Tag: life
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Summer Heat, a Mentor’s Passing, and a Memento Mori
Saturday, June 27, 2026 – Orlando, Florida It is brutally hot outside. According to my Microsoft Weather app, the temperature here in my corner of Orange County is already 91°F (33°C) under partly sunny skies. The humidity is 56%, the wind is barely stirring out of the east-southeast at 4 MPH (7 Km/H), and the…
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Remembrance: Elizabeth Joan Owen: September 8, 1929 – December 28, 2025
Friday, June 26, 2026 — Orlando, Florida “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” — William Arthur Ward Ms. Owen was my mentor. She was special — an amazing chorus director and someone I always wondered about long after graduation. I am saddened to hear of…
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Excerpt from ‘Comings and Goings – The Art of Being Seen’: An Unexpected (and Fateful) Escape from a Bad Party
An Excerpt from Comings and Goings – The Art of Being Seen Boston, 1984. A party Jim Garraty never wanted to attend. A girl who didn’t look away. A night stitched together by mixtapes, quiet courage, and the ache of choosing to stay. Jim isn’t chasing romance—he’s just trying to outrun the noise. But when…
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On Writing and Storytelling: The Comfort of Lasagna, the Weight of Goodbye
By the time I began writing Reunion: Coda in the spring of 2023, I was facing an uncomfortable truth: this was my third attempt to write a novel since 2015 and my fourth attempt overall. Each previous project had stalled out somewhere between ambition and exhaustion. I knew I couldn’t afford to abandon another one.…
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The Last Afterschool Walk Home – June 15, 1983 (An Excerpt from ‘Reunion: Coda)
This vignette is the third movement in the four‑part Prologue of Reunion: Coda. The Prologue begins with Jim’s wry rejection of clichés, then shifts into his candid admission of why he never pursued Marty in high school. This passage picks up only minutes after the final 1983 scene of Reunion: A Story, following Jim and…
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On Writing and Storytelling: Why Brahms’ Poco Allegretto Has Become Jim’s ‘Letter Music’ for Me
Wednesday, June 15, 1983 My dearest Martina, I’m not sure if I am doing the right thing by telling you this now, or if I should tell you this at all. I wish I had the answers. I can’t believe our three years at SMSH have come to an end. It seems as though only…
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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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The Omnibus Pauses, the PC Ships
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in Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen, Computers, Creative Writing, Florida Weather, Kindle Create (Publishing App), Lenovo – IdeaPad S340 15″ Touch-Screen Laptop, Lenovo C560 All-in-One PC, Lenovo IdeaCentre (PC), Life in Florida, Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Spring 2026, Spring in Florida, The Jim Garraty Chronicles, The Summer of Two MoviesWednesday, April 15, 2026, Orlando, Florida Hi there, and welcome to the midweek edition of A Certain Point of View, Too. It’s late morning here in Central Florida, and spring is doing its best impression of early summer. The temperature sits at 77˚F (25˚C) under mostly sunny skies, with 52% humidity and a gentle east-southeast…
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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: When the Spark Won’t Catch
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in ACX, Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Amazon Spain (Amazon.es), Amazon UK, Audible, Audiobooks, Books, Brandon Padilla, Bryan Haddock, Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen, Creative Writing, Florida Weather, Garratyverse, Kindle, Kindle Create (Publishing App), Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Life in Central Florida, Life in Florida, Life in the United States, Personal Thoughts, Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Reunion: Coda, Spring 2026, Spring in Florida, Stefan (Steve) Lee, The Jim Garraty Chronicles, The Summer of Two MoviesTuesday, April 7, 2026, Orlando, Florida It’s a gray, sodden spring day in Central Florida, the kind that feels more like November than April. As I write this, it’s just shy of noon. The temperature sits at 66°F (19°C), a light rain drifting across the neighborhood like a half-hearted curtain. The forecast promises more of…
A Certain Point of View, Too 