining health — I might have taken more time to edit the reviews in Save Me the Aisle Seat with greater care and self-discipline. As a result, the writing was sometimes witty but often too verbose, with an occasional detour into the self-indulgent and pretentious.

I have never considered taking Save Me the Aisle Seat out of publication, and I don’t pretend it doesn’t exist. It’s part of the record, warts, movie quotes, and all. But, honestly, I’d rather steer readers to my Jim Garraty Chronicles series. I did a better job writing and editing Reunion, Reunion: Coda, and Comings and Goings – The Art of Being Seen, and I believe the finished books show the patience, effort, and care I put into them.

Still, I’m glad that someone, somewhere in the United States, decided to buy a copy of my first book. It may not be my best title, but it was my first brave little paper boat pushed out into the publishing stream — and yesterday, at least, someone picked it up.