vic fortezza

Every year at this time the community runs an event called Bayfest, where artists display and sell their works along the Sheepshead Bay promenade, and local businesses set up tables to promote themselves. There is music and entertainment for children. If the weather is right, I usually try to horn in on the activity, setting up the floating bookshop about 200 feet away, hoping for spill-over. It couldn't have been a nicer day, the breeze taking any heat out of the air. The place was buzzing. The only thing missing was the swans that so many people feed with bits of bread. The Mr. Softee ice cream truck was doing fantastic business. How I yearned for a chocolate cone with sprinkles, which so many kids were having as they passed. At least two of my short stories, Rude Awakening and Mystery by the Bay, are set there. My dad had a little boat, which he kept moored just yards from where I was standing. He fished commercially in the summer time, filling the two wine barrels at the rear of the craft with porgies, which he would sell to old Mr. Randazzo, whose fish store is long gone but whose restaurant still flourishes, run, I assume, by his heirs. The area has seen a tremendous renaissance the past 20 years. Russian immigrants have plowed a lot of money into it, including a huge, beautiful catering hall named Baku Palace. Of course, parking was a problem. In fact, my first pass through...

The results are in - I paid $42 for 100 shares of Facebook, $300 less than I was willing to lay out. So if it craps out I stand to lose $4208 in my retirement account, which won't make a difference in my life. It's acceptable risk. I am expecting the stock to lose at least half its value, as I believe the overall market is headed for a big dip, finally surrendering to the fact that the European economy is a disaster. And if the Democrats retake power in November, I think stocks prices will really dive. Hope I'm wrong. Rich Lowry devoted his op-ed piece, syndicated in the NY Post, to Facebook, dubbing largely useless, a fad that might be supplanted by the next big thing. While reading I got to wondering - hoping - that FB will be the Seinfeld of stocks. One of the most successful series in TV history, it famously lampooned itself as being about "nothing." I hadn't dreamed of a certain someone in a while. I awoke to the pleasant thought that we were married and had adopted a boy. When I fell back asleep the dream shifted gears to a post-apocalyptic world where massive re-construction was taking place. There was an element of shame to it whose meaning has eluded me. Having read Freud's Interpretation of Dreams, I always think back to events (clues) of the day before that triggered the dream. The only one I could pinpoint was the film Drive (2011),...

This morning I put in an order to buy 100 shares of Facebook at a limit of 45, never expecting to get it, certain the stock would be trading 90 by the time the orders of the privileged were filled. Last I looked it was 35 and change, so I've saved about a thousand bucks, pending confirmation. I'm sure I got it, as it is listed among the stocks in my IRA, although the price is not in place. Financial companies must have a ton of paperwork to sort through today. The stock seems to be a dud so far. FB execs will have to do with fewer billions than anticipated. My track record in investing is mediocre. I hope I haven't jinxed this wonderful product that has a billion active users and eight billion overall. I just can't imagine myself as rich, a feeling that is almost supernatural. For example,I just received a safe driver decal from my insurance company. As soon as I saw it I felt jinxed. I can't imagine my books becoming best sellers, either, although I don't let that stop me from going out every day and promoting them. I don't feel unlucky. In fact, I've been very lucky. I just have a problem being self-assured. That seems to be the privilege of politicians, chiefly, especially the creepiest like Schumer, Wiener or Spitzer. The psyche is endlessly fascinating. I wasn't too crazy about the season finales of Person of Interest and The Mentalist. I suppose the...

Here's the latest review of Killing at Amazon, posted by a friend: "Lead character Dante's lot in life during the course of this novel leads him (and the reader) to experience a gamut of emotions: anguish, uncertainty, suspicion, despair, indifference - and rage, to cite a few. These are triggered by family dynamics, which include a son off to fight for his country and the stench of suspected spousal infidelity. Once again, author Vic Fortezza's character depiction is so in-depth that the reader is fairly forced to deal in his own mind with the thought-provoking issues with which the protagonist is faced. We've found this to be the case in several of the author's works, and here we found once again that from literary experience we can discern much regarding our own outlook, hopes and fears - if we are so adeptly led to confront them." Thanks, Bags. RIP Donna Summer, the Queen of Disco, 63, winner of five Grammys. My favorite track of hers was the hard pop She Works Hard for the Money, which was accompanied by a wonderful video that was refreshingly free of lip-synching, if I recall correctly. I remember arguing with a friend at work who was convinced the ugly, vicious rumor that Summer was transgender was true, despite the fact that she was the mother of three. He also believed the one about the late Teddy Pendergrass, which was so base I will not repeat it here. Some people.... Eduardo Saverin, co-founder of Facebook, took...

I finalized the All Hallows screenplay and it's now available as a Kindle book. I'm not completely happy with the way it came out, but I'll live with it. I worked hard to clean it up and get the format right. I laughed when I noticed a particular error in the preview copy. My scanner back in the '90's mistook a lot of the small l's as ones, so a certain name appeared like this: Mi11er. The original manuscript was done on a typewriter that had by then provided thousands of pages. The most disappointing aspect is the lack on indentation. I have no idea why the finished version has come out like that. Another disappointment, which is probably temporary, is the lack of a cover. Amazon is supposed to generate a generic one, which would be a whole lot better than the gaping blank that makes the entire endeavor seem slap dash. I doubt I'll do another Kindle book myself. It's just too frustrating. Of course, I'd be thrilled if another of my novels was published and was made available in electronic format, which finally seems here to stay. Anyway, I think the script is a lot of fun and, of course, I hope it will eventually find it's way to someone with clout. It'd be nice to earn some real money at writing for a change. The price is .99 cents and my commission for any sale would be one-third of that. Another quirk is that there are no...