Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 131
April 25, 2016
Monday words of wisdom…
A Buddhist monk approaches a hotdog stand and says, “Make me one with everything.” (Apologies to my Detective Castilblanco, who became a Buddhist.)
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May Day Sale. 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 from April 29 through May 6, $0.99 each, reduced from $2.99. That’s a lot of spring and summer reading for only $2.
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #119…
[This is the post from last Friday. I had to redo it because of a WordPress glitch. My apologies.]
How to help your favorite authors. 1. Buy their books. Those authors get off on entertaining you or informing you. Reward them for activating those pleasure endorphins. 2. Review their books. A simple review about what you like or dislike about a book and why informs readers and the author. 3. Follow them and share. Both Amazon and Goodreads allow the first. It’s much better than a simple “like....
April 22, 2016
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #119…
How to help your favorite authors. 1. Buy their books. Those authors get off on entertaining you or informing you. Reward them for activating those pleasure endorphins. 2. Review their books. A simple review about what you like or dislike about a book and why informs readers and the author. 3. Follow them and share. Both Amazon and Goodreads allow the first. It’s much better than a simple “like.” And most social media sites allow you to share, so do so with the blurb of the book and news abou...
April 21, 2016
Social networking for authors: pros and cons…
Book signings, book fairs, and book clubs take second place for today’s authors. While those three activities still offer some face-to-face possibilities locally and nationally (if you have the money to travel and the time), the internet has to be number one for any author today, whether indie or traditionally published. (I’m discounting the Hugh Howeys and Andy Weirs, who started as indie, and all the old stallions and mares in the Big Five’s stables, who probably have a staff to do their so...
April 20, 2016
Mini-Reviews #20…
[Two crime stories today that maybe justify the $0 price? Don’t take my word for it, of course. Reviews are always just a reader’s opinion. Yours is as good as mine—maybe even better!]
Eleven. Carolyn Arnold, author (Hibbert & Stiles, 2011). There’s a lot of publishing folklore out there. One bit of advice to authors is: give away the first book in the series so that readers are attracted to the rest of the series. Another, almost contradictory piece of advice: write the next book in the seri...
April 19, 2016
Irish Stew #52…
International
Despicable Saudis in the news again. It’s not enough that they teach hate in their religious schools. It’s not enough that the royal family are cowards who walk the tightrope between supporting Sunni