The Writer's Life 2/25 - Hacking

Born in the Soviet Union in 1970, Dimitry Samarov emigrated to the USA with his family in 1978. He earned a BFA in painting and printmaking at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1993, and began driving a cab that same year. His work has been shown at several galleries. He created a blog in which he related his experiences driving in the windy city. Excerpts were published in several magazines. In 2011 the University of Chicago Press published a collection of his work, Hack, a copy of which was amongst a recent donation to the floating book shop. It details the trials and tribulations of the job, and the interesting cross section of humanity who commission rides. Although the passages are brief and well-written, I felt something was missing. I wish there'd been more of the following, which comes late in the book: "The holidays magnify all that one lacks, forcing one to brood over deficiencies and failures. The best thing is that they end and every-day life resumes, giving the world back the scale and focus necessary to keep getting by." This is a quick read, only 122 pages, far less given the many caricature-like drawings the author includes. The publisher spared no expense. It is a handsome edition available only in hardcover. 11 users at Amazon have rated Hack, forging to a consensus of four on a scale of five. I rate it three. It is still selling modestly. Samarov followed the book up with a paperback memoir in 2014. Here's one of his paintings, titled The Mess I've Made, oil on linen:

I've finished the preliminary sweep of the novel I intend to self-publish early next year. It is a stream of conscious portrait of a day in my life at the end of 1989. Most of the people's names have been changed. I made an exception of a few first names. I regret having changed any at all, as in some cases I was unable to recall who it was. That's what time will do, especially regarding those on the  fringes of one's life. So many people passed through the Commodity Exchange, where most of the narrative takes place. I was hoping to cut some of the book, but was unable to find excess, although it is frequently repetitive, especially in the protagonist's sexual frustration. I was going to chop a short story that is included to a single paragraph, but I like it so much I'm leaving it intact. As of now it is 335 pages in 11-point font. There were times I thought: Do I really want people to know this? My thoughts are too often sexist, bigoted and homophobic. If this is exclusive to me, then the novel shouldn't be published. If it is universal, there's no problem. None of us can know the thoughts of others to anything but a minimal degree. I haven't been able to come up with a satisfying title. I thought it was going to American Ulysses, but that is so grand, especially since I know the book doesn't measure up to James Joyce's work intellectually. For a while I considered using Ulysses for Dummies, but that seems denigrating, and it might be a copyright violation. Since I like economy, A Day Inside the Head of a Brooklynite was out of the question. Right now it's Ulysses Too.

Given the forecast of 50 MPH gusts, I resisted the temptation of operating the book shop today. I had one last task to perform on the manuscript file. There will be about 50 references, not as many as there are in my rock n roll epic Rising Star, but plenty to sort through. One of the great features of Microsoft Word is "Find." I typed an asterisk into the box, and every instance of its use was listed. I'd inadvertently excluded several references from the list. When I was done I saved a copy of the file to my email account and to Google Docs. I will return to it on or about October 1st. I've never felt such a need for a break from my writing. Then again, I will be blogging practically every day. Fortunately, that isn't as intense as working on a book, although the word "work" does not adequately describe the process. It's more like intense play.
My Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Vic-Fortezza/e/B002M4NLJE

FB: https://www.facebook.com/Vic-Fortezza-Author-118397641564801/?fref=ts

Read Vic's Stories, free: http://fictionaut.com/users/vic-fortezza