Leonberger Life

Most of the posts I make on my Leonberger Life blog are related to Leonberger dogs, including our own departed Leonberger Bronco. However, I also post about non-Leonberger related topics such as book reviews and my personal interests. Today’s post is a very interesting interview with an author who is also an on-line friend of mine, Alex Diaz-Granados. I read one of his books, a novella with the title Reunion: A Story. I loved that book and you can read my review for it here and my cover reveal for it here and my post about the revised version here.

The way we conducted the interview was that I asked Alex questions (by email) and he sent me back an email with the answers. Now let’s dive into the interview with Alex.

Thomas:
Welcome to my Leonberger Life Blog, Alex. I enjoyed reading your novella, “Reunion: A Story”. It’s a captivating tale about a love that never materialized. Jim Garraty, a successful history professor, has to face the reality of losing Marty, his love interest, due to his insecurities and career ambitions. From what I gather, your next book also follows Jim Garraty and his romantic life. You call both works the “Reunion Duology.” Why is that?

Alex:
Thanks for having me on your blog, Thomas! So, yeah, my novel is a follow-up to Reunion: A Story. In the Present Day parts of Reunion: Coda, Jim Garraty falls head over heels in love again. Plus, his third book, which delves into Operation Market-Garden of A Bridge Too Far fame, is out, and he’s still teaching history at Columbia University. Hopefully, it’ll show how much he’s grown and moved forward since we last caught up with him in 1998 in Miami.

I refer to Reunion: A Story and Reunion: Coda collectively as the Reunion Duology, similar to how Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi were once known as the Star Wars Trilogy. These two works are intricately linked and together they narrate a single story. I don’t plan to expand this into a longer series, so for me, the novella and the novel constitute the Reunion Duology.

Thomas:
Could you share some details about your new book, without giving away any spoilers? How does this new book differ from your novella?

Alex:
It’s definitely longer, that’s for sure. When you leave out the front and back sections of Reunion: A Story, it’s just 49 pages and can be read in one go. But the unfinished manuscript for Reunion: Coda is a whopping 463 pages, title page included. I haven’t even added the contents, dedication, foreword, author bio, or reviews yet, let alone finished the story. So, unless you’re an insanely fast reader who can breeze through a Stephen King novel in under a week, this one’s gonna take you much longer.

What’s different about the novel? Well, I got to make the story bigger and not just longer. If you take out the “frame story” from Reunion and only look at Jim and Marty’s main story, it all happens in a few hours on Jim Garraty’s last day of school. That’s actually how I first wrote it; the Present Day scenes were added at the very last minute when I did the novella’s draft 26 years ago.

The story now stretches across longer periods in both the high school and early 2000s chapters, and it’s set in South Florida, New York, and London. Besides bringing back Jim, Marty Reynaud, and Mark Prieto (the main three from Reunion), it also introduces Maddie, a gifted – though at first mysterious – concert pianist who Jim ends up falling for.

I hope readers notice that the novel feels lighter in tone for most of it, even though the scenes with Jim and Marty – especially those from their senior year in 1983 – are pretty touching. They have to be because as much as the novel lightens up Reunion’s more somber feel, it needs to stay true to what came before.

Thomas:
Does your new book continue from Reunion: A Story? Can it be understood without reading your novella first?

Alex:
You could jump straight into Reunion: Coda without touching the novella, but you’d lose a lot of the subtleties in Jim’s character development. His profound love for Marty and the weight of his last-minute confession are pivotal. There’s a crucial scene in the novella that ties the entire Duology together. Although I hint at it through Jim’s memories of their final day at school, I don’t retell it word-for-word. Whether you decide to get both books is entirely up to you. Still, bypassing the novella would mean missing out on essential layers of the story.

Thomas:
From your blog, it looks like you’ve decided to call your new book “Reunion: Coda.” Is that right? If so, what led to this choice?

Alex:
Unlike Reunion: A Story, which was previously called “Love Unspoken, Love Unbroken” after a song from Lehar’s operetta The Merry Widow, this novel has had its title set in stone since day one. So why did I go with Reunion: Coda?

In music, a coda (which means “tail” in Italian) is the bit that wraps up a larger piece. It can also be the closing or bonus part of a speech, social gathering, or even an article.

