A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Marty, as depicted in Reunion: Coda on her graduation day in 1983   Marty as the Anti‑Cece: How a Character Was Born Every character has an origin story, and Marty’s is no exception. She didn’t arrive fully formed; she emerged from a long process of refinement, replacing an earlier, racier dream subject with someone emotionally fluent and real. Marty was created in 1998, but her roots stretch back to a fleeting encounter in April 1983, when I first noticed a classmate named Cecilia. Cecilia was gorgeous—striking in her presence, unforgettable in her heterochromia—but I only became aware of her late in our senior year. That timing mattered. Had I carried a multi‑year crush, it would have been a heavy burden for a shy guy like me. Instead, Cecilia remained a spark: a motif of beauty glimpsed too late to shape my teenage life, but just in time to shape my creative one. Marty, in many ways, became the anti‑Cece. Where Cecilia was absence—someone I barely knew, discovered at the t...

Audible Milestone: Six Units Sold One week after the Garratyverse stepped into audio, we’ve reached our first milestone: six units sold across Audible and Apple Books.  Comings and Goings leads with four copies, while Reunion: A Story adds two more. Three were direct purchases, one came through Apple Books , and two were redeemed with Audible credits. It may sound modest, but in the world of independent publishing, every unit matters. Each listener is a pioneer, experiencing Garraty’s journey in a new medium. And with no returns, the response so far has been encouraging. This milestone reminds me that audiobooks are not just products—they’re invitations. Six listeners have accepted that invitation, and I couldn’t be more grateful. The Garratyverse is finding its voice, one listener at a time.    

© 2025 Alex Diaz-Granados/ADG Books 📣 Audiobook Release Announcement: Reunion: A Story I’m delighted to share that Reunion: A Story: A Novella (The Reunion Duology Book 1) is now officially available on Audible and Amazon , with Apple Books availability coming in just a few days. Produced by Brandon Padilla , this audiobook has successfully passed ACX’s rigorous quality assurance reviews—cover design, metadata, and audio files—ensuring that narration, production, and technical standards all meet professional benchmarks. 📖 About the Story Reunion: A Story takes us back to June 1983 , where Jim Garraty is a senior at South Miami Senior High. A staff writer for the school paper and a college‑bound scholar with dreams of becoming a historian, Jim is well‑liked by peers and teachers alike. His future looks bright—except for one lingering matter of the heart. The girl he loves from afar, Marty, is also graduating. Rumor has it she’s leaving for the summer before...

© 2025 Alex Diaz-Granados    Comings and Goings – The Art of Being Seen A Jim Garraty Story | Now Available on Audible and Amazon Narrated by Bryan Haddock Written by Alex Diaz-Granados “A lovely tale of empathy.” – Denise Longrie, Amazon Reviewer In this quietly powerful companion to the Reunion Duology, Jim Garraty returns—not with fanfare, but with emotional fluency and the ache of being truly seen. Comings and Goings – The Art of Being Seen is a story about memory, connection, and the small gestures that shape a life. Now available as an audiobook, this intimate novelette is brought to life by Bryan Haddock’s warm, nuanced narration. Whether you’re revisiting Jim’s journey or discovering it for the first time, this is a story that invites you to pause, reflect, and feel. © 2025 Alex Diaz-Granados What Readers Are Saying “A lovely tale of empathy.” Denise Longrie’s review captures the heart of the story—a quiet, emotionally resonant explorati...

© 2025 Alex Diaz-Granados Waiting for My Own Words: The Emotional Lag of Print-on-Demand There’s a peculiar irony in being the author of a book and still having to wait—sometimes indefinitely—for a copy of your own work to arrive. Not a retail copy, mind you. Not something ordered by a stranger in Wisconsin who stumbled across your novel during a midnight scroll. No, I’m talking about an author’s copy. The kind Amazon prints on demand, ships at its leisure, and labels with the charmingly opaque tag: MOD Non-Retail. I ordered my updated hardcover edition of Reunion: Coda on September 20. As of this writing—October 14—it remains in the “Not Shipped” purgatory of my Amazon orders queue. Estimated arrival? Allegedly Sunday. But I’ve learned not to get emotionally attached to those dates. They’re more aspiration than promise. Now, I understand that author’s copies aren’t Amazon’s top priority. They don’t generate royalties. They don’t count toward sales metrics. They’re essentially the lit...

