Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 127
June 14, 2016
Do politicians train for corruption?
This question is generated by the goings-on in New York now. The leader of the corrections workers union was just indicted. Several cops in managerial positions in the NYPD were indicted. Two state legislature VIPs, one from the Assembly and the other from the Senate, are going to jail for taking bribes. Bill de Blasio’s mayoral campaign has been accused of illegally channeling donations to candidates for that state legislature to try to ensure a Democratic legislature that is favorable to th...
June 13, 2016
Monday words of wisdom…
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.—Oscar Wilde
***
“Clones and Mutants Trilogy” is on sale. Some authors bundle a series or part of a series. Here’s an alternative: from now until July 1, all three books in the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy” are on sale AT SMASHWORDS, $0.99 for each ebook, reduced from $2.99. The clones make their appearance in Full Medical (coupon code VJ44L) as part of a complex government conspiracy, they combine forces with the mutant in Evil...
June 10, 2016
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #123…
Summer is here! Not officially, but the past Memorial Day is often considered the unofficial start of summer. People were hitting the beaches in the tri-state area; many also remembered what that holiday signifies too. For the rest of the summer, in your leisure time, why not find a shady tree or park under your umbrella on the beach and catch up on your reading. Your choices are practically infinite with so many good books and good authors writing entertaining fiction and informative non-fic...
June 9, 2016
Nuclear hypocrisy…
Does anyone else see the hypocrisy in Mr. Obama’s trip to Hiroshima? Or, at least the irony? OK, as a guy who wordsmiths full-time now, what the president said is both ironic and hypocritical. His basic message was that everyone has to work toward a nuke-free world. No apology for dropping the bomb (more on this later), but that message was clear. It was hypocritical because the U.S. isn’t doing that, and it’s ironic if Mr. Obama really knows he’s being hypocritical.
The nuclear powers of the...
June 8, 2016
“The times they are a-changin'” in the book world…
With apologies to Dylan (that phrase is justifiably part of American heritage now and probably international), I thought this would be a good title for an article about how publishing is changing in America and around the world. From readership to media and writers to retail, things are changing so fast that it’s even hard for people heavily involved in the business to keep up with things.
Readers have it good in general. With so many good books and so many good authors, in all fiction genres...
June 7, 2016
Trump “University”?
I’m a bit tired of proselytes creating some institution to further their own agendas. The religious institutions—your BYU, Catholic, Liberty, Oscar Roberts, SMU colleges and universities, and so forth—are bad enough. Next thing you know, cults like the Scientologists and Hare Krishnas will start one up. Others push a different religion—capitalistic exploitation. They’re a “notch up” from all those scumbags who write books and give speeches telling gullible people, “If you just do what I did,...
June 6, 2016
My sample ballot arrived…
[If you’re looking for “Monday Words of Wisdom,” you’ll find them at the end of this article.]
…and it tells me a lot about the NJ primary election. First, the top line corresponds to NJ’s Dem establishment—the slate of officially sanctioned NJ Dem committee blah-blah-blah’s candidates. I’ll ignore that whole line and not just because Mrs. Bill Clinton leads that linear parade. I have no use for the Dem establishment anymore. It’s shown it’s true colors. Arrogant, entitled, presumptuous, anti...
June 3, 2016
Why movies are failing you…
OK, maybe they’re not. You might be in love with those “original screenplays” featuring gratuitous but steamy sex, car chases, main characters (MCs) hanging from helicopters, and so forth. You’re an audiovisual person who puts aural and visual stimulation over everything else. Maybe a person addicted to video games and YouTube videos? Lots of gunshots, bomb blasts, and marching zombies going off to war? Why in the hell are you reading this article then?
For the rest of us (presumably the majo...
June 2, 2016
Educating the world…
Last Friday I reviewed the film The Man Who Knew Infinity about English mathematician Hardy’s “discovery” of the great Indian number theory genius Ramanujan. The movie is based on the book with the same title by Robert Kanigel. I read Hardy’s A Mathematician’s Apology decades ago, so the release of the film stirred some old memories, including some about importing scientists. The U.S. does it all the time; so do more industrialized countries in the E.U.; the U.K. does it to all the Commonweal...
June 1, 2016
Interviewing mystery writer and scientist Leah Devlin…
[Readers of this blog might recall that I reviewed Leah Devlin’s excellent mystery Ægir’s Curse last Wednesday. Without further ado, you can now meet this multi-talented woman.]
About Leah:
Steve: Leah, could you start by telling the readers something about yourself?
Leah: I’m American of Swedish and Irish descent. I’m a mystery and thriller writer and marine biologist, the latter giving authenticity to the scientific background of the “Woods Hole Mysteries,” comprised of The Bottom Dwellers...
