Musings and Thoughts for Monday, August 31, 2026

Monday, August 31, 2026 – Orlando, Florida

Hi, folks.

Well, here we are on the last day of August, which is also the last day of meteorological summer. As I write this, it’s afternoon in my corner of Central Florida, and befitting the season, it’s cloudy, humid, and potentially stormy. I am not crazy about Florida’s extremely hot and sticky climate, but I can cope with it if I stay indoors and keep hydrated throughout the day.

I don’t have anything to tell, really. Writer’s block still has me in its atavistic grip, so I haven’t been able to start And the Horse You Rode in On. I’m not sure why writing is so difficult lately – even blogging has become more of a challenge than a fun warm-up to the business of Professional Daydreaming™. I used to come to my writing desk in the morning with a topic already in my mind and enthusiasm in my heart. Now, I often don’t start posting on WordPress till the early afternoon, and I struggle to choose the daily topic.

As I’ve said a few times already, I don’t know if I’m just exhausted after producing three books (Reunion: Coda, Comings and Goings – The Art of Being Seen, and The Jim Garraty Chronicles: A Life in Four Movements) in a relatively short time, or if I’m depressed after a series of emotional upheavals and three disruptive moves caused by those upheavals. I’m not a medical professional, but as a keen observer of human nature, I suppose it’s a combination of those two conditions.

That said, I take solace that I was able to write a novel, a novelette, and a bit of flash fiction (The Summer of Two Movies) between late March of 2023 and March of this year. Additionally, I was able to collect all of those Jim Garraty stories, as well as the original Reunion: A Story novella from 1998 and published them in the Jim Garraty Chronicles omnibus last month. I’m proud that I did that, even though I wish that sales would match the positive reviews my books have received since I released Reunion: Coda in April 2025.

Ah, well. This, too, shall pass.