Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 117
November 8, 2016
The arcane and archaic Electoral College…
[If you haven’t already voted, what are you waiting for? Don’t like any presidential candidate? Then vote for Buddha. But vote–local down-ballot races and ballot questions might be more important to you than whatever “psychopathic personality” resides in the White House (there might be two–the quote is from Kurt Vonnegut.]
Even in junior high (middle school for those in the Midwest and East), I recognized the truth of the adjectives in the title. In California, at least back then, we had to p...
November 7, 2016
Monday words of wisdom…
Social Security can pay every penny owed for the next 18 years. Lift the cap on taxable income and it’ll be solvent for decades.—Bernie Sanders
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Free PDFs for the asking: see the “Free Stuff & Contests” webpage.
In libris libertas!
November 4, 2016
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #133…
Winter’s coming! We’ve been through our few days of Indian Summer (should we call it Native American Summer to be PC?) and some weather a few weeks ago already seemed like late November. In lieu of hibernating, you might want to consider stretching out in your recliner with a good book and a glass of wine or something stronger. A fireplace also helps chase away the winter doldrums. While streaming video series or computer games are an alternative, books are less passive and stimulate your min...
November 3, 2016
Seven strategies Trump should have employed…
One can argue the strategies described below would be too little too late. Mind you, I find Trump a worse candidate than Clinton, but I’ll vote for neither one because I will not tarnish my vote by voting for any of the four (I’ve made clear my reasons in previous posts). But, whereas HRC is wickedly astute in leveraging everything she can—or rather Clinton Inc., which now includes the Obamas, Biden, Reid, and all Wasserman-Schultz’s shysters at the DNC and HRC’s campaign staff—Trump is twitt...
November 2, 2016
Steve’s Shorts: Dr. Carlos and the Slave Woman…
[The future won’t be without morally ambiguous decisions that must be made. This story describes a few. Starship Brendan’s medical officer Carlos Obregon has appeared in short stories contained in Pasodobles in a Quantum Stringscape and Fantastic Encores! He’s a bit of a Sherlock Holmes/Dr. Watson alloy. For more notes, please see the end of this story. Enjoy.]
Dr. Carlos and the Slave Woman
Copyright 2016, Steven M. Moore
Once starship Brendan left orbit, Captain Wilson stopped pacing on the...
November 1, 2016
“Peaceful transition” is a myth…
No, I’m not referring to certain Trump supporters threatening violence if HRC wins. I’m referring to HRC’s outrage that Trump might not concede. What difference would that make? He can rant all he wants about unfairness and so forth (a lot of the electoral process is “legally unfair”–just consider the Electoral College). I just want to dispel the myth that transitions are peaceful. The media in service to Clinton Inc. and even HRC at that Catholic roast of the candidates has made much of the...
October 31, 2016
Monday words of wisdom…
There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don’t know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president. This was true even in high school. Only clearly disturbed people ran for class president.—Kurt Vonnegut
H A P P Y H A L L O W E E N !!!!!! Please watch for the little goblins and ETs in the streets tonight.
Free PDFs for the asking: see the “Free Stuff & Contests” webpage.
October 28, 2016
Movie Reviews #38…
The Accountant. Gavin O’Connor, dir. I generally find the pretty-boy half of the Affleck/Damon duo (Good Will Hunting) overrated as an actor and a bad role model for all his philandering, so I was surprised when Ben Affleck as creative accountant Christian Wolff did a pretty good job in this movie. His highly functional autistic character, a money-manager for several criminal concerns, comes across as almost believable in this movie, but I’d like to hear what experts say. Like Rainman, Wolff...
October 27, 2016
Action scenes…
The minimalist writing technique I use applies to action scenes as well as it does to other writing elements when constructing your short story, novella, or novel. Often called hard-boiled in the detective literature, it means adding just enough detail so your reader can participate in the creative process and form his own picture of the action taking place. The key words of course are “enough detail.” Goldilocks says not too little and not too much, but just enough. But what is “enough detai...
October 26, 2016
Steve’s shorts: Russians, Part Five of Five…
Russians
Copyright 2016, Steven M. Moore
Part Five of Five
Fonseca watched another black SUV pull in behind the VW. He left the McDonald’s and approached the car.
“Sergeant Fonseca,” he said, offering his hand.
The man behind the wheel shook it. “Special Agent Morales. Anita called us from the houseboat. Don’t tell me we’re too late.”
“The professor’s car is still here. They’re not. Waitress said they left with two thugs. Her word, not mine. She thought that our two on the run didn’t want to...
