The Writer's Life 1/26 - Wasps

Correction: In yesterday's blog I cited Capo Regime Tessio's first name as Phillip. No doubt I confused him with Tattaglia, a head of one of the five families that ruled NYC in Mario Puzo's rendering. His name was, of course, Sal. It did not occur to me until this morning's walk when I recalled the words of Tom Hagen: "Can't do it, Sally." Apologies to fans of The Godfather.

Instinct tells me Trump is making a mistake in bypassing the coming debate sponsored by Fox News. As president he would have to deal with people a lot tougher and infinitely more dangerous than Megyn Kelly. I wonder if his strategy is to show independents and moderate Dems he is not beholden to Fox. I've read that media mogul Rupert Murdoch despises him. That's probably part of it too. Still, wouldn't it be better to show he's willing to face the enemy in its own territory? Radio host Mark Simone pointed out that Ronald Reagan skipped the last of the debates in 1980, so maybe Trump's absence will be meaningless in the long run.

As I've said before, I don't think Ted Cruz, if he were the Republican nominee, would win the general election, but he may be the only true challenger to the status quo among all the candidates. He is the only one who has risked losing the Iowa caucuses by promising to end the boondoggle that is the Ethanol subsidy, which increases the price of gas and does nothing for the environment. 40% of the U.S. corn supply goes to it. Iowans grow a lot of it. Cruz vows to phase out the subsidy by 2022. Kudos. (Stats from an op-ed piece in the NY Post by Rich Lowry)

Carrie Lukas had a great opening line in an article on the contradictory messages of feminism: "Men and women are interchangeable...except for the many ways women are superior."

I'm 100 pages into the reworking of my first novel, Five Cents. It's been pare by 75% so far, 25 pages in MS Word. Gone are the author's opinions on the issues of the day, and the detailed rendering of the protagonist's final days in Vietnam. Since I'm not a veteran, I decided to be vague so as to avoid errors in military or hospital procedure. The character has just landed in California, on his way home to Michigan. He is a WASP, as so many of my college friends were/are. It will be my only novel wherein the main character is not Italian-American. Originally, I left the town in which he lives unnamed. I decided to shorten Kalamazoo to Kazoo. Since I haven't been there since a brief visit in '89, I'm working from memory. To avoid error, I think it's best the city be fictional. WMU will be simply Western. From this point on, I expect the paring down to be 35% or less. In the file lost to the meanies who hacked my backup stick, there were two significant changes from the original story. One I'm sure I'll get right. The other isn't as crucial but a bit more complicated. As always, I'll just trust my instincts and go wherever they take me.

This must be one of the fastest melts ever of a huge January storm. It continued overnight, as the temperature remained above freezing and, if the forecast is right, will go right through the weekend, at least during the day. Unfortunately, the great weather is not helping book sales.
Vic's Short Works: http://tinyurl.com/jy55pzc

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://tinyurl.com/l84h63j

Website: http://vicfortezzaauthor.my-free.website/