The Writer's Life: The Writer's Life 10/1

No people are more deserving of criticism than those on government payrolls. They are such easy targets it is tedious writing about them. Too often they display rank incompetence or corruption. Our secret services were an exception. Citizens expect them to be highly qualified and far less prone to the temptations that snare many in public service. It was one group that could be counted to exercise its duties. Now that confidence has been shaken by the details of the story of the nut who stormed the White House and the cover up of the bullet holes found on the premises a couple of years ago. Can’t we do better than this? Have standards eroded to an irretrievable degree? How fortunate that terrorists hadn’t realized how easy it was to get into the President’s residence. If an attack occurred at a shopping mall or in the subway, it would be understandable, as they are so vast as to be naturally porous. But the White House? Geez. I wouldn’t be surprised to see gun ownership skyrocket. Government’s first duty is to protect its citizens. When that fails what recourse is there other than to arm? I hope the recent incident was a fluke and not evidence of a wide breakdown in the system. I also hope that the lack of attacks on the homeland is due to the work of authorities and not the enemy simply waiting for the right moment to strike. Many believe terrorists are already among us. I've suspected this for a long time and have been proven wrong. Let it still be so.

And on a much lighter note: There's a neighborhood character who regales me with corny jokes each time he passes the floating book shop. I referred to him as The Joker. Today I finally found out his actual name: Ira Wolfe. He has self-published a little book of his quips under the label Ratstar Press, which is probably an inside joke, as a search turned up nothing on it. I assume the book, Wolfe-Arama, was done by a printer, who did a neat job. Ira handed me two copies of the undersized paperback and suggested a sale price of $15. I told him the cold, harsh truth: "You'll be lucky to get a dollar or two." I'll ask for three and see where it goes from there. Last night Ira did a reading at Roll n Roaster, a local eatery. He made $90. His backer put up four grand, so he has a long way to go to break even. His bio appears on the last page. He's the same age as me, 64. He worked at the Department of Labor for 41 years. He's done standup, and also is a "keyboardist/singer/songwriter." Here's an example of his humor, selected at random from the book: "Mary Shelley wrote a book about April Fool's Day -- Prankenstein!" Good luck, sir.

I feel blessed to have the opportunity to sell books each day. The toughest sessions are those when the threat of rain is constant. It was so gloomy at eleven I put my sunglasses in my pocket. I put them on when consecutive passersby asked where the other guy was. Given the weather and the fact that I have only two books in Russian left, I didn't expect much business, and it proved correct. My thanks to the gentleman who purchased the book in Russian as I was packing up, my only sale, and to the two kind folks besides Ira who donated books. I was fortunate in that I had two unexpected visits that made the session well worth it. Patty, a goombah, one of the last living in Coney Island, asked for DVDs, of which I currently have none, and began to wax nostalgic about John Wayne and other topics. He went on for quite a while and I wondered if he'd been drinking, although I didn't smell any liquor on his breath. As he was finishing his stories, Mr. Morty, a retired salesman on the cusp of 80, appeared. I hadn't seen him in months. A few years ago he underwent radiation treatment for throat cancer. His wife did also a while later, and this morning his daughter had an operation for it at Sloan Kettering. After hearing that, how could I feel anything other than blessed? Best of luck, sir.

Vic's 4th novel: tinyurl.com/bszwlxh

Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3

Vic's Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
Vic's Short Story Collection: http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tiny.cc/0iHLb Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kx3d3uf
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/rP7o9

Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp

Vic's Horror Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3f

Vic's Blog: http://vicfortezza.blogspot.com/

Vic's Web Site: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/