Honestly, I didn’t put much thought into naming it Reunion: Coda. The idea came from watching The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone on Blu-ray around the time I started my novel in March 2023. It was meant to be just a temporary title until I thought of something better. But as the novel evolved, and I saw how music influenced many characters’ lives (like Jim and Marty meeting in Mrs. Quincy’s choral class, or Jim and Maddie meeting at a nightclub with a WWII/Big Band theme), I decided to stick with it. It fits the theme perfectly, and on top of that, it just sounds nice.

Thomas:
Why did you choose your main character Jim Garraty to be a history professor?

Alex:
Thomas, have you ever heard the saying, “Write what you know?” I mentioned before that I wrote the story of Jim, Mark, and Marty in the 1980s as part of my experiment with fiction writing in 1998. This was 11 years after I took a creative writing course at Miami-Dade Community College, but I didn’t pursue it further because I was afraid of failing and the whole process of getting published with a literary agent through big publishing houses intimidated me. Originally, it wasn’t even called Reunion: A Story; the dream sequence in “Journey’s End” started as a writing exercise for that CRW 2001 class back in 1987. The subject of the dream also changed from a steamy fantasy Jim has to something more romantic and meaningful, which led to creating a new character — that’s how Marty came into the picture.

Once I rewrote the dream sequence, I realized it could be developed into a longer piece, not quite a novel but either a short story or a novella. The tricky part was figuring out why this dream mattered so much to Jim on his last day of high school and why readers should care about the characters, especially Jim.

When I finished the core story on the second day of my fiction-writing experiment, I felt it was complete and almost put it away in an old folder with my CRW 2001 assignments. I had no plans to publish “Love Unspoken, Love Unbroken”; it was just a personal test to see if I could write fiction.

Then I listened to Billy Joel’s “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” and felt like my “Ballad of Jim and Marty” was unfinished. Inspired by the song, I added an elegaic frame story set in the present day (1998) with scenes serving as an intro and outro.

Creating the grown-up version of Jim Garraty was challenging. While giving him many of my own teenage experiences and traits, I didn’t want him to be a direct representation of myself. Looking back 15 years after high school, the biggest accomplishments I had were making Dean’s List, earning an Honors scholarship, moving up from staff writer to managing editor of the campus newspaper, and then dropping out due to a learning disability.

When I gave Jim my passion for military history, especially World War II, I figured he could either become a career military officer or a history professor. I knew a few officers but couldn’t reach out to them for interviews and didn’t want to rely solely on books for his character. On the other hand, I spent a lot of time with my professors at Miami-Dade, more than the average student on South Campus. So, I followed the “Write What You Know” advice, and Jim Garraty became a history professor initially at a prestigious but unnamed university in New York City (Reunion: A Story), which is later revealed in the novel to be Columbia University. 

Thomas:
Given your passion for history, could you share how this interest has shaped the character development of Jim Garraty?

Alex:
Crafting fictional characters can be quite a task, particularly for those new to the world of writing fiction. It’s common for novices, myself included, to envision themselves as their story’s main character. This tendency explains why many debut novels are written in the first person or revolve around a central figure, much like Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Ian Fleming’s James Bond, or Scout Finch in Harper Lee’s classic To Kill a Mockingbird.

To give you a complete answer, Thomas, I should go back a bit. My fascination with history began at six years old in 1969. As family lore has it, I learned to read before turning two, while my father was still alive. Consequently, I devoured books beyond my age range and had the freedom to read nearly everything – except for stories with too much adult content. My early interest in war-themed shows on Colombian TV, such as Twelve O’Clock High and Combat dubbed in Spanish, naturally led me to read translated excerpts of Cornelius Ryan’s The Longest Day. I found these in an old issue of Reader’s Digest, Colombian edition, at my grandparents’ home in Bogota.

Since then, I’ve read tons of non-fiction books and watched loads of history documentaries. Most of them are about World War II, but I’ve broadened my scope to include wars from different periods, like the American and Spanish civil wars, World War I, Korea, Vietnam, the Falklands/Malvinas war of 1982 (which coincided with the end of my junior year in high school), as well as the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I’ve also delved into other significant events, such as the Apollo moon landings, Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, the Cold War, America’s Westward expansion, and the explorations by European “discoverers.” I took so many history courses at Miami-Dade that it felt like I nearly double majored in history along with journalism/mass communications.

To give Jim Garraty a realistic career that I could write about without stressing over accuracy, I made him a college professor. If I wanted to make him more like me, I would’ve written him as a newspaper reporter or editor since I have some experience there, at least at the high school and college level. But I purposely chose not to.

