The Writer's Life 5/24 - Sevens

Let's start with a positive. The McCaughey septuplets were born in 1997. The siblings have just graduated from their Iowa high school and will now begin to go separate ways, although their bond must be incredibly strong. A college has offered them a free education, and some might go for it. Kudos to mom and dad. Parenting is never easy, but they managed seven kids at once.

Karma: the University of Missouri is facing another tough stretch, probably brought on by its previous one. It was a focal point after the shooting in Ferguson. Protests were common, resignations and firings occurred. The school has experienced an enrollment drop of 1500 students and faces a budget shortfall of $32 million -- and I don't feel any sympathy at all for it.

Last night's season two finale of Gotham has set up a potentially great third season. The monsters created at Arkham Asylum by Hugo Strange have escaped. A single episode can be devoted to the capture of each -- 22 weeks of variety... I'm really enjoying Houdini and Doyle, which follows Gotham on Fox. Although the male leads have extensive credits, I was unfamiliar with each, Stephen Mangan, who plays the author, is a veteran of Brit stage and TV. Michael Weston, a native New Yorker, plays the magician. He guest-starred on two episodes of Elementary in 2015, but I have no recollection of it. I don't have the crisp recall I once had, and I'm usually dozing half way through shows that air at ten. Fortunately, Elementary is now in syndication, back to back episodes running on Sunday night from eight to ten on channel 11 in NYC. I hope Limitless, the best new network show of the past season, will eventually follow suit. Back to H & D, the female lead is played by Rebecca Liddiard, a Canadian. There is no info on the web about her age, which I'd guess is less than 30. She previously did 24 episodes of Mslabelled, shot in Toronto.  

I sold exactly seven books today. One on my regulars, a middle aged tailor, prefers works on UFO's for himself and Hollywood for his mom. I had Monster Spotter's Guide to North America on hand and asked if he were interested. He was. Fortunately, he happened to gaze at the rest of the stuff and spotted Weird U.S.: Your Travel Guide to America's Living Legends and Best Kept Secrets, a large, beautifully illustrated tome, which he also bought. My thanks, and also to Jimmy, who bought five works of non-fiction, including a heavy tome on Natural History. The crates were a lot lighter as I hauled them back to the trunk of the old Hyundai. I would be remiss in not thanking Mother Nature for providing the rain-free window that allowed me to do business.

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/