Tag: South Miami Senior High Chorus (Singing Cobras)
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On Writing and Storytelling: The Girl Who Wasn’t Real (But Felt Like She Was)
Writing stories that draw, even partially, from an author’s lived experience can be a bit of a double-edged sword: wonderfully useful on one side, faintly perilous on the other. Memory is generous that way. It offers texture, specificity, and the small, telling details writers spend ages trying to invent—but it also comes with baggage, assumptions,…
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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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Blending Personal History and Fiction: Jim Garraty’s Commencement (A Reunion: Coda Excerpt)
Forty-two years ago today, I sat in a sea of white robes at the Gibson Center, alphabetically wedged between beauty and blemishes, equal parts restless and terrified. Years later—during the depths of a snow-blanketed New England winter—I wrote this chapter of Reunion: Coda, channeling the bittersweet chaos of that June afternoon. Jim Garraty, ever the…
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Dear Reader, Let Me Tell You a Story…: Where Memories, Music, and Fiction Cross Paths
The Winter Concert: A Glimpse into ‘Reunion: Coda’ In various chapters of Reunion: Coda, I’ve sought to weave together echoes of my past and the vibrant, emotional textures of high school life. This particular excerpt comes from “The Winter Concert,” a chapter based on my memories of South Miami Senior High School in the early…
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Dear Reader, Let Me Tell You a Story…About the Characters and Settings in ‘Reunion’
Q: Is Reunion: A Story inspired by real people and events, or is it purely a product of imagination? A: It’s a mix of both. When I began crafting this story in the mid-1980s, the primary setting was always South Miami Senior High, my high school in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Even in its earliest form—a…
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Writer’s Shop Talk: Your Assignment for Today – Describe Emotions Without Using ‘Feelings’ or ‘Feel’
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Mrs. Quincy, a beloved music teacher, announces her acceptance of a position at The Juilliard School, marking her last day at South Miami High. The students react with shock and sorrow, as her news disrupts their plans for the upcoming Spring Concert. Emotions run deep as everyone grapples with her departure.
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Narrative Threads: A Conversation on Crafting the Reunion Duology, Part the Fourth
The Reunion Duology draws from real-life experiences, incorporating the author’s high school memories into the narrative. The character Jim Garraty is infused with the author’s personal history, from choral performances to romantic experiences, while some aspects diverge intentionally. The story reflects a blend of reality and artistic invention, providing a compelling narrative.
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Remembering Marty: A Ballad Based on ‘Reunion: A Story’ 2.0
There once was a boy named JimWho had a crush on MartyBut Marty had a boyfriendWho was jealous and quite snarky Jim sang with Marty in the choirAnd he felt a secret desireBut he never dared to show itFor he feared that Kenny’d blow it Marty dumped her boyfriend one dayAnd Jim thought he’d make…
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Edith Wharton’s ‘Echoes of the Past’ (Another Excerpt from Bing AI’s Wharton-Style Take on ‘Reunion’)
If you liked my earlier post, Edith Wharton’s ‘Echoes of the Past’ (‘Reunion’ Reimagined in Wharton’s Style by Bing AI), here’s an additional scene from Reunion as “reimagined” in the style of Edith Wharton by Microsoft’s OpenAI Bing chatbot. (That post also includes a detailed explanation of why I am using OpenAI to rewrite bits…
A Certain Point of View, Too 
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