Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 101
July 20, 2017
Languages…
When you get to be my age—old but young-at-heart—you start wondering if you had to do it all over again, what different choices would you make. Life is about choices, of course—choices covering an entire spectrum, from small to big. You might have some regrets too. That’s only human.
I don’t regret the choices I’ve made in my personal life. Given the same circumstances, I’d make the same ones. I wouldn’t have minded if some of them had turned out differently—I’d like to decrease the bad exper...
July 18, 2017
What’s going on in Venezuela?
For decades Venezuela rode the wave of oil profits, suffered through incompetent governments and dictatorships, and betrayed the vision of Bolivar. Under Chavez and his cronies, the ideology changed but the sins did not. Sr. Chavez excited all the wannabe Lenins in the U.S. and Europe, but what they got was a mini-Stalin, mini in the sense that Venezuela is a smaller country than the Soviet Union, so Chavez couldn’t torture and kill as many people! Now Mr. Maduro is simply an overripe plantai...
July 17, 2017
Monday words of wisdom…
The word for “fake news” in Putin’s Russia is simply “news.”—Garry Kasparov
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There’s a big book Summer/Winter Smashwords site-wide promo from July 1 – 31. You have be a member to receive the email catalog. Join Smashwords—it’s free, and it provides a large universe of reading entertainment. Almost all my ebooks are on sale with price reductions from 25 – 50 %. That includes the first six books in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series.” Load your e-reader up for summer (northern hemi...
July 14, 2017
Vive la France!
Today is Bastille Day. Best wishes to all the French around the world!
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In libris libertas!
July 13, 2017
Endangered species: short fiction…
When I start a story, it can become a novel, novella, or short story. I don’t force it. O’Henry was a master of the short story and said a lot in a few words. Nothing wrong with that!
Unfortunately short stories and novellas don’t sell well. Magazines and literary journals were the chief publishers of short fiction. They’re languishing if not disappearing. Short story collections have a hard time acquiring readers and reviewers too. Agents and publishers shun short fiction.
With all this goin...
July 12, 2017
Mr. T’s birthday…
Today is Henry David Thoreau’s birthday. In keeping with the environmental theme of my posts this week, I should be lauding this icon of the environmental and naturalist movement. I won’t do that, so let me explain why.
I don’t like to speak ill about the dead, but I lived in Concord for a few years and the Boston area for many more. An observant person living in that area couldn’t help but notice that Mr. T was a nut who would be institutionalized today if we had any quality mental hospitals...
July 11, 2017
Op-eds…
What’s this? An op-ed about op-eds? In general, my posts on Tuesdays are op-eds. They’re short articles expressing my opinions about current events and their implications in our lives. My inspiration was a pithy little book by Kurt Vonnegut titled A Man without a Country containing biting and entertaining sarcasm, its articles about some absurdities in our American lives.
Op-eds tend to rub people the wrong way if they don’t keep an open mind. Even if the writer presents views the reader does...
July 10, 2017
Monday words of wisdom…
Protecting our environment is not a radical idea; it is a moral responsibility.—Bernie Sanders
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There’s a big book Summer/Winter Smashwords site-wide promo from July 1 – 31. You have be a member to receive the email catalog. Join Smashwords—it’s free, and it provides a large universe of reading entertainment. Almost all my ebooks are on sale with price reductions from 25 – 50 %. That includes the first six books in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series.” Load your e-reader up for su...
July 6, 2017
Moving on…
My publisher Penmore Press and I are still in the throes of PR and marketing for my new book, Rembrandt’s Angel. Like all my books, this will an ongoing effort for years to come. Traditionally or indie published, or any of the combinations in between, this is the average writer’s task now. While most publishers can do a lot to help, it’s increasingly on the author to promote her or his book. Only King and other superstars of the writing world get the VIP treatment—paid trailers on TV, full-pa...
July 5, 2017
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #146…
Summer reading. Vacation or staycation, you can get some good R&R by reading a good novel or two. Also short story collections which portion out good tales in bite-size chunks even when your days are full. In fact, even if your days are hectic with different activities related to work or play, a good book can be a rich dessert to top everything off. It’s a good time to catch up on those books you’ve been meaning to read too!
There are many book sales for summer and holidays. Avid readers watc...