Thomas:
How does the timeline in Reunion: Coda differ from that in Reunion: A Story?

Alex:
Thematically, the timeline in both halves of the Reunion Duology is the same. I use the same style in Reunion: Coda that I established in Reunion: A Story – the Present Day events are told from Jim’s perspective, in the present tense, while events that take place between January of 1981 (the second semester of Jim, Mark, and Marty’s sophomore year) to Commencement Day 1983 are in the past tense. That didn’t change from book to book.

Structurally, there is a bit of divergence because I chose to not tell the story in strictly chronological order. Instead, the story alternates between Jim’s experiences in early 2000 (a time when Texas Governor George W. Bush was striving for his party’s nomination as its Presidential candidate) and most of his time at South Miami High School, with 10th grade in media res.

Of course, once Jim, Mark, and Marty graduate from high school, the remainder of Reunion: Coda focuses on Jim and Maddie’s budding relationship, with some of its ups and downs, including a career-related separation in early March of 2000.

Another aspect of the novel I want to highlight. I imagine the Duology as a literary triptych, with Reunion: A Story serving as the central panel and Reunion Coda framing it on either side. That’s why, Thomas, skipping the novella just because it lacks a Happily Ever After is not advisable. On its own, Reunion: A Story presents itself as a bittersweet tale that challenges romantic clichés. My intention was never to produce a run-of-the-mill romance, which is why I chose not to wrap it up with a HEA ending. My goal was to evoke a genuine emotional reaction to Jim’s decisions and their ramifications, rather than offering a sweet but disingenuous conclusion.

As I embarked on extending Jim Garraty’s tale in the novel, I resolved to offer my alter ego a renewed opportunity for love and, hopefully, a more gratifying narrative with fewer dramatic upheavals than the initial part of the Duology. During a period when my life had taken an unforeseen downturn, it seemed only fitting that Jim should receive the romantic reprieve that fate had withheld from me.

Thomas:
What inspired you to write your new book?

On March 5, 2023, which was my 60th birthday, I got an email in my WordPress inbox from Peter Townsend, my old college journalism professor. He’s retired now but still keeps tabs on his students’ careers. I might be one of his less successful mentees, but thanks to my online presence, including my Amazon reviews and blogs, he found out I’ve self-published two books – a collection of selected movie reviews from Epinions and Reunion: A Story. Professor T, as we called him, bought the novella and liked it, even though it needed some tweaks. This is why I revised Reunion several times throughout 2023. Professor T was like a father figure to me during college, and that led to some of my best experiences, like journalism trips to New York, a study-abroad semester in Spain in 1988, and advancing from staff writer to managing editor of the campus newspaper. 

In a follow-up email, T strongly urged me not to squander my talent and to keep pursuing fiction writing. I had been his student throughout most of my time at Miami-Dade, and even nearly 40 years after our initial encounter as professor and student, his opinion still holds much more significance to me than anyone else’s perspectives. 

Alright, so you know why I was motivated to write a book, but that doesn’t explain why I chose to write this particular one. Like I said earlier, before 2023 I saw Reunion: A Story as a standalone tale, where one character’s destiny couldn’t change—unless I switched to horror or fantasy genres, which I didn’t want to do. So even though some fans asked for a sequel with Jim and Marty—one Amazon reviewer even suggested retelling Reunion from Marty’s viewpoint—I always replied, “Nope, can’t do that. Sorry.”

In the past, I’ve tried dabbling in other genres, like historical fiction set in different real or alternate periods. I once planned a tough and realistic story about a newbie GI right out of boot camp thrown into the battle of Normandy in 1944; I wrote three lousy chapters of The Tonic of their Victory before quitting. I also started looking into Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of Japan that got called off after Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Soviet Union joined the Pacific War in August 1945. I bought three solid books on that topic, but I realized I needed more novel-writing practice before stepping into what Harry Turtledove does so well.

Eventually, I concluded that if I wanted to write a novel that I would not abandon even before I wrote an opening line, I only had one option: to step back into the world of James Kevin Garraty and – without radically changing the established lore of Reunion: A Story – explore his life both before and after the events of the novella. 

Thomas:
You’ve mentioned in your blog that music is a huge deal in the Reunion Duology. Can you explain why that is?