  This morning brought a small but welcome surprise: a modest uptick in my Kindle Direct Publishing royalties. Someone picked up a paperback copy of Save Me the Aisle Seat , my first self-published book—a collection of movie reviews originally written for the now-closed site Epinions. I’ve always had mixed feelings about that book. Of the four titles I’ve published, it’s the one I’m least fond of—not just because I rushed it out in 2012 so my mom could see it while she was still with us, but also because I believe it doesn’t measure up to my fiction work: Reunion: A Story , Reunion: Coda , and Comings and Goings – The Art of Being Seen . Many of the reviews weren’t edited as carefully as they should have been, and I gave away more plot points than I intended. Still, the introduction—written specifically for the book—feels true and heartfelt. That part came from a place of love. Sometimes I consider retiring Save Me the Aisle Seat , but I probably won’t. Despite its flaws, readers s...

  Not a Romance Novel: Why Emotional Truth Matters More Than Genre Readers often ask: Is Reunion: Coda a romance? The answer is more nuanced than a shelf label. Yes, there is love—aching, tentative, redemptive. But this isn’t a story built on tropes or tidy resolutions. It’s a novel with romance, not a romance novel. The difference is emotional gravity. Jim Garraty’s journey isn’t about finding “the one.” It’s about living with memory, navigating regret, and learning how to love without losing himself. Romance in the Garratyverse is never spectacle—it’s sanctuary. It’s the quiet miracle of being seen, of being accepted, of being allowed to feel without apology. In Reunion: Coda , love is complicated by life. By traffic. By missed calls. By the weight of history. And that’s what makes it real. This is a story for readers who crave emotional fluency over formula. Who find resonance in quiet moments, in letters never sent, in friendships that hold space when romance f...

A depiction of what Kelly Moore might look like. © 2025 Alex Diaz-Granados  I didn’t set out to write Leigh E. into Comings and Goings . Truthfully, I didn’t realize I had—until yesterday. Kelly Moore, as she lives on the page, was always her own person: emotionally fluent, quietly confident, and possessed of that rare wit that doesn’t clamor for attention—it simply belongs. But as I revisited a particular scene, something shifted. A flicker of recognition. The cadence of her voice, the way she occupies space without needing to claim it… these weren’t conjured. They were remembered. Leigh and I have been friends for over two decades. Southern, adventurous, whip-smart, and beautiful in that unassuming way that makes you feel lucky just to know her—she’s been a quiet constant in my life. I sent her a message, a little sheepish, with an excerpt from the book. She read it and replied, “LOL, yep, that’s me!” And just like that, fiction folded back into life. A few minutes later, she se...

  🧭 How to Read the Garratyverse: A Guide for New and Returning Readers There’s no single way to enter the Garratyverse. Like memory itself, the stories unfold in layers—sometimes linear, sometimes recursive, always emotionally true. Whether you’re new to the universe or returning to trace its quiet echoes, here are three pathways to explore the work. 📚 1. Publication Order Reunion: A Story → Reunion: Coda → Comings and Goings – The Art of Being Seen This path honors the evolution of the Garratyverse as it came into the world. You’ll witness the deepening of themes—love, regret, emotional sanctuary—and the growing fluency of its characters as they navigate the long arc of connection. Start here if you want to experience the universe as it was written—layer by layer, revelation by revelation. 🕰️ 2. In-Universe Chronological Order Reunion: A Story → Comings and Goings – The Art of Being Seen → Reunion: Coda This order follows the emotional timeline of the ...

  Fabio, Interrupted: Genre, Grief, and the Emotional Architecture of Reunion: Coda Some readers see a title like Reunion: Coda and expect a romance novel. Maybe they picture a windswept beach, a tearful embrace, or a shirtless man with flowing hair and a tragic backstory. I get it. I even leaned into the joke with a parody cover—Fabio in full glory, dramatically crossed out by the international symbol for “Prohibited.” But beneath the humor lies a serious point: Reunion: Coda isn’t a romance novel. It’s a story about memory, grief, male friendship, and the emotional consequences of reunion. A recent summary generated by Copilot in Word captured the heart of the book better than any genre label ever could. It described the narrative as a “richly detailed fictional exploration” of Jim Garraty’s life—from his high school years in South Miami to his adult career as a history professor in New York. It highlighted themes of love, loss, personal growth, and the enduring impact of ...

