Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 115
December 6, 2016
Time for a strong third party?
It’s no secret that I often express admiration for the multiparty system found in many European countries. Many people see this as chaos, and it does seem to make democracy more chaotic as it provides homes for a wide spectrum of opinions but also forces politicos to seek compromise in order to find a majority. But could such a system work in the U.S.? In my last op-ed post I lamented that the progressive movement was dying. Could we at least progress to the point of having a true progressive...
December 5, 2016
Monday words of wisdom…
Our daily news sources, newspapers and TV, are now so craven, so unvigilant on behalf of the American people, so uninformative, that only in books do we learn what’s really going on.—Kurt Vonnegut
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Teeter-Totter between Lust and Murder. #3 in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series,” this mystery/suspense/thriller novel has more twists and turns than a carnival pretzel. Chen is accused of murder, so naturally Castilblanco tries to help her. But there is a lot more to the murder than m...
December 1, 2016
YA prose…
[Wow! December 1 already! If you’re in the market for stocking-stuffers and/or gifts for your reading friends (and yourself), don’t forget books. Print is a wee bit too big for the stocking, but an Amazon gift card for ebook purchases fits nicely there. Reading is the most exciting and educational entertainment you can do. No computer game or movie lets you get inside the minds of characters–that’s mind-blowing!]
When I thought about writing my first YA novel, The Secret Lab, I perused many Y...
November 30, 2016
Steve’s Shorts: A Singing Sadness…
[I just found another early short story…and it contains a poem! I won’t say when the story was written, but it has current relevance. It can be classified as shorts that are almost a speedo…but get rid of that image right now! Enjoy…]
A Singing Sadness
Copyright 2016, Steven M. Moore
Mila Park walked slowly to the lectern. She preferred to be out on a dig, but her sponsors thought this find was important. As the South American Combine prepared for war with the North African Union, tensions e...
November 29, 2016
The progressive agenda is in trouble…
First, let’s end a misconception: not all progressives are liberal, and not all liberals are progressive. The last election offers evidence for the latter: HRC’s “liberal message” was “more of the same” and was directed more to certain sectors of our society instead of to all. Too many voters didn’t like this “liberal message,” most of them coming from the sectors HRC neglected. More women voted for Trump than HRC too, so that “first woman president” pseudo-progressive message didn’t resonate...
November 28, 2016
Monday words of wisdom…
So many of these heartless PPs [psychopathic personalities] now hold big jobs in our federal government, as though they were leaders instead of sick. They have taken charge. They have taken charge of communications and the schools, so we might as well be Poland under occupation.—Kurt Vonnegut
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Aristocrats and Assassins. Detective Castilblanco and his wife go on vacation. They both see a wee bit too much of Europe, including a few royals who are kidnapped. Written before the Paris, Brussels...
November 25, 2016
Movie Reviews #40…
Loving. Jeff Nichols, writer/dir. While this true story is a better romance than anything schlockmeister Sparks writes, it’s much more. It’s a slow, intense suspense story that’s better than almost any fiction you can find! Although I knew the ending, that “spoiler alert” didn’t spoil any of my interest and enjoyment.
Let’s face it: this story of a white man married to a black woman and their long fight to make that legitimate in a state still having an egregious anti-miscegenation law on its...
November 24, 2016
Are short story collections dead?
[Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving!]
For me, probably DOA. I have three collections (not counting the one I offer as a PDF free for the asking), and they sell zilch. Two are even priced low in order to serve as an introduction to my writing. It doesn’t matter. They don’t do well. I have a short story in a crime anthology too. But whether crime/mystery/thriller or sci-fi, it just seems readers aren’t interested in short stories or novellas.
That’s hard to understand. In our current hectic lif...
November 23, 2016
Steve’s Shorts: Emma5…
[Encounters with ETs don’t need to happen in space…and they could be a bit racy…For those of you traveling during this busiest travel time of the year, have a safe and easy trip!]
Emma5
Copyright 2016, Steven M. Moore
Chapter One
Mari fought to control starship Odysseus as it bit into the atmosphere. Alarms were sounding. The calm but irritating voice of Jason, their AI, still came through on her com implant, so she killed his alarms.
“Dip and dive!” said Hana. “We have to keep it from breaki...
November 22, 2016
A crippled court…
Now that Trump has won, the GOP-controlled Congress will probably receive a new nominee for the court to replace Obama’s. When it looked like HRC would win in a landslide in the Electoral College (what a difference a day makes!), there were major threats from Congress to the effect that they wouldn’t approve any nominee during her presidency. That would have been yet another blow to an important but sick democratic institution and would have continued its crippled state we saw in many importa...
