The Writer's Life 4/10 - Help!

"Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale of a fateful trip..." Baby boomers will recognize that phrase as the opening lyric of The Ballad of Gilligan's Island, written by Sherwood Schwartz & George Wyle, performed by the Wellingtons. I thought of it immediately as I read an account at Yahoo News about the capsizing of a boat in a remote part of the Pacific. The three men aboard the 19-foot vessel swam all night before the reached the deserted Fandadik Island, where they spent a few nights before they were spotted by a U.S. Navy plane, which led to a rescue by a small craft from a nearby island. I wouldn't want to be stranded without a Ginger or Maryann.

                                                                                  

The rules of golf can be extremely petty and annoying. At the Masters yesterday, Billy Horschel was lining up an eagle putt at the par five 15th hole when a gust blew his ball into the water hazard. Since

he had removed his marker, he had to suffer his unlucky fate. He had to take a one-stroke penalty and play his next shot from a drop zone. Instead of a possible three he made bogie six. Totally unfair.

NY Jets offensive tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson, 32, has chosen to retire rather than accept a pay cut that would help the team lessen its salary cap burden. I have a feeling the parties will work something out, but, just in case I'm wrong, I'm giving a shut out to this remarkable athlete. In ten years he has not missed a single snap to injury. He has never missed a practice. His name has never appeared on an injury report. Given the rigors of the NFL, this has been an incredible achievement. Kudos, sir.

I've completed a proofing of the first manuscript I ever completed, begun way back in 1975. It has gained two pages to 183, 61,000+ words. I've yet to add page breaks. My main concern is that it is too short, too fast a pass through the lives of the characters. I don't want to pad it with twaddle, however. I have until January to come up with more. My next task is finding appropriate headers for the five parts. Since I used song lyrics at the start of each chapter of Rising Star, I'm leaning toward quotes from classical literature, especially since the main character is working on a Masters in Lit. I'll be running searches on the application of the five senses in famous works.

The floating book shop was rained out today. After an unusually mild March, Mother Nature is evening things out.

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/