Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 119
October 11, 2016
Genius?
I tend to reserve that word for special people. Einstein, Ramanujan, Michelangelo, Mozart, Shakespeare, and others come to mind. Trump calls himself a genius, though, so, ignoring the braggadocio and narcissism, can a business person be a genius? Maybe the founders of Microsoft, Apple, and Google, but probably not even them. Certainly not Trump. He’s more of a robber baron than a genius.
America’s tax laws are so bad that he can get away with declaring a 917 million-dollar loss and profit fro...
October 10, 2016
Monday words of wisdom…
You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog.—Harry S. Truman
In libris libertas!
October 6, 2016
Dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction
This subgenre of sci-fi (or set of key words to describe a plot) waxes and wanes and generally reflects the pessimism in society. Often a reaction to a real or perceived threat, books described by one or both these key words have attracted readers. I’d read all the classics before I entered high school. Maybe this is unusual for a lad who was supposed to be more curious about those strange creatures called girls, but it was the Cold War. Reading pessimistic books about my possible future seem...
October 5, 2016
Steve’s Shorts: Russians, Part Two of Five…
Russians
Copyright 2016, Steven M. Moore
Part Two of Five
The next morning Leo Fonseca was at the office. He studied the CSU’s photos of Vlad Levitsky’s bedroom, an idea forming. That roommate, Mary Sue, had said it was always a mess, but was it messier than it should be? The mattress on the single bed was crooked, but the bed was made. Hiding the blood? Or looking underneath? A few drawers in the old desk were half-opened, and memory sticks were scattered on the top among the takeout cartons...
October 4, 2016
Abdullah bin al-Hussein…
He’s King of Jordan and not a terrorist. (I almost chose that name for a terrorist in one of my books. What a mistake that would have been!) I’m not into monarchs and dynasties, not even political ones, but he and his country represent the one shining star of sanity in a very troubled region. Sixty Minutes, that venerable CBS news program, started its new season with him, and justifiably so. In the interview he spoke candidly. I came to admire this man whom I now consider a hero for not only...
October 3, 2016
Monday words of wisdom…
It is an obscenity that we stigmatize so many young Americans with a criminal record for smoking marijuana, but not one major Wall Street executive has been prosecuted for causing the near collapse of our entire economy.—Bernie Sanders
In libris libertas!
September 29, 2016
International headlines…
[When I can’t wait to comment…]
Empty threats from the Saudis. Obama and the Saudis aren’t happy with the congressional override of the President’s veto. The U.S. Congress did their job for once; Obama put another nail in the coffin of his legacy. And, of course, the duplicitous Saudis are making threats. Let’s do a search-and-destroy mission of two major ones:
(1) The Saudis threaten to sell off all their U.S. holdings. Ho-hum. It doesn’t take a Nobel Prize winner in economics to understand...
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #131…
Calling all readers. (This is a reaction to a short and probably inaccurate NY Times article.) Nielsen and publishers’ reports indicate a declining American readership. Only about 50% of those polled plan to read at least one book in the next year. That’s a bit nebulous, but it confirms my suspicions: Americans are not reading much for pleasure anymore.
I don’t have accurate stats, but the reasons seem obvious: people are entertained or distracted by many other things now. Reading a novel tak...
Short story, novella, or novel?
Readers don’t worry too much about this question, except when an author tries to scam them with a “novel” that’s 10 kwords (the other extreme is possible too: I’ve become annoyed when I want to just read a nice short story, and it turns out to be a 30-40 kword novella). Readers only want to read a good story, period. Maybe they worry more about genre than plot (genres nowadays are just key words to describe a plot) and have reasonable criteria—for example, no porn and in English (I’ll read a...
September 28, 2016
Steve’s Shorts: Russians, Part One of Five…
[This story originates from a relatively new what-if that came to me when the events mentioned in the story surrounding the Russian agents in my home town played out—yes, that really happened! I finally got around to telling a similar story based on my what-if. It has a setting more in tune with many college students starting their classes this month. Enjoy.]
Russians
Copyright 2016, Steven M. Moore
Part One of Five
Professor Boris Vashchenko left his desk chair and walked over to his office...
