The Writer's Life 3/4 - In the Works

I tuned into the new ABC series The Family for two reasons --  one of its producers, Laurie Zaks, is the niece of a fellow resident of Atlantic Towers, and The Blacklist was airing a rerun. Zaks worked for several years behind the scenes at SNL before making it big as an executive producer of 89 episodes of Castle, now in its eighth season. She also has produced three TV movies, and the flop series Wicked City, which was cancelled after only a few episodes. There is not much information about her beyond her credits at either IMDb or Wiki, other than that she resides in L.A. and is a married mom, so I don't know if she's actually a Brooklyn girl. As for her new show, it involves the return of a teenager who'd been abducted 10 years earlier. The pilot has a familiarity about it: the plot, family dysfunction, ugly secrets, obligatory twists. It stars two gifted actors, Joan Allen as the Mayor-mom, and Andrew McCarthy as an alleged sex offender, so there is hope that they saw something in the story that will raise it above the mundane. It's usual spot will be Sunday at nine, which means there will be no conflict with The Blacklist, which has been in redundant mode.

Here's another example of how maddening politicians can be. There is a new trade agreement in the works between the USA and Europe. One of its stipulations is examined in an op-ed piece by Bill Watson in today's NY Post. If it passes, there will be a ban on the sale of American products that bear a name with European origin, such as parmesan, gouda and feta. Such items will have to undego a name change. Europe is a protectionist's paradise that restricts free market principals, and each year more Americans seem to want the same thing. Damn these idiots.

The snow flurries didn't stop until after noon, putting the kibosh on the floating book shop. I made the day productive with a double session of work on my first manuscript. Since it takes place between late 1969 and mid-1976, I'm injecting a line here and there to give that troubled era historical perspective. I realized I'd not mentioned the rioting at the 1972 Democratic convention and the release of POW's in February 1973, the latter of which would have been very meaningful to the main character, a Vietnam vet. I've also been jotting down dialogue I'll have to go back and insert, as well as some I will be using at key moments ahead. The manuscript has been pared considerably. I've completed 375 pages of the hard copy, which has become 136 in MS Word. I've been emailing each update to myself to protect against a PC crash. Now that I've completed the first three parts, I'll also store a file at Google Docs. I'm not sure the book will be ready for publication in January, as I will be spending more time on the streets selling books once the weather is nicer. Then again, there's no reason, once the entire novel is on file, I couldn't spend a half hour each night going over it.

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/