A week or so ago a Facebook friend and fellow All Things That Matter Press author, Oana, posted an item about free publicity. I queried the woman she featured, an author herself, and submitted the requirements. She responded promptly and asked me to include something on the writing process itself. This is what I came up with:
I started writing in November 1975. 95% of my work is a relating of my experiences in the bittersweet mystery of life. The other five percent is comprised of Twilight Zone-type stories, screenplays and the occasional essay on music, film or life. For 20 years I wrote or revised what I wrote 365 days a year. I was unpublished for the first 13 of those, until I landed a short story in a small press magazine. Publication remained irregular until the late 90’s, when I finally heeded the advice of friends and went online. That resulted in having at least one story published per year. By then I had also completed nine novels. I had one of them accepted by a small press firm in NYC in the mid 90’s, but the publisher reneged. In 2000 I decided to self publish it. I’d suffered a broken heart and needed something positive to focus on. The experience prepared me for the publication of my next three books through small press houses. Although my overall sales have been disappointing, I continue to submit. The writer’s life often seems akin to banging one’s head against the wall. For some reason I continue the futile quest. Despite paltry sales, I’ve had another novel accepted by small press. I so appreciate the publisher taking a chance on it, as it is rife with political incorrectness, as was my previous. It is based in large part on personal experience, my work on the floor of the Commodity Exchange in Manhattan, a unique world filled with diverse personalities. The next I will try to have published is a near 200,000 word rock n roll epic, my only stab at best seller-type fiction. I also have an American version of James Joyce’s Ulysses on file, although I found that classic so difficult. I wonder if I understood even ten percent of it. It was at once fun and scary to delve into the subconscious in the writing of my own version. One risks being taken for a weirdo, but that has been the case with all of my books except my short story collection. Tales of suspense and the supernatural seem to be taken as fun, the product of the imagination, escape from reality. Works which delve into the souls of humans are troubling in that they force readers to look reality in the face. I enjoy entertainment, but when I read or write I prefer to peer into the souls of characters, even when they veer into a chilling darkness.
She called it "lovely." I don't know when she will get around to posting my stuff on her site. I imagine I'm on a long line of writers like me desperate for exposure.
I did a variation on the book shop today, as I accompanied a friend on another of her visits to a doctor, this one in Bay Ridge. I parked on 74th St. and lugged two crates to the corner at 5th Avenue. I stacked them atop each other and displayed only my books and one by my literary angel, January Valentine. My thanks to the gentleman of eastern descent, who purchased A Hitch in Twilight. He asked me to sign it but refused to tell me his name, saying its inclusion would decrease the value of the book. I kidded him about his overly optimistic expectations, and we both laughed. He is 120 pages into his own memoir. Good look, sir.
Vic's Third Novel (Print or Kindle): http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic's Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic's Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3
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