© 2025 Alex Diaz-Granados. Cover designed for the Kindle edition by Juan Carlos Hernandez   “Cassette Tape Years” For Jim, for Marty, for Maddie—echoes in two keys In corridors of sunlit youth, where voices trembled into song, a boy with history in his eyes loved a note too fragile to belong. The Winter Concert, velvet sound— a Schubert prayer, Ave Maria— he watched the solo fall like snow while silence held what words could be. A letter passed with trembling hands, final bells and summer haze— what he could not speak aloud hid in tape reels and school hallways. Seventeen years and northern skies, chalk and paper, wounded grace— the past returns in piano chords, her eyes: familiar, Marty’s face. Columbia’s towers weigh him down with echoes of Miguel’s despair, but Maddie’s hands across the keys remind him love still lingers there. And in the fire of hurt and fight, the scholar bleeds, the teacher bends— yet healing comes in quiet tones when letters ri...

© 2025 Alex Diaz-Granados   When a Reader Sees What You Meant to Say There are moments in a writer’s life that feel like exhaling after holding your breath for years. Reading Denise Longrie’s review of Comings and Goings was one of those moments. “The story is not a romance, but rather an enjoyable, insightful journey into empathy and the importance of human connection.” In that single sentence, Denise captured what I most hoped this story would communicate. Jim and Kelly’s conversation—quiet, non-performative, and deeply human—isn’t about flirtation or clever repartee. It’s about being seen. About recognition amid loneliness. And Denise saw that. She saw Jim’s discomfort, his tepid beer, his sense of invisibility. She noticed Kelly’s confidence—not as bravado, but as an invitation. She appreciated how music threads through their moment, not just as time-stamp nostalgia, but as emotional texture. Denise didn’t just read the story—she inhabited it. “Kelly listens and does...

 💫 Fragments of Time, Glimpses of the Heart 💫 Step into the world of Jim Garraty—a man whose quiet journey through memory, longing, and redemption has touched readers in ways both unexpected and familiar. Across three distinct stories, you'll find echoes of your own past, gently reshaped through fiction. 📖 Reunion: A Story takes you to a Florida high school in 1983, where Jim faces a silent moment of decision that will echo for decades. 📖 Reunion: Coda revisits him in 2000 as a professor confronting personal ghosts and revisiting old friendships. 📖 Comings and Goings – The Art of Being Seen explores fleeting connections in Boston during 1984, where simply being noticed can mean everything. These works aren’t just stories—they’re portraits of vulnerability, humanity, and the grace found in quiet reflection. Written with spare beauty and emotional depth, they speak to anyone who’s ever wondered about missed chances, forgiveness, and what remains after time has passed. Av...

  © 2025 Alex Diaz-Granados Writers yearn for resonance—that magical moment when a reader not only follows the story but genuinely feels it. Since Reunion: A Story made its debut in 2018, Thomas Wikman has been a thoughtful and discerning voice among those who've embraced Jim Garraty’s journey. His recent review of Reunion: Coda , titled “The Mystery of Life and Love,” is both a celebration and a deep dive into the emotional fabric of the Garratyverse. Thomas doesn't just compliment the narrative—he illuminates it. His reflections speak to the story’s careful navigation of time and emotion, drawing out the philosophical heart that lies beneath the prose. From the lingering sorrow of Martina to the gentler warmth of Maddie, he recognizes how love, memory, and resilience intertwine to shape the world Jim inhabits. His words resonate with truths that often remain unspoken: “Life is complicated and difficult, people will disappoint you… Life can be good but never perfect. We reco...

© 2025 Alex Diaz-Granados It’s funny how inspiration works. With Reunion: Coda —the novel I published less than three months ago—the idea took years to bloom. In fact, it first sparked back in 2000, when April, someone I never actually met, read the early manuscript of what eventually became Reunion: A Story . Maybe because I subconsciously associated the idea of a sequel with her, I didn’t begin writing Coda until 2023. That’s a 23-year gestation period. The final product? A novel over 500 pages long. But my latest book? It arrived almost by accident. The first nudge came from my friend Juan Carlos Hernández, who asked me a deceptively simple question: “What are you writing next?” I didn’t have a good answer. I was still knee-deep in promoting Coda , still recovering from the two-year marathon of writing it and from the whiplash of two cross-country moves in under a year. The truth was: I wasn’t ready to know what the Next Story was. Because once you know, you have to write it. Sti...

