Twists in the Road for Cosa Nostra News

The Road of Death, Bolivia.

Well, I've finally done it.

I went and accepted a full-time position. 

I had been getting along nicely, but then lost a freelance client. I couldn't replace them, so I had to go "legit" and accept a full-time position in Manhattan.

I am looking forward to it. I am looking forward to having lunch with my friend Nikki, too!

Anyway, I am going to be posting less as a result. I know, this news probably gladdens my critics, but as I say, as much as I enjoy praise, it is the critics who make you better.

No more three-to-five stories a day.... I am not, however, throwing in the towel. I will write for this blog probably until the day I die, of old age or a mob hit if I finally piss them off too much.

Either way, it'll have been a fun ride.

In the past six months I have managed to steadily grow my audience by about one-third. I am getting a pretty solid 170,000 pageviews a month now. It took me three years to get to 2 million page views, and I am on track to reach 3 million much, much sooner than that.

Now if only Google would raise the goddamn CPC prices, I might make money off this thing. That is my dream, actually. To have enough money to blog (and gamble and drink and court beautiful women) without the need for a paycheck.

Maybe I'll write a book one day and make my fortune. Then I can lavish my full attention on this blog.

But as John Gotti said, you can't always roll 6s and 8s; some dark days, as we all have. I was going out of my mind one day, wondering if I needed to change the name "Cosa Nostra News."

But I ultimately realized I actually love it and that I will never change it. So sometimes you have to throw something away to realize how much you want it.

The bottom line is I never started this blog for money. I write this blog because I can't not write it.

I am obsessive. I am addicted to the "high" I get when I enter the zone, the place you go when you focus so intensely on your work, all other thoughts (and concerns) vanish from your mind.

I have written about 1,404 stories for this blog, which I started in 2011, but didn't really get serious about it until, I'd say, the spring of last year.

Total pageviews are about 2.4 million; total number of your comments: around 3,200.

I want to thank all the guys who have trusted me to tell their stories, or the stories of others. Some folks have given me insight and information that could have cost them a lot, but they trusted me and I always did right by them.

I have never burned a source and I never will.

I am going to end this now, because it is sounding like a farewell address, and it is not, it's just a: I will be starting a full-time job so I will no longer be able to offer such an expansive focus on this blog.

I will post weekly at least -- though I'd say several a times a week. I will continue the newsletter.

You continue reading, I'll continue writing. And if you don't like what I write, don't believe what I write, or think talking to an actual real life mobster is a supernatural event, I say: wake up and get a life.

I would never make stuff up "for headlines" as one critic rudely put it. There is simply too much to write about to have to make up stories...

Which reminds me: If there are stories any of you are waiting for me to write, please remind me in the comments below and I will try to get to them this week.

Other than that, I just wanna say thank you for reading and commenting and voting on each other's comments. I sincerely appreciate it... Meanwhile, I will try to post as much material I can in the next few days.

I may have a couple of surprises in store for you, as well....