The Writer's Life 10/29 - 13

In the ever evolving English language, another wonderful term has come into being. In Jonah Goldberg’s op-ed piece in today’s NY Post, he cites GOP consultant Brad Blakeman, who has labeled the short term interests of all politicians, not just Democrats, as “momentarianism.” This allows me to use a favorite word I rarely get a chance to flash, one that took me so long to grasp: “zeitgeist” - defined in Webster’s New World Dictionary as “the spirit of the times; trend of thought and feeling in a period.”

The predicted showers never materialized today, allowing the floating book shop to complete a full session. With no one interested in purchases for the first two-and-a-half hours, I was fortunate to be able to watch a two-man crew connect new wires to the street lights at Avenue Z & E.13th. I was chuckling as the guy in the hydraulic turret maneuvered around the myriad wires and cursed each time his helmet came into contact with one. As one who has no aptitude whatsoever for that kind of stuff, I'm always impressed by people who do. Strangely, business improved when they started working not 20 feet from me. I contemplated packing up early. I'm glad I didn't. It was unusually warm, so I'd taken off my sweat jacket, although I was a bit self conscious of the worn Giants' jersey I was wearing beneath it. It's at least ten years old, given to me by Kevin Hudson in a Kris Kringle swap at the Exchange. Willie Washington, may he rest in peace, got my gift, CDs of soul classics. Anyway, the numbers have faded and the shirt sports the number 13 and the name Kennell on the back. After a very successful junior and senior seasons as QB of the Florida St. Seminoles, Danny Kennell played seven years in the NFL and one in the Arena Football League, largely as a backup. He now does commentary on ESPN. When Mikhail, one of my regular customers, saw the 13, he asked if I weren't leery of bad luck. It hadn't even occurred to me this day. I wondered if that accounted for the lack of sales. A few minutes later Natalia and Benedict approached with a donation of three books in Russian. Mikhail bought one on his return from his chore, and another regular, a middle aged woman who speaks no English, bought the others. Then Stu and Janet, who will turn 22 Saturday, came along and bought a couple of vampire epics. Finally, Al dropped off 11 works of fiction, several of them classics. My thanks to all of the above.

Eve, who has bought two of my books on Kindle, asked if Close to the Edge will ever be available on it. I've sent an email to the publisher, Authorhouse, requesting it. I've also clicked on a tab on the book's page, and recruited two of my nieces and Eve to do likewise. I'd appreciate if anyone reading this would do the same. Click on the link below to Vic's first novel, scroll down at the page and look right. My only recourse would be to post it myself, but the only file I have on hand is on floppy, and I'm not sure how polished the draft is. It would be so much easier if AH and Amazon do the right thing. 

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/