Wednesday, October 7, 2026 – Orlando, Florida
Hi there.
It’s another rainy day here in Central Florida — the kind of steady, all‑day drizzle that makes you wonder if the Sunshine State misplaced its branding guide. While the rest of the country is out there enjoying crisp air and pumpkin‑spice‑everything, we’re still stuck in the Wet Season Encore. As I write this, the sky has been a uniform shade of “don’t even bother” since 7 AM. Normally I wander out around 11:30 to check the curbside mailbox for bills, flyers, and the occasional coupon I’ll never use, but today I’m waiting for the rain to take a coffee break before I venture outside.
After lunch, I’ll be diving back into the rewrite of And the Horse You Rode in On’s first chapter. Yesterday’s progress was… let’s call it “artfully minimal.” Rainy weather has a way of flattening the mood, and when your job is to mentally teleport to September 1975 and inhabit the brain of an elementary school kid, you need a certain spark — a mix of energy, optimism, and just enough whimsy to remember what it felt like when recess was the highlight of your professional life.
This chapter is basically Episode I of the Jim Garraty Chronicles, where Jim meets Mark Prieto at South Miami Elementary — not during summer break, as I mistakenly wrote in the first draft. (Apparently even my imagination occasionally forgets to check the school calendar.) And to get it right, I have to travel back to the Land of Ago with a clear head and a cooperative mood. Creativity, after all, is a bit like weather: sunny days make it easier to dream, while gray skies tend to sit on your imagination like a wet towel.
October doesn’t help. Both of my parents had birthdays this month — Dad on the 9th, Mom on the 17th — and that annual emotional undertow always tugs at me. It doesn’t depress me, exactly, but it does dim the lights a little, and writing requires brightness, even if only the internal kind.
Still, there are bright spots. My 11th‑grade English teacher recently read The Summer of Two Movies, the fourth story in the omnibus, and she told me it was well‑written — that I’m good at characterization and evoking the era. Coming from someone who lived through the era and raised a Star Wars fan, that meant something. She especially liked how Jim, originally more captivated by A Bridge Too Far, gradually fell under the spell of George Lucas and John Williams. (Honestly, who didn’t in 1977?) Moments like that remind me that even when the creative engine sputters, it still runs.
So yes, I’m hoping to get some editing done before my self‑appointed 4:30 PM quitting time. And maybe today won’t require a miracle — maybe just a break in the clouds, a decent cup of coffee, and the willingness to let Jim tug me back into his world. He’s patient. He’s been waiting since 1975, after all.
And if the rain keeps falling? Well, at least it’s good weather for staying indoors and writing — or trying to, anyway.
Share your thoughts with the world!