Tag: Jim Garraty
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On Writing and Storytelling: Welcome to the Garratyverse
✨ On the Gentle Art of Being Seen: Reflections from the Garratyverse Sometimes the most powerful storytelling happens in the spaces between—between memory and longing, silence and revelation, thunder and comfort.That’s where Jim Garraty lives.That’s where these stories found their readers. Here’s what they’ve seen in him—and in the stories he carries. 🖋️ Reunion: A…
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12 Months of Change: A Writer’s Reflection on Life and Publication
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in Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Books, Comings and Goings (Short Story), Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen, Creative Writing, Kindle, Kindle Create (Publishing App), Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Life in Florida, Life in Madison (NH), Life in Miami….Again, Life in New Hampshire (December 2023 – October 2024), Life in South Florida, Life in the Tampa Bay area, Life in the United States, Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Reunion: Coda, UncategorizedMidday / Early Afternoon, Tuesday, July 1, 2025 – Miami, Florida“Time is passing: not leaden steppingBut sprinting on winged feet,Quick silver slipping by.” — Richard L. Ratliff It’s difficult to grasp, here on this sweltering South Florida afternoon, that another July has arrived. A year ago, my life looked completely different—geographically, emotionally, and in terms…
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The Echo of a Smile: Memory, Maria, and the Garratyverse
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in Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Blogging, Books, College Life, Comings and Goings (Short Story), Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen, Creative Writing, Films by Steven Spielberg, Garratyverse, Kindle, Kindle Create (Publishing App), Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Life in Florida, Life in Miami (1972-2016), Miami-Dade Community College, Movies, Personal Thoughts, Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Reunion: Coda, West Side Story (1961 Film), West Side Story (1961), West Side Story (2021)Long before Jim Garraty stood on the curb in Somerville, watching a Corolla disappear into the quiet, there was a boy sitting in a sunlit classroom, speechless at the sound of someone saying “Hi.” I wrote about Maria in Catalyst back in 1987. She was radiant, kind, and achingly real. We shared benches between buildings…
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Jim’s Journal: A Stray Memory
February 12, 1990 It’s funny—the older I get, the more the loud nights fade, and it’s the quiet ones that stay. Not the parties, not the noise, but the silences that followed a shared laugh, the hush of a record spinning in a stranger’s apartment, the whisper of someone else’s heartbeat beside my own. I…
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“Because You Were Kind. Because You Were Here.”: Why Presence Speaks Louder Than Resolution
“Because You Were Kind. Because You Were Here.”: Why Presence Speaks Louder Than Resolution There are moments in life when we think words will fix things. That if we can only say the perfect thing, take the perfect action, explain ourselves clearly enough, everything will shift. Stories often chase that kind of transformation—the big gesture,…
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“Some Loves Don’t Ask” (Inspired by ‘Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen’)
The Boy She Loved for One Night She’s older now—not by much,but enough that the pastfeels more like a country she leftthan one she was exiled from. At a shelf she wasn’t seeking,his name appears—spine out, serifed,tucked between authors she almost recognizes.Garraty. A flicker.A room.A song dressed in Beethoven’s longing.A voice that whispered “Can I?”And…
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On Borrowed Light: Shifting Perspectives as a Storyteller
On Borrowed Light: A Note from the Author In most of my stories within the Garratyverse, Jim Garraty holds the narrative reins. We share a lens—male, introspective, fumbling toward clarity—and over time, that alignment has become both natural and intuitive. Writing from Jim’s point of view is like tuning an old, familiar radio: I know…
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Ten Reasons to Visit the Garratyverse
A World of Memory, Music, and Moments That Matter There’s a place between what was and what might have been—a world shaped not by grand gestures, but by silences, missed chances, and the echo of melodies we carry for years. Welcome to the Garratyverse. Spanning the tender novella Reunion: A Story and its deeply introspective…
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On Writing and Storytelling – Writing Exercise: My First Steamy Scene for a Mainstream Novel
Midday/Early Afternoon, Wednesday, August 14, 2024, Madison, New Hampshire Hey everyone. Had a pretty rough night with sleep, kept waking up—first at 3:30 AM, then around 5 AM, and again at 9:15 AM. So, I’m running late today, feeling exhausted, and not really sure how the day’s gonna turn out. I don’t have any good…