Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 130

Mini-Reviews #21…

[I was cleaning off my book shelves and found a hardbound I’m definitely offering up to some school book fair. They might get a buck for it?]

By the Book. Pamela Paul, ed. (New York Times, Henry Holt, 2014). The long subtitle is “Writers on Literature and the Literary Life, from the NY Times Book Review.” First objection: most of these people aren’t writers by my definition. Lena Dunham? Not exactly a prolific writer. Neither are Colin Powell, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emma Thompson, Sting, Caro...

Seeing things in black and white…

[Mary Jo Melendez wishes all her Mexican friends–and anyone into the south-of-the-border spirit(s) (love them margaritas)–a MUY FELIZ CINCO DE MAYO!]

Many people complain about the political polarization in America. I think the polarization goes far beyond politics. People now see things in black and white. “Either you’re for A or you’re against it,” or “Either you’re for A or B,” have become the SOP of U.S. societal discourse. No one wants to bother with nuances. A is either all good or bad....

What do readers want?

[Consider this to be part two of last week’s “Forget that Audience.”]

One answer to this question would be some magic formula that guarantees an author s/he’ll have a bestseller. I’d be the first person standing in line to buy that formula, but I’m also enough of a realist to know that it doesn’t exist! What do Fifty Shades, The Martian, and Harry Potter have in common? They surprised the hell out of every agent and editor who thinks they’re privy to that formula, that’s what! Even Amazon adm...

Irish Stew #53…

[Regular readers of this blog know the stew is a collection of mini-op-eds expressing my opinions about current news items. Don’t like the opinions? Say so in a comment…or write your own blog! The more the merrier.]

International. So Barack Obama’s all sentimental about his relationship with Angela Merkel? You’d think she’d have enough of sentimental U.S. presidents. Germany, the juggernaut of the E.U., is having problems. Merkel’s good intentions in receiving refugees from the Middle East ha...

Monday words of wisdom….

Respect your peers and make new friends. Shared tears and beers is how love begins.

***

May Day Sale. It continues this week. Mary Jo Melendez invites you to a Kindle Countdown Sale. Her stories, Muddlin’ Through and Silicon Slummin’…and Just Gettin’ By, will be on sale through May 6, $0.99 each, reduced from $2.99. That’s a lot of spring and summer reading for only $2. Want more summer reading? Check out my catalog: here’s my Amazon page. Three more series, twenty more recent books, all save...

News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #120…

News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #120…

[Double feature today—anyone remember them? Sometimes two B sci-fi movies in one day? You have it here—this newsletter and two movie reviews.]

Series. J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series is a pretty good example of how to write one—no egregious cliffhangers, and just a study progression developing a lot of the same characters from book to book and interesting new ones along with a new plot. What she didn’t change from book to book was the theme...

Movie Reviews #26…

[Two good, one bad—not too bad compared to most of the crap coming out of Hollywood.]

Eye in the Sky. Gavid Hood, dir. Colonel Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) has been pursuing a British compatriot turned terrorist for six years. The colonel is part of a multinational team led by Lieutenant General Frank Benson (Alan Rickman) that uses drones to surgically remove terrorist leaders. Moviegoers will see this different ways. Some will say that such strikes aren’t morally correct for any reason....

Advertising on my website…

Visitors to my website might have noted that I don’t advertise anything beyond my books here. It’s an author’s website, after all, not The Huffington Post or Forbes. You won’t see pop-up ads. In fact, I hope to remove those annoying “Buy Now” buttons in a future upgrade to the website. The interested reader will be able to click on the cover and go to the Amazon book page, I hope. Otherwise, I’ll change “Buy Now” to “Amazon Page” or something less annoying than “Buy Now.”

As the number of rea...

Forget that audience…

“Know your audience” is an adage that might work for Hillary Clinton when deciding to charge $33,000 per plate at a Hollywood A-listers’ campaign financing dinner (just more one-percenters in Hillary’s camp, but even Clooney said $33K was obscene), but it’s not a tactic that’s any use to a storyteller pushing her or his stories. Here’s much better advice for writers: just tell the story you’re itching to tell and do it well. While following either piece of advice doesn’t guarantee that Field...

Will voters get what they expect?

Hillary Clinton panders to black and Latino voters—will they get what they expect from a woman who wants the min wage at $12? Bernie Sanders panders to young voters faced with huge costs if they go to college—will they get what they expect from a man with remarkable vision, something Clinton lacks, but who isn’t willing to make deals with politicians as corrupt as Clinton? Trump panders to disgruntled voters effectively disenfranchised by the GOP—but will he have a rude awakening when that sa...