The Writer's Life 1/7 - Fragments

Michael Barone's op-ed piece in today's NY Post is dismaying. Under the banner The Collapsing Family, he cites evidence of the ever changing make-up of America. He mentions a new book by Mitch Pearlstein: Broken Bonds: What Family Fragmentation Means for America's Future. The author provides a statistical breakdown of the two-parent home: Asians 86%, whites 75%, Hispanics 67% and Blacks 37%, and this includes households where there is a step-parent, which are sometimes disastrous. The saddest part is that no new measures are suggested to combat the problem. Liberals want to raise taxes to pay for programs similar to those that have failed, conservatives want to give two-parent households tax breaks, an incentive to stay together. I have no ideas myself on what might reverse this trend. In fact, I don't know that it can be changed. Perhaps it's simply the natural evolution of a free society. Perhaps I've been too hard on leftists, laying too much of the blame on them, although they continue to propose and institute fixes that further the damages. Fortunately, there are a few voices of reason in the black community. Thomas Sowell continues to write common sense essays despite the vitriol he attracts, and Jason Riley had the nerve to go against the grain in his book Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed. Unfortunately, they are likely simply voices in the wilderness. The likes of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Barrack Obama command the stage.

I just heard about the terrorist attack on the offices of a satiric French magazine that dared to lampoon Islam. I doubt that kind of attack will happen here, as our elites go after every religion but Islam. Imagine if Christians retaliated in the same manner here. There would be an attack at least once a week.

Another day closer to spring -- that's what I tell myself when the weather turns frigid. At least being confined to the apartment allows time for work to get done. I've read about 80% of the proof copy of my rock n roll epic, Rising Star. I may finish the current phase by tomorrow. I sent Create Space an email about the two issues baffle me: the lack of page numbers and the fact that on many pages the text does not extend to the bottom of a page. In most instance it stops a few lines short, in a few a half page short. This adds unnecessary length and heft to a long novel. I'm tempted to resort to a ten point font to scale it back, although the twelve point reads so much easier. And I have to fight not to hurry the process.

Vic's 4th novel: tinyurl.com/bszwlxh

Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3

Vic's Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
Vic's Short Story Collection: http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tiny.cc/0iHLb Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kx3d3uf
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/rP7o9

Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp

Vic's Horror Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3f

Vic's Blog: http://vicfortezza.blogspot.com/

Vic's Web Site: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/