Alex:
Back in ninth grade, when we were diving into the world of novels in English 1 at Riviera Junior High School, Ms. Allen tasked us with crafting our own “novel” of at least 20 pages that adhered to the traditional storytelling arc, from “rising action” all the way to “denouement.” Being a die-hard Star Wars enthusiast both then and now, I couldn’t resist writing a classic “space war” tale. My story was set in a dystopian future, featuring a clash between exiled Americans—right out of a cheesy World War II meets Cold War flick—and faceless Soviet villains battling across the cosmos to free Earth from an oppressive Evil Empire.

I got the best grade in the class, even though my 61-year-old self doesn’t think my junior high work was anything Stephen King, Alan Dean Foster, or Tom Clancy would envy. But for a ninth-grader, Hypercraft One: The Sound of Armageddon wasn’t bad. I was lucky to have a neighbor with top-notch typing skills and a kind heart, so my “novel” ended up being neatly typed and – believe it or not – 40 pages long. Plus, it fit perfectly with the structure Ms. Allen wanted. So, I scored an A+ after getting top marks in spelling, grammar, punctuation, originality, and turning it in on time.

I bring up this seemingly random fact because when I was writing Hypercraft One, I got hooked on playing instrumental music. Back in 1980, it was vinyl LPs or eight-track tapes, but now it’s CDs or digital albums. I’d use it as background noise or a source of inspiration. While writing Hypercraft One, I’d listen to John Williams’ scores from Superman: The Movie and Star Wars to dive into the cheesy sci-fi universe my ninth-grade self was imagining.

It might seem off-track, but that’s why I think music plays a huge role in the Reunion Duology. It set the pattern for the way I approach not just the content I create but also how I write it.

Thomas, as you know from reading Reunion several times, Jim and Marty meet when they both join South Miami High’s choral department; Jim enrolls in the men’s chorus while Marty joins the women’s ensemble since they are new students. They do not end up in Mrs. Quincy’s Mixed Chorus, Regular until their junior year. Therefore, within the story, it is music that facilitates any significant interaction between Jim and Marty. This is evident in Reunion: A Story and even more so in Reunion: Coda.

In real-world terms, music not only inspired but also shaped the narrative. For instance, I chose the name of the Moonglow Club, a World War II/Big Band Era-themed nightclub in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where Jim first meets Maddie, from a 1930s song popularized by Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman. The first dance between Jim and Maddie features Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields’ “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.” Additionally, Reunion: Coda’s high school flashbacks include songs performed by Jim, Marty, and other students in Mrs. Quincy’s concerts, though due to the high cost of obtaining permission to quote lyrics, I could only name the songs still under U.S. copyright. Any lyrics featured in the novel are either in the public domain or written by me (refer to my post about “Boy of Harvard” for more details).  

Thomas:
What has been the most rewarding feedback you’ve received from readers of your novella?

Alex:
I’m really thankful for all the reviews Reunion: A Story has gotten over the six years since I first self-published my imperfect version with CreateSpace Independent Publishing. Even though some readers had a few critiques and rated the novella lower, all feedback has been positive. An average rating of 4.8 stars is pretty awesome for an indie author. Out of the 16 reviews on Amazon, of which I find the most gratifying (yours included, obviously), here are a few standouts:

Meg Learner (Amazon/United Kingdom):

A lovely lyrical book and excellently written. It makes use of flashbacks, yet these are expertly woven into the story so that you always know where you are and how they contribute to the tale. This is quite a short read (I downloaded it to my Kindle and read it on my train journey) but it certainly packs a lot into the story and the idea is fresh and novel. I have not read a story like this before. It’s not my normal type of reading material, as most of my reading these days is factual or business-related related but I really enjoyed it and was sorry when it was finished.

Pooja (P.J.) Gudka (Amazon/Canada):

The plot was what drew me to the story. I’m not usually drawn to romance novels or anything particular romantic. But the summary for this book really drew me in because it’s something most of us can relate to- lost love. We all have “the one that got away.” Well, most of us anyway. Also, as a historian myself I loved that Garraty’s character was a historian and was intrigued by that.

The author also explores multiple philosophical aspects of life such as true love, happiness, friendships, loss and regret. Things most adults are familiar with. We also learn the importance of confessing our feelings when we have the chance because life is so incredibly unpredictable.

The characters were relatable, emotion evoking, thoughtful and I loved that the characters grew and evolved. Overall, I very much enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it.

