Selling My Books on the Streets of Brooklyn 6/2

It was a glorious day, temperature in the 70's, a stiff breeze taking any heat out of the air. The only drawback was the pollen flying around. Everyone, including me, was sneezing or trying to hack the nasty bits out of the windpipe. I got a donation of four pristine hardcover thrillers and at least ten paperbacks from a kind Russian woman. She wanted to bring more, but it was already too much to carry back to the car. Spasiba, madam. Simone stopped and told me how much she enjoyed the Lisa Jackson and Patricia Cornwell mysteries. She bought them Monday. She plans to read Dean Koontz's Icebound over the weekend. Other than that, it was a demoralizing opening two and a half hours at the floating bookshop. Since I'm overstocked, I'm selling all books for a dollar apiece (except mine, of course) - and no one so much as paused, despite the best sellers on display. Herb finally broke the drought, as he has so many times, purchasing Julie Garwood's Sizzle. I learned he had a heart attack several years ago. Fortunately, his Blue Cross insurance picked up the entire tab, $40,000.
Minutes later a young man bought Frank Herbert's sci-fi classic, Dune, and a book in the Dean Koontz Frankenstein series, which has nothing to do with the monster of the same name. Soon lovely 13-year-old Mariana was approaching on her way home from school. She often seems sad. I gathered Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Maugham's Of Human Bondage, and Dumas' The Man in the Iron Mask and asked her to choose one. As I anticipated, she chose the latter and smiled and thanked me. I love that such a young girl is interested in serious books and wonder if she will one day take a shot at writing.
I spotted mailman extraordinaire, Mr. Chou, and waved. I knew he would take Suze Orman's Nine Steps to Financial Freedom. He has agreed to give me a commission if he ever gets rich as a result of all the books he has purchased from me. He said his mom used to make him stay home and read to keep him out of trouble. He is a martial arts master, and gun owner.
As I was packing up, an energetic, elderly semi-regular appeared and chose a Jonathan Kellerman thriller. My mood had lightened considerably. I found a parking spot for tomorrow's alternate side at the far corner of East 13th. I walked up to Avenue Y and gazed along it. Sure enough, as I'd hoped, Uncle Charlie Grizzly Bear was making his way toward me. For some reason, he uses that route at times. I've been holding a bag of Ed McBain 87th Precinct novels for him, which Joanne donated last Sunday. He took ten, which I let him have for half price. I'll hold the rest for whenever he's ready.
Thanks, everyone.
Please remember that for the time being many of the links at my website will come a cropper (crapper?):
http://vicfortezza.homestead.com/

Selling My Books on the Streets of Brooklyn 5/31

The past two days verified how silly it is to move the floating bookshop elsewhere. Yesterday I set up along the Sheepshead Bay promenade, hoping the holiday would bring out hordes. There were plenty of passersby, many on bikes, but few browsers, let alone buyers. I sold only James Patterson's Cradle and All, to a semi-regular I hadn't seen in months. And there was no shelter from the sun. It was brutal. Today I returned to my usual place at the juncture where Avenue Z meets Sheepshead Bay Road. Not only did I have several buyers - I was greeted by folks I know and many who have come to recognize me. Simone, whose name I finally learned today, saw that the shop was fully stocked and bought thrillers by Dean Koontz, Lisa Jackson and Patricia Cornwell. Herbie, who has been frustrated at not finding any books to his liking, was thrilled that I had three by Harold Robbins. And Ira's mom, a retired teacher and voracious reader, bought Adjustments, as well as three children's books. I happily gave her Paula Zahn's Why I Jumped, an Oprah selection, as a token of thanks. Her son, 42, played high school football at Midwood in the '80s under long-time coach Marshall Tames. I stopped coaching in 1980. I can't remember the last time I'd sold a copy of Adjustments. Thanks, ma'am, and everyone else.
Homestead.com has hosted my main website for a decade. Recently, I've been unable to log in to update it. A telephone number pops up. I'm reluctant to call, leery of a sales pitch. The site has been free. I figured I had links to more than 50 stories and essays there already, so it was no big deal to leave it the way it is. Now 15 of the links to buzzle.com, which has allowed me to post online for a long time, have gone dead. My suspicion is that buzzle is streamlining. They no longer allow a post of something that appears anywhere else on the web. Trouble is, publishers and editors don't reveal that they've posted a story, and usually don't have a direct connection to it. I know of three of mine wherein that is the case. I'd rather have a piece pop up immediately for anyone interested in it. I'm now working to bring my backup site at Tripod up to speed. It will be no frills, just links to my works. I've been posting the missing stories at fictionaut.com, where all will be listed on one page. I hope they don't have a limit on how many may be posted. Be prepared to be frustrated at the Homestead site: http://vicfortezza.homestead.com/