 Image by Vika_Glitter via Pixabay  A Companion Reflection for Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen Some moments imprint not because they’re perfect, but because they were true. Not rehearsed, not adorned—simply lived, and remembered. For Jim Garraty, that moment comes beneath the hush of moonlight, in a quiet room striped with silver shadow, beside a woman whose presence steadies more than it startles. It isn’t a scene about conquest or climax. It’s about presence . About the shyness of a first-time lover, the cataloguing habits of a historian, and the aching relief of being held in truth rather than judged in silence. Kelly sees him. Not through the lens of expectation, but through care. When he whispers, “I wish I’d been better at this,” she doesn’t dismiss or deflect. She listens. She stays close. And her reply— “Then it was perfect. You were kind. You were here. That’s what matters.” —becomes the emotional thesis of their entire connection. This wasn’t a ...

📚 For the ones who still turn pages... Here’s a clever little verse to echo the heartbeat of Comings and Goings —made just for those who know that sometimes, the best connections happen offline: For When the Battery Fades Or the Wi-Fi just won’t play nice... Boston, '84. A boy on the run From chatter and chaos, from everyone. A girl with eyes that didn’t flinch— A mixtape moment, inch by inch. Not swipes, not screens—just breath and beer, And Rachmaninoff floating near. He wasn’t looking, she wasn’t loud, But somehow, silence drew a crowd. A paperback tale for your favorite chair, For train rides, porch lights, anywhere. A story that listens, instead of insists— Of glances held and what love resists. Not first love. Not neat or clean. Just the grace of being truly seen. 🗓️ Out July 1 in paperback—because not every chapter needs a charger. Perfect for hands that miss the rustle of a page… or hearts that carry the weight of memory like a well-loved spine. =

  Comings, Goings, and the Wait in Between Friday afternoon in Miami. The clouds are hanging low, the air is heavy with summer’s humidity, and for once, there’s no thunder cracking in the distance. Mom would say St. Peter must be off his bowling game today. I’ve always taken her warnings to heart—no charging electronics when lightning’s involved. So, small blessings: just cloud cover, not chaos. In theory, I should feel pretty good. Earlier this week, Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen went live on Amazon—another piece of the Garraty puzzle, written almost on impulse and finished before the ink had time to dry on Reunion: Coda . It's not sprawling. It doesn't try to do too much. And maybe that’s what makes it one of the most focused and emotionally honest things I’ve written. If you've followed Jim's arc across the Reunion stories, you’ll recognize this as something smaller and quieter—a moment in 1984 that sets the tone for everything that comes after. It's...

  Because You Were Kind. Because You Were Here. Sometimes it’s not the grand gestures or the well-timed speeches that leave the deepest impressions. Sometimes it’s just being there —quietly, imperfectly, but fully present. There’s an illustrated quote making the rounds from Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen that reads: “Because you were kind. Because you were here. That’s what matters.” It’s simple. Unadorned. But it echoes—for good reason. In stories and in life, we often believe impact comes from fixing something. That if we say the perfect thing or perform the perfect act, we’ll finally make a difference. But presence—genuine, patient presence—is its own kind of grace. It doesn’t demand a spotlight. It doesn’t require resolution. It just offers a kind of quiet hope: that showing up for someone, even in their silence, can still mean everything. That’s the kind of love and kindness I’ve tried to explore in my work—not as a climax, but as a current. Not shouted, but...

  © 2025 Alex Diaz-Granados Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen wasn’t something I planned to write. It began, as many things do, with a memory—or the ghost of one. A fleeting moment tucked into Reunion: Coda , when Jim Garraty, now older and maybe wiser, walks across Columbia’s campus and thinks he sees her. Not a name, just a resemblance. Not certainty, just recognition. And for a second, 1984 floods back—along with a girl who poured him a Heineken and didn’t ask him to be anyone but who he was. “She has the same blonde hair and bright, inquisitive blue eyes as Kelly Moore, a girl I met at a freshman party at Harvard... The faint taste of the beer lingers in my memory, crisp and slightly bitter.” That was all it took. Kelly Moore—originally just a footnote in Jim’s emotional ledger—began to insist on more space. Her voice, her presence, the shape of that night refused to fade. Until finally, I stopped trying to treat it like a tangent. And wrote it as a story. ...