Denise Longrie (Amazon/United States):

Jim Garraty’s dream of becoming a history professor at a prestigious university has come true. He has some well-regarded publications under his belt and is working on the next one.

However, he’s still hurting from his recent divorce. And then comes the phone call from his old high school pal. Marty—the girl he loved back in the day—has died in a car crash. One of Jim’s greatest regrets is that he never told Marty he cared for her. Would romance have come of it? Or even friendship? It’s too late to know now.

Jim’s story is told in a series of flashbacks and returns to the present. The reader follows him through the last few days of high school when he had the chance to speak to Marty— but didn’t.

It’s a lyrical tale of regret for chances not taken, told in dreams and memories. It speaks to anyone who has been to high school and anyone who remembers the one who got away.

This pleasant, if bittersweet, novella is short enough to read in one sitting.

Thomas:
Are there any particular writers who have influenced your work or whom you admire?

The writers I really admire (though they don’t influence my style) are historians like Cornelius Ryan, John Toland, Stephen Ambrose (who inspired Jim Garraty and gets compared to him a lot), Rick Atkinson, and Mark Bowden. If I decided to add excerpts from Jim’s writings on World War II or other 20th-century wars in my novel, his style would probably be influenced by Ambrose, Ryan, or Atkinson. I don’t plan to do that, but since the book isn’t finished yet, there’s a tiny chance I might if it fits the story.

When it comes to fiction, I have tons of favorite authors, but my top picks include Stephen King, Tom Clancy, Harper Lee, Carl Hiaasen, Dave Barry, Douglas Adams, James Luceno, Timothy Zahn, David Gerrold, and Harry Turtledove (we chat on Twitter a lot). And of course, Ernest Hemingway, who casts a long shadow over many American male fiction writers. Style-wise, my writing is kind of like Stephen King’s, but without all the horror and supernatural stuff.

Thomas:
What message or experience do you want readers to take away from the Reunion Duology?

Unlike Ms. Allen and most English teachers who make students write essays on “What message is John Steinbeck trying to convey in The Grapes of Wrath (besides the fact that the Great Depression was terrible and it’s rough being poor in America)?” I don’t believe every novelist consciously aims to send a message for readers to ponder about themes or social issues. Sure, on some level, we authors create stories reflecting human needs and desires, exploring our religious, philosophical, and political beliefs, or looking at life stages from birth to death.

When I first drafted Reunion: A Story almost 26 years ago, I wasn’t pondering big themes like bright teenagers making bad choices—like not telling their crush how they feel and then regretting it. I was just, on the surface, seeing if I could use what I’d learned in my college Creative Writing 1 class to write a decent story. Deep down, though, I was grieving the loss of a classmate (she was around 32 or 33 in 1998) who had died in a car crash in North Carolina a few weeks before. That loss was heavy on my mind while writing Reunion, and you can see its impact on the story. 

From the Reunion Duology, there are a few key lessons I hope readers take away. In Reunion: A Story, young Jim Garraty’s hidden affection for Marty illustrates the timeless truth that hesitation can lead to missed opportunities; as the saying goes, “he who hesitates is lost and faint heart never won fair maiden.” Across both stories, Jim’s deep connection with Mark highlights the importance of opening up to friends we trust completely and being unapologetically honest. Lastly, in Reunion: Coda, the core message is to embrace your mistakes, learn from them, and seize new chances at love with courage and determination.

Above all, I hope readers enjoy both books not as some lesson or philosophical statement, but as fun and engaging stories that make them eager for what comes next.

Thank you so much Alex for your very interesting and thorough answers. I learned a lot of things about you as well as about the creative writing process by reading your answers. I never realized that Marty’s car accident was taken straight out of your personal experiences. Whether you intended or not, I think you gave your readers a lot to think about.

About Alex

Using his experiences in those publications, Alex has been raving and ranting about the movies online since 2003 at various websites, including Amazon, ciao and Epinions. In 2012, Alex published his first book, Save Me the Aisle Seat: The Good, the Bad and the Really Bad Movies: Selected by an Online Film Reviewer through CreateSpace.

Reunion: A Story, is Alex’s first work of fiction. In addition to writing reviews, Alex has collaborated with actor-director Juan Carlos Hernandez on several short films, including A Simple Ad (2019), Clown 345 (2019), and Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss. You can find his reviews and essays on his blog, A Certain Point of View, Too . Also see the related blog post.