A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

(Photo by the author) If you're a regular reader of A Certain Point of View, you might recall that I'm currently writing my first novel, Reunion: Coda, the second book in the duology that started with my novella, Reunion: A Story (2018, Kindle Create/CreateSpace Independent Publishing).  Just in case you are new to this space, though, here's the back cover summary of Reunion, plus an excerpt from my favorite scene in the novella:  It is June 1983. Jim Garraty is a senior at South Miami Senior High. He's a staff writer for the school paper, a college-bound scholar who plans to become a historian and author of books on military history. He's well-liked by his peers and teachers, and his future looks bright.  But as commencement draws near for the Class of 1983, Jim must deal with unfinished business. The girl he loves from afar is also graduating, and rumor has it that she is going away for the summer before starting college in the fall.  Worse still, Marty doesn'...

Image Credit: Pixabay  It’s early afternoon here in Lithia, Florida, on Saturday, June 3, 2023, almost two PM, really. It’s a warm (but getting hotter) early summer day in the Tampa Bay area (83 ° F/29 ° C under partly sunny skies). According to the forecast, today will be mostly cloudy, with a fair chance for light showers this afternoon, and the high will be 86 ° F/30 ° C. Well, if you’ve been reading my (sadly) infrequent posts on A Certain Point of View, you are doubtlessly aware that I’ve been working since late March on what apparently will be my first novel. As of today, I’m on the first draft of what, for now, has the working title of Reunion: Coda, which is – obviously – a continuation of my novella Reunion: A Story. The view from WriteItNow Depending on which program I get my stats from (WriteItNow or Microsoft Word) I have written 150 pages on the former and 90 pages in the latter. (And since I am looking at the “master document file” on Word, the figure from there i...

  “There’s a Place for Us”: South Miami Senior High School/Music Department Wing, Chorus Practice Room   I entered Room 136 shortly after the last school bell of the day – the “dismissal bell,” as it was officially called – rang at 2:30 in the afternoon. As always, the hallways in all three floors of South Miami High School’s yellow bunker-like building were full of 10 th , 11 th , and 12 th graders skedaddling from their sixth-period classes and, with the exception of those of us who participated in after-school activities and clubs such as yearbook production, the then-new Cobra Media Production club, basketball, baseball, and other spring term sports teams’ practices, and music students who needed to practice their instrument or singing, were eager to either go home or go to their first part-time jobs outside of school. For five, maybe 10 minutes, the hallways and staircases echoed with the sounds of (mostly) sneakered feet pounding on the floor and loud, cheerful teen...