Ace's Writings
What Happened At The R&R? was Ace's first short story. He wrote it for a creative writing class he was taking back in the early 1970's at The County College of Morris in Randolph, NJ. "Write what you know" is the prime edict, especially for beginners, and, having grown up in the poolroom, Ace knew pool. Over the years, he has written several short stories and poems about the game of pocket billiards. They are gathered together at Ace's Pool & Billiards subdomain along with other interesting billiards features, like pages dedicated to billiards in fine art, photos of celebrities shooting pool and how to choose pool cues.
Original Art, Lit & Music Bios
It Started With Patricia Cornwell
Ace's first webpages showcased his own writings. Things were pretty quiet back then in the 1990's as he learned html and posted pages on the free space provided
by his ISP, earthlink. Ace's World: Inside Out is still out there is cyberspace for those who care. One day,
he got the bright idea of dedicating a page to his favorite author Patricia Cornwell. To this
day, that page is his most successful in regards to hits and traffic. Encouraged, Ace started featuring other authors, including Dean Koontz, John Sandford, Ed
McBain, Janet Evanovich and John Grisham. Today, his book pages feature more than forty authors.
For fans of the John Sandford Prey Series and Patricia Cornwell Kay Scarpetta novels, printable checklists are available on their book pages.
Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then.
Unfortunately, Ace wasn't blessed with artistic talent. Rumor has it, Dover, NJ art teacher, Mr. Huntzinger took away his crayons during a second grade art session. He never recovered. Still,
he's been lucky enough to count among his friends some gifted artists, like his uncle, Bob Ricciotti, a graduate of NYC's School of Visual Arts, and
the multi-talented Rob Barth. So, it was somewhat natural that he would want to incorporate art into his website. He again began with original bios
of masters like Salvador Dali, M.C. Escher, Ansel Adams, and Gustav Klimt. Most
popular of his writings on art is his article The Truth About Van Gogh's Pool Table a favorite of billiards enthusiasts.
The Old Ball Game
Life for young Ace wasn't always roses and sunshine - there was also darkness and gloom. But, thankfully, even on the gloomiest of days, his passion for baseball supplied him with a joyful distraction. Even today this passion still glows brightly as
his recent blog piece about Shoeless Joe Jackson testifies. Of course, being a Jersey boy, his early interest was not with the White Sox, but instead with the New York Yankees. And his first hero
was not Shoeless Joe Jackson, but the Sultan of Swat, Babe Ruth. So, it was only a matter of time before his web world would incorporate baseball in particular and
sports in general. His webpage dedicated to Baseball Math is another of his most highly visited pages. In addition to baseball, Ace is an avid follower of the NFL and the NBA.
Waa Waa OOOOO
Another distraction from the rude realities of his early life was music. He began, like legions of his contemporaties, by channeling Elvis and Fabian Forte. As a teenager, he and his uncle Bob Ricciotti sang Roy Orbison's
Only The Lonely as a duet which sort of catapulted them into the world of doo-wop. There exists a great tape, which was a product of a brief reunion back in the 1980's, of Ace and his friends singing Some Kind of Wonderful.
Unfortunately, Carol King and EMI would not give permission for him to post the song as a tribute to lead singer Tommy Gross who, sadly, passed away with little fanfare. Ace blogged about the episode in the Tampa Bay Media Watch.
There are some studio versions of country songs Ace wrote and recorded with his friends at ReverbNation.com for those who are interested in hearing the sweet sounds of Tommy Gross or Ace's off-key baritone. Paying tribute to some of
the most popular artists of this and any era, Ace has written more than thirty original biographies, not to mention what you can find at his music subdomain. There he features artists of different genres, including
contemporary rock, pop, classic rock, rap and jazz, and artists as diverse as Fall Out Boy, Evanescence, The Doors, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber.
Ace Toscano is a writer of short stories, poems, articles, blogs, plays, bios, letters, checks, emails, etc. He writes about pool. He writes about life. And almost everything he writes finds its way to his website AcesWebWorld.com.