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/

Selling My Books on the Streets of Brooklyn 5/28

Carmine, a gregarious, proud Italian-American senior citizen, purchased A Hitch in Twilight about two years ago. Today, outside the Dolphin Gym at 24th Avenue and 86th Street, he raved about it, especially stories Nowak's Dreams and The Dead Pool. He eschewed a handshake and went right to the goombah kiss. "I'm proud of you, " he said, and handed me five dollars. I asked that he take a book, but he wouldn't hear of it. I suspected it would be taken as some kind of guinea insult if I handed the money back to him, so I stuffed it into a pocket. He said the stories should be made into movies. Your lips to a producer's ears, sir. Thank you. And thanks to the kind middle aged woman who not only bought a non-fiction book on police corruption but gave me Tina Zahn's Why I Jumped, an Oprah selection, which she'd just finished.
Karen Hall has an impressive resume in prime time television, having written scripts for MASH, Eight Is Enough, Hill Street Blues, Judging Amy, The Good Wife and other shows.  She is credited for the MASH finale, which drew one of the highest, if not the highest, audiences in the history of TV. I just finished her only novel, Dark Debts. It's theme is demonology. While it pales compared to William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist, it does make one ponder the cause of heinous acts. Of course, this leads to the problem of accountability for such acts. I don't know if she was simply trying to create an effective thriller or wrestling with the perplexing issue or both. I wasn't sold. As usual, I thought the novel way too long at 498 pages. Its length diminished the excitement and did not increase illumination on the troubling issue. Of course, it is a difficult one, as are all of the great questions. My first novel, Close to the Edge, tries to get at the reason for a heinous act. I think I succeeded on an individual level but failed completely on the grand. On a scale of five, I rate Dark Debts two-and-a-half.
Read Vic's stories, free: http://vicfortezza.homestead.com/