Selling My Books on the Streets of Brooklyn 1/2 - Hiatus

I’d never heard of the late Gavin Lyall until recently when I noticed his first novel, The Wrong Side of the Sky, among several paperbacks someone donated to the floating book shop. It was published in 1961. The edition I read was issued by Pan Books LTD of the UK in 1966. It’s similar to the old Dell and Signet paperbacks, small print, single space between the lines. It’s a crackling good story, as the Brits might say, centering around the search for jewels in the Greek isles, told from the viewpoint of a hard-boiled WWII combat veteran of the RAF. The author was a pilot himself, although not in the war, so the descriptions of flight have authenticity, especially those beyond my grasp. The story is grounded, realistic, the type of thriller I like best. Nothing seems outlandish. The femme fatale is not overdone. Although sexuality is frequently in the air, acts are not depicted. And the story comes in at an economical 235 pages, minus several for the breaks into parts, which seem totally unnecessary. I had a little difficulty with the prose, as it is in British vernacular dating back more than five decades. I particularly enjoyed the sarcasm. And the ending was satisfying, which is frequently not the case in such fare. Lyall, who wrote for and edited the undergraduate Cambridge newspaper, began his career, as several novelists have, as a journalist. He twice won the Silver Dagger Award for British crime fiction. Surprisingly, only one of his novels has been adapted to the screen, The Secret Servant, a 1984 BBC TV production. He has only one screenplay credit, as one of four contributors to the sci-fi flick Moon Zero Two (1969). On a scale of five, I rate The Wrong Side of the Sky 3.25. (Facts culled at Wiki).

I watched a bunch of episodes of The Twilight Zone on the Sy-Fy Channel while I was at my sister’s yesterday. One, Number 12 Looks Just Like You, first broadcast in January1964, had me chuckling, as it reminded me of the ObamaCare mandate. In it, all citizens are required to do a transformation to a more physically beautiful appearance at the age of 19. The two female options were Pamela Austin and Suzy Parker. At one time Parker was the most photographed and highest-paid model in the world. Here are pics of these two beauties, Austin first:

With the floating book shop on hiatus until the temperature and parking difficulties moderate, I continued to uproot the huge rug that covered three-quarters of my large studio apartment. There's a bout 25% left in places where I'll have to moved around lot of furniture. The wooden floor is in ugly condition, riddled with blotches of paint and other stains. I've researched on the web how to get it in decent shape, other than spending hundreds to hire a crew to sand and finish it. Since it looks like it's going to be a long winter, I've decided to do it myself a bit at a time. I need something constructive to do to get me through at least January. I also began what I hope will be the last flush of my rock n roll epic, Rising Star. So far, through two chapters, I've found very few errors and made only a couple of minor changes in verbiage.
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 Horror Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3
Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp
Vic’s Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx