The Writer's Life 2/16 - Battles

Betsy McCaughey makes an interesting point in an op-ed piece in today's NY Post. On replacing Justice Scalia, she wants the next president to do it. The pick is certain to be as liberal as the President's previous two, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. And, McCaughey speculates, what if the elderly Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer decide to retire before Obama's term elapses. The three picks would lock the Supreme Court into a lengthy liberal bias that would aid a radical agenda. And here's an example of why it matters. On February 8th the court upheld the delay of Obama's war on fossil fuels, preventing measures that would have a negligible effect on climate change and would be damaging to the economy. Will the Republican controlled congress fight or will it cave, as it has so often done the past few years? It is one of the reasons for the rise of Trump.

RIP Vanity, 57, born Denise Katrina Matthews, who succumbed to kidney failure and an abdominal illness. She shot to fame under Prince's guidance, eventually branching out and fronting the girl group Vanity 6, whose biggest hit was Nasty Girl. Her beauty made her a natural for film and TV. She has 24 credits listed at IMDb. Unfortunately, she became addicted to crack, which probably compromised her immune system, a fate many rock stars who over-indulged are suffering. She was later born again.

Last night Fox aired the fifth of the six episode reboot of The X-Files. Written and directed by series creator Chris Carter, it was an interesting blend of humor and existential probing. It was refreshing in that the terrorists were radical Islamist, but also politically correct in labeling them a tiny minority, and including the unflattering opinions of a few white Americans. The show introduced two new characters, younger versions of Mulder and Scully. I wonder if a new series is being considered. I'd be surprised if it were successful. None of the new episodes has approached the best of the original run.

The floating book shop's hiatus has allowed me to put a big dent in the reworking of my first manuscript, Five Cents. Today I completed the second of its five parts. The 260 pages of the hard copy have been reduced to 90 in MS Word. Not only have I attacked the bloat, I'm limiting the narrative to a single point of view. 379 pages to go. At five pages per day, that's about 76 days of work. I did a little math to tabulate the word count of the original. At 250 words per page, it comes to nearly 170,000, probably less. I suspect the final product will be a little more than half that. My rock n roll epic, Rising Star, came in at 195,000+. I can really sling the bull when the mood strikes me. None of my other books will approach that length.

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/