Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 111
January 26, 2017
Biographies, histories, and memoirs…
All good ones avoid the spoiler-alert phenomenon when the reader already knows the real-world facts about what went on. That they are non-fiction doesn’t matter—they still have to be an interesting story to maintain my attention. Pages and pages of droll facts cause me to skip just as much as excess world-building in a sci-fi novel or excess narrative in a mystery (those are often the same thing). And I really don’t want a freak show like famous person X having a two-headed cousin who married...
January 25, 2017
Steve’s shorts: The Interview…
The Interview
Copyright 2017, Steven M. Moore
From his screened-in porch, Adam Hart heard the grinding gears. Someone wasn’t skilled in driving stick, but the driver was coming along the windy, gravel road leading to his cabin. He went inside, unlocked his gun case, and took the shotgun back to the porch and propped it up by the chair he had been sitting in. Nothing like disturbing my peace and quiet!
He’d been enjoying the bird calls, the sound of a woodpecker off in the distance, and an in...
January 24, 2017
Accessible doesn’t mean affordable…
Believe me, I want to give Mr. Trump a chance. At least he speaks out against the Washington insiders. In spite of disgruntled naysayers, he is our legitimate president. He played by the rules and won fair and square. Yes, I understand these rules are rigged: the GOP has twice lost the popular vote in recent memory and won in the Electoral College. But those are the rules; he won.
Mr. Trump, a newcomer to the political scene, is an unknown factor, although we’ve had strong and troubling hints...
January 23, 2017
Monday words of wisdom…
Vladimir Putin is a strong leader in the same way arsenic is a strong drink.—Gary Kasparov
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Coming soon! Gaia and the Goliaths. Climate control and environmental issues are on everyone’s mind right now. They’re on Chen and Castilblanco’s minds too when they’re called in to solve the murder of an environmental activist. A Big Apple case soon becomes national and international, though, with Russia and an old nemesis of the detectives become involved in a multi-country hunt for the activist’s...
January 20, 2017
Movie Reviews #43…
Hidden Figures. Theodore Melfi, dir. Racial and gender biases in science and technology are always ugly. As a working scientist, I always thought everyone should be given an equal opportunity to show what they can do, especially in critical R&D where time constraints must be met head on by the best and brightest. I still do. This movie follows three black women—Katherine Goble Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn, and Mary Jackson, played ably and respectively by Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Jan...
Mini-Reviews of Books #24…
Our Revolution. Bernie Sanders, author (Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s, 2016). Thank goodness for Christmas gifts. The price on the flyleaf for this hardbound is $27! Not Bernie’s fault, of course. If you don’t know it already, Bernie Sanders is one of my heroes, right up there with Kurt Vonnegut. I identified with this man and his campaign—probably the first time since McGovern—and now I know why. His background is similar and his views are similar. Mind you, I don’t agree with him 100%, but the...
January 19, 2017
Book reading and literacy…
There are plenty of stats out there that show readership—do I dare say literacy?—is down. Many people don’t read a book after high school. Many don’t read one after college. While online material keeps increasing, Facebook posts and Twitter tweets are now read more than blog posts, and the latter, like this one, can’t be called literature by any stretch and Facebook and Twitter might as well be mutterings from prehistoric shamans. What’s going on?
As might be expected, I tend to communicate,...
January 18, 2017
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #137…
More books and authors, fewer readers? Peruse my blog post tomorrow and see if you agree. Comments are always welcome. You can do so directly in the blog; that’s public, so if you want to keep them private, use my contact page. In any case, please remove foul language, whether you agree or disagree. Let’s keep internet discussions civil.
New review for More than Human: The Mensa Contagion. Ramon Somoza has written a nice review of this sci-fi saga, illustrating that sci-fi is international. H...
January 17, 2017
The progressive imperative…
I imagine many people are yearning for Bernie Sanders right now—yearn for the Bern! If you were a Clinton supporter, admit it: she failed you. If you were a Trump supporter, you might have considered Sanders because his message about trade agreements hurting America’s working classes was similar to Trump’s, although his alternative had its genesis in his genuine concern for people and not Il Duce’s faux-concern just to get votes (HRC’s was false too, but she would have made a better president...
January 16, 2017
Monday words of wisdom…
Let’s all work for a colorblind America and its extensions–racial, religious, health, and other rights must not take steps backward in these troubled times. On a lighter note:
I think that novels that leave out technology misrepresent life as badly as Victorians misrepresented life by leaving out sex.—Kurt Vonnegut
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Silicon Slummin’…and Just Gettin’ By. The Silicon Valley hasn’t seen anyone like Mary Jo Melendez, ex-USN Master-at-Arms, and she’s not sure she wants to stay there either. Rea...
