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Sunday, October 1, 2017

The Writer's Life 10/1 - Dear World

The world has a new Anne Frank - Bela Alabed, a seven-year-old Syrian caught in the horror occurring in Aleppo. She is profiled today in an article in the NY Post by Stefanie Cohen. Taught English by her mom, she has written a book, Dear World, that will be released shortly. She also uses Twitter, where she has 360,000 followers. Here are two of her Tweets: “The tooth fairy is afraid of the bombing here, it run away to its hole. When the war finishes, it will come.” And: "I couldn’t play the rest of the day — all I could do was see Yasmin and all the blood on her in my mind." And here's a pic of the young wunderkind:



It's October 1st. I resumed work on the novel I plan to self-publish in January. I will proof the manuscript and add the notes I've amassed the past few months. It should take a week. Then I will let it sit until November 1st, when I'll do another wash, and I'll do the same on December 1st. If I'm satisfied then, I'll submit it to Create Space and order a proof copy.

RIP Monte Hall, 96, host one of the all-time fun games shows, Let's Make a Deal. "Will it be Door Number, Door Number Two or Door Number Three?"



It looked like it would be a day of bleak returns for the floating book shop, then three buyers showed in the final minutes of operation. Before that, my only customer was a man lured in by his three granddaughters. He bought The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan for the eldest and Yay, You! : Moving Up and Moving On by Sandra Boynton for the other two. A long wait ensued. Then a middle aged gentleman spotted what he dubbed "a real find," - Just Enough Liebling: Classic Work by the Legendary New Yorker Writer by A. J. Liebling and David Remnick. He also purchased a Jonathan Kellerman thriller for a friend, then asked which of my books I'd most recommend. I suggested Killing - if he was not not offended by political incorrectness. He said he was offended by its opposite, which was music to my ears. Then a young man, a repeat customer, came along and bought Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk and a small hardcover collection of classical love poems. Simultaneously, another young man asked about the huge Reader's Digest Complete Do It Yourself Manual, and jumped on it when I said two bucks. My thanks, gentlemen.

On the way home I stopped here:



It's run by Gene, a former Exchange employee who had to reinvent himself in 2012 when electronic training finally drove him from the commodity business. I got the boot in late 2007. At first Gene had a city job "fixing" election machines. For five months he did nothing. He couldn't stand it. He ran into an old friend who owned the shop and, with no experience in the business, took a chance and bought a quarter share. He manages it, putting in long hours, but he loves it because the people who patronize the place are happy to be there. He had the eating area remodeled and moved the oven back a bit, and business has been good. I wanted to pay him back for being one of the first trading floor people to buy my first novel, Close to the Edge, but he wouldn't hear of it. I left with a free meatball hero, which was delicious. Best of luck, sir.
Vic's Sixth novel: http://tinyurl.com/zpuhucj 
Vic's Short Works: http://tinyurl.com/jy55pzc
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