Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 114
December 19, 2016
Monday words of wisdom…
That war [Vietnam] only made billionaires out of millionaires. Today’s war is making trillionaires out of billionaires. Now I call that progress.—Kurt Vonnegut
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Family Affairs. This novel is all about family—Castilblanco’s nieces, adopted families, a terrorist’s family, and broken families. You also might think twice about taking an ocean cruise again. #6 in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series” will provide you enough mystery, suspense, and thrills to get you through the end of 20...
December 15, 2016
Futuristic technology…
As a sometimes sci-fi writer, I’m always at a quandary about how many gadgets and technologies I should add to my stories. (The “sometimes” is an admission—sci-fi aficionados probably wouldn’t consider me a “purist” because I write mystery, suspense, and thriller novels too, sometimes combining the sci-fi with those genres. Genres are just keywords to describe storytelling, after all.) When author friend John Hohn (he wrote the entertaining novels Deadly Portfolio and Breached) posted on Face...
December 14, 2016
Steve’s Shorts: Toy Story…
[Dickens wrote the story “A Christmas Carol.” This is mine, and it’s dedicated to author Scott Dyson, who is mastering the horror genre quite well….]
Toy Story
Copyright 2016, Steven M. Moore
Curt Boggs’ coffee mug spilled its contents onto the Plainville Herald’s classified section. As he mopped up the spill, an ad caught his attention: “Hartley Mansion up for Sale.” He smiled as memories flooded into his mind.
He had left Plainville, Kansas for college long ago and never returned. His subsc...
December 13, 2016
Real life is stranger than fiction!
That’s what I often say about incredible current events, especially those associated with political machinations and criminal actions: I can’t write this because no one would believe me—real life is often stranger than fiction. But, in the case of my first published novel, Full Medical, maybe I was prescient, except that things could become much worse than what I portrayed in that dystopian thriller. The theme permeating the entire novel is about the rich elites ensuring the best medical cove...
December 12, 2016
Irish Stew #56…
[It’s been awhile. I use this potpourri of news when I want to make a lot of mini-op-eds about current affairs—hence the name. Or, if you like, my Irish temper blows, and then I stew. Because I already had a political op-ed set for tomorrow about the healthcare crisis, I decided to pair this with “Monday Words of Wisdom” and clear my writing to-do list a wee bit. Let’s go to it…]
International
More Saudi duplicity. I’ve often railed against the duplicitous Saudis in this blog. Sometimes I fee...
Monday words of wisdom…
What does the “B” in Benoit B Mandelbrot stand for? Answer: Benoit B Mandelbrot.
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The Collector. Most Nazis stole art not out of appreciation but for money—a famous piece can launder many dollars or be used to finance all sorts of things. What they finance here might give you the creeps. Detectives Chen and Castilblanco swim in the dark seas of illegal art in this mystery/suspense/thriller novel. Can they keep from drowning?
In libris libertas!
December 9, 2016
Movie Reviews #41…
Mars. OK, half movie, half pop science program. This series on the National Geographic channel jumps back and forth between sci-fi (the movie) and mostly current science and technology (pop science). If you can get past that boring, pedantic, and new Cosmos guy, Neil deGrasse Tyson, who seems to be the expert on everything and everywhere on TV these days (will he soon be in a Lincoln car commercial?), and the smiling Martian, Andy Weir, it’s an OK hour each week compared to the rest of the sh...
December 8, 2016
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #135…
Happy Holidays. Let me take the opportunity to wish you and yours a happy holiday season and a prosperous New Year. Make a few resolutions that are easy to keep: support and use your local public libraries, support your local bookstores, and read a lot of books. Reading is fast becoming a lost art. I appreciate that you and yours are readers and feel especially honored if you read my books.
Where do you buy books? First, many people use public libraries and buy few books. There are online len...
The “Future History” Timeline…
I believe Heinlein coined the phrase “future history” when describing his books about Lazarus Long and his descendants (sci-fi aficionados can correct me if I’m wrong). It seems a bit contradictory, but it describes well a huge story arc, a long saga if you will, that moves along through the future and over several books. Asimov’s extended Foundation series is exactly that, but the sci-fi master didn’t offer up many dates—I don’t think Heinlein did either.
I revisited and updated the timeline...
December 7, 2016
Steve’s Shorts: Ride-Along…
[In my blog posts on writing, I’ve encouraged wannabe novelists to choose journalism over an MFA if they believe they need some formal education on how to write (the key word is “formal”—they don’t). Considering this story, though, maybe an MFA is safer?]
Ride-Along
Copyright 2016, Steven M. Moore
“Have you decided on a project yet?”
Danny Reid eyed Bert McAdams over his coffee mug. He didn’t like the burnt-toast flavor of Starbucks coffee, but the store’s location attracted students—several...
