Selling My Books on the Streets of Brooklyn 6/1 - Four

It was a day that underlined how lucky I've been lately, my whole life, really. I set up shop on Bay Parkway and 85th Street, in front of the Chase bank, a spot that provides ample sunshine during the cold months and the shade of large tree during summer heat. The only thing I have to worry about under those branches is being spotted by a bird, which has happened occasionally. Anyway, I feared it would be a fruitless session when Bad News Billy passed on the stack of DVDs and VHS tapes I'm carrying. He usually snaps them all up. And he said he hadn't seen Jack, one of my best customers, in the bank. Fortunately, he emerged a while later and bought eight thrillers, reducing the weight of the crates considerably for the long slog back to the car. A while later a nice middle aged Russian woman purchased six books, among them Herman Hesse's ode to the unconscious, Siddhartha. I thanked my lucky stars for the umpteenth time this month. Then a woman who has purchased from the floating book shop at least once approached. Her husband, 42, passed away in April, the victim of some type of heart explosion. "I'm so sorry," was all I could think to say. And just before I was about to leave a big burly guy from the neighborhood greeted me as he does each Saturday, usually in the company of one of his sons, who are pre-teen. I'd guess he's 45 at most. His wife has begun her second bout with cancer. Her first was treated with radiation. This time it will be chemo. She's at stage four. All I could say was: "All the best." I'd just been telling him I'd been having a scary run of good luck lately. Man.

My thanks to whomever purchased Exchanges on Kindle. After three weeks of promising returns, it seems reality has begun to set in. The sales' ranking is slipping. From here on it will likely be a web sale here or there. It was fun while it lasted. I just hope the publisher, Gregory Banks of WheelMan Press, earns enough money on it to take a chance on the next novel I hope to have published, Rising Star, my near 200,000 word rock n roll epic.

Vic's 4th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/bszwlxh

Vic's 3rd Novel: 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