{"id":298,"date":"2025-11-08T06:31:05","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T06:31:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rfscal.wp-spartans.com\/?p=298"},"modified":"2025-11-28T18:58:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T18:58:21","slug":"writing-tips-for-aspiring-authors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/08\/writing-tips-for-aspiring-authors\/","title":{"rendered":"Story Of The Week"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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From Frankie in Elmwood Park:<\/strong><\/h4>\n

One night back in 1996, I headed over to the local bar on Friday night.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was more crowded than usual on this night, so I was forced to park a block away on a side street.<\/p>\n

While I was retrieving my coat from the back seat, a loud noise slamming of hands on my car, suddenly startled me.\u00a0 When I turned forward, I saw Joe, a neighborhood guy who was known as a prolific drug user.\u00a0 I knew Joe on a more personal level, since we played basketball together at the local park when we were younger.<\/span><\/p>\n

Joe was looking at me in the car, his eyes bulging from the sockets, looking like they were going to pop right out of his head.\u00a0 My first thought was, \u201cI\u2019m not getting out of this car.\u201d\u00a0 I knew about his drug problem, and at this very moment, he was frightening.\u00a0 Joe quickly came to the door, leaving me no option but to get out of the car.\u00a0 Before I could say one word, Joe said, \u201cYou have any money? I\u2019m hungry.\u201d\u00a0 Knowing Joe had drug issues and life problems in general, I didn\u2019t want to give him cash and contribute to his drug problems, so I offered to take him to a fast-food restaurant just a block away. \u00a0Joe quickly changed course and said, \u201cForget the food.\u00a0 Just give me some money so I can go get a room and get some sleep.\u201d\u00a0 Again, I had a pretty good idea that Joe wanted the cash to get drugs, but I wasn\u2019t going to help him.\u00a0 There was a tiny hotel several blocks away, so I said, \u201cJump in, I\u2019ll drive you there and pay for a room.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Either Joe realized what I was up to, or he simply lost his patience.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Joe\u2019s eyes popped out of his sockets again as he yelled at me, \u201cYou know I\u2019m a fucking junkie, just give me the fucking money.\u201d\u00a0 Fear quickly rumbled through my whole body.\u00a0 Without hesitation, I peeled a $20 bill from my pocket and gave it to Joe.\u00a0 Joe looked at the $20 bill with disgust and said, \u201cThat\u2019s all you have?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Joe sized me up and down.\u00a0 I held firm as Joe, and I locked eyes.\u00a0 He finally said, \u201cNice shoes,\u201d and went on his way.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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From Frankie in Elmwood Park: One night back in 1996, I headed over to the local bar on Friday night.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/book-composition-with-open-book-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":786,"href":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions\/786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}