The Writer's Life 2/10 - This n That

The time of kings has long passed in the western world. These days many scoff at them, as if they were simple tyrants who contributed nothing to the advance of civilization. How odd that the leader of a small country, King Abdullah II of Jordan, has taken the lead in the fight against Islamic terrorists, while the President of the world's most successful democracy hems and haws. 

Vaccines have been in the news lately, as some parents choose to forgo them, wary of the possible side effects, particularly autism, they may have on a tiny percentage of children. Spoiler Alert! What if there were an inoculation that prevented fear? This was the ambition of the villain on last night’s episode of Gotham. Guilt ridden about not having saved his wife from a fire, he is driven to develop a serum that would eliminate trepidation. Warped, he studies people who suffer severe phobias, i.e. of a swimming pool, and leads them to their death, then extracts the raised level of the pertinent juices from their corpses, and injects them into himself and his teenage son. He is shot dead in a confrontation with the GCPD. His son is institutionalized, no doubt to become a villain on a future episode. Excellent idea. Kudos to the writer, Ken Woodruff.

RIP Ed Sabol, 98, founder of NFL Films, those dazzling shorts that were more entertaining than most games. He won 52 Emmys for his work. In my youth I was enthralled by takes on particular games or on skilled players. I can still hear the marvelous voice of narrator John Facenda describing Green Bay’s Lambeau Field as “the frozen tundra.” Thank you, sir.

When not in use, I’m leaving my PC in sleep mode and pulling the plug on the internet. Since I downloaded Microsoft Word, my machine has been hijacked. If I shut down completely, my desktop disappears and I have to work in a roundabout way out of a task manager. After about an hour of use, the desktop suddenly re-appears. I don’t want to wait that long. I figured out how to eliminate some of the ads that pop up on my screen, but many persist. One outfit, Strong Signal, is diabolical. Left click on one of its ads and instructions on how to opt out appear in HTML, at least I assume that’s what they are. I will search for a translator. I’m not optimistic. The people who design these things are much more savvy than I. Access to my Cruzer backup stick is blocked. Fortunately, I’m able to ignore the ads at least 75% of the time. They occasionally block something I need to click on or automatically open an unwanted page, which is annoying. I wouldn’t be surprised if the computer crashes soon. I’ve had it seven years. Almost time for a new one.

It was cold and windy. I put in only an hour and a half at the floating book shop. My thanks to the Russian gentleman who purchased three books in the his native tongue. He was coughing up a storm. I did not take my gloves off to stuff the money into my pocket. Later, I used it at CVS. It never touched my flesh. I've tossed the gloves in the laundry bag.

Vic's 5th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/okxkwh5Vic'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/