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Sunday, October 8, 2017

The Writer's Life 10/8 - Steps Beyond

On Friday Iowa St. announced that its starting quarterback had taken a leave of absence to address “personal medical concerns.” On Saturday the Cyclones were a near four-touchdown underdog at Oklahoma. It would have been understandable if the team had folded after falling behind by 14 in the second quarter, and trailing by eleven at the half. It rallied big. Backup QB Kyle Kempt, making his first start, threw for 343 yards and three touchdowns, leading the season's most shocking upset, 38-31. He wasn't the only star of the game. Joel Lanning, who began the 2016 season as the team's starting QB, is now its starting middle linebacker. During the game, he played LB, QB and on special teams. He was 2-of-3 passing for 25 yards and had nine carries for 35 yards. He also had eight tackles, a sack and a fumble recovery. The victory breaks an 18-game win streak the mighty Sooners had against the Cyclones. Kudos... Also on the college gridiron, my alma mater, Western Michigan, won 71-68 in a record tying seven overtimes at Buffalo. After going 13-1 last year, the Broncos are a respectable 4-2 in 2017... And Columbia is 5-0! Isn't that one of the signs that the end times are near? 

Last night Decades, channel 112 on Cablevision in NYC, ran a marathon of One Step Beyond, an anthology of the paranormal that ran from 1959-'61, 96 episodes, all directed by series host John Newland. I watched two that first aired in '59: The Aerialist, which starred Mike Connors as an Italian-American trapeze artist, and The Burning Girl, which starred Luana Anders as a fire-starter. They were solid. The show had a great tag: "What you are about to see is a matter of human record. Explain it: we cannot. Disprove it: we cannot. We simply invite you to explore with us the amazing world of the Unknown..." Newland was prolific. In 1947-'48, he acted in nine films. He then switched to TV. He has 38 titles listed under his name at IMDb as an actor, but it was as a director that he made his mark. Although "only" 61 titles appear under his name in that category, he did multiple stints at the helm of popular shows. For instance, 24 of Peyton Place, 23 of The Loretta Young Show and 21 of Dr. Kildare. He created The Man Who Never Was, a cold war espionage series that ran only 18 episodes in '67-'68. He passed away in 2000 at 82. Here is the distinguished and accomplished auteur:



It looked like light rain would put the kibosh on the floating book shop today, but luck was with me. When I drove home the most favorable parking spaces were filled. I worked for a while on my next novel, took a nap, then went out to see what was what. One of the two prime spots was available. And since it wasn't raining, I decided to open for business, knowing the wares would be protected by the scaffold if it started pouring. My thanks to the mom and two adolescent daughters, three blonds, who purchased one of Rachel Renée Russell's Dork series, and to the middle age couple who bought a book in Russian and one in Ukrainian. It only amounted to a few bucks, but it got me out of the apartment for a couple of hours.
Vic's Sixth novel: http://tinyurl.com/zpuhucj 
Vic's Short Works: http://tinyurl.com/jy55pzc
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