Category: Coral Estates Park (Miami-area Neighborhood)
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Semi-Whaaa? Or: America’s 250th Birthday is Almost Two Months Away…and I’m Not Excited About It
Sunday, April 26, 2026, Orlando, Florida It’s a sultry spring afternoon in Central Florida, the kind that makes you wonder if the air conditioner is working hard or hardly working. As I write, the sun’s out in full force, the temperature hovering at a balmy 83°F (29°C)—so bright and cheery that even the lizards seem…
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Sunshine, Semiquincentennials, and the Summer That Still Glows
Saturday, April 11, 2026 — Orlando, Florida Spring has settled over Central Florida with the confidence of someone who knows they look good in natural light. As I write this, it’s a sun‑washed 76°F (25°C), the kind of day where the breeze from the east‑northeast pretends it’s cooling you off while the humidity quietly bumps…
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On Writing and Storytelling: The Soft Heart I Spent Years Trying to Hide
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in Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Amazon Reviews, Amazon Spain (Amazon.es), Amazon UK, Casablanca (1942), Comings and Goings (Short Story), Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen, Coral Estates Park (Miami-area Neighborhood), Creative Writing, Family History, Life in Florida, Life in Miami (1972-2016), Life in South Florida, Life in the United States, Personal Thoughts, Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Reunion: Coda, Things I Miss, Writing as a CraftThe Soft Heart I Spent Years Trying to Hide Some people spend their lives pretending they’re not sentimental. I’m not one of them. To borrow the words of Captain Louis Renault, I freely admit I’m a rank sentimentalist—and unlike Rick Blaine from Casablanca, I don’t bother hiding it behind a mask of cynicism or put‑on…
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On Writing and Storytelling: When Jim Garraty First Realizes What His Heart’s Been Trying to Tell Him (Reunion: Coda)
When Jim Garraty First Realizes What His Heart’s Been Trying to Tell Him Long before Jim Garraty ever found the words for what he was feeling, there were moments—small, ordinary, almost forgettable to anyone else—that rearranged something inside him. This is one of the earliest. Not a confession, not a dramatic turning point, just a…
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From Typewriter Dreams to Storytelling Realities: A Writer’s Journey
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in Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Blogging, Books, College Life, Coral Estates Park (Miami-area Neighborhood), Creative Writing, Kindle, Kindle Create (Publishing App), Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Life in Florida, Life in Miami (1972-2016), Life in Miami….Again, Life in South Florida, Miami-Dade Community College, Miami-Dade Community College, Personal Thoughts, Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Reunion: Coda, South Miami High School in fiction, South Miami Senior High School, Writing a First Novel, Writing as a CraftLate Morming/Midday, Wednesday, June 18, 2025, Miami, Florida “But there’s a story behind everything. How a picture got on a wall. How a scar got on your face. Sometimes the stories are simple, and sometimes they are hard and heartbreaking. But behind all your stories is always your mother’s story, because hers is where yours…
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Tempus Fugit: Recalling the Early Summer of 1975
Afternoon, Sunday, June 8, 2025, Miami, Florida I was 12 in the summer of 1975. I can’t say I had a terrible childhood; I lived in a nice house in Westchester (an unincorporated neighborhood in the Greater Miami metro area) with my widowed mother; a house, needless to say, that had a more placid, stable…
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Tempus Fugit: The Seventh Day of the Sixth Month…and Summer Memories from 1975
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in Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Coral Estates Park (Miami-area Neighborhood), Creative Writing, Family History, Life in Florida, Life in Miami (1972-2016), Life in Miami….Again, Life in South Florida, Personal Thoughts, Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Reunion: Coda, Summer 1975, Summer 2025, Summer in Florida, Tempus fugit, Things I MissMidday/Early Afternoon, Saturday, June 7, 2025, Miami, Florida “The summer stretched out the daylight as if on a rack. Each moment was drawn out until its anatomy collapsed. Time broke down. The day progressed in an endless sequence of dead moments.” ― China Miéville, Perdido Street Station It’s the seventh day of June – and…
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Musings & Thoughts for Wednesday, November 15, 2023, or: The Boxing-Up of Things Continues…So Does Work on the Novel….
Late Morning/Midday, Wednesday, November 15, 2023, Lithia, Florida Hi, there, everyone. As I start writing this new entry, it is a mild late fall day in the Tampa Bay area. Right now the temperature outside is 76°F/25°C under light rain. Like yesterday, it’s a gloomy, gray-tinged day, and – also like yesterday – it’s going…
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Musings & Thoughts for Monday, November 13, 2023, or: Memories, Anniversaries, and Other Matters of the Heart
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in Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Cheryl T, Coral Estates Park (Miami-area Neighborhood), Coral Park Elementary School, Creative Writing, From Lithia (FL) to Madison (NH), Kindle, Kindle Create (Publishing App), Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Life in Florida, Life in South Florida, Life in the Tampa Bay area, Personal Thoughts, Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Reunion: CodaLate Morning/Midday, Monday, November 13, 2023, Lithia, Florida Greetings and salutations, folks. It’s a cool (77°F/25°C) late autumn morning on a humid and cloudy day in the Tampa Bay area. What little light filters through my closed Venetian blinds is dim and gray, so it’s not a gorgeous November morning here. The forecast for the…
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Musings & Thoughts for Tuesday, November 7, 2023, or: A Little Bit of This, a Little Bit of That
Late Morning, Tuesday, November 7, 2023, Lithia, Florida Hi, there, folks. Well, it’s another mild late autumn morning here in the Tampa Bay area. Outside, the temperature is 71°F/21°C under sunny skies. The forecast for today calls for mostly sunny skies and a high of 84°F/29°C. In sharp contrast, the place that I’m moving to…
A Certain Point of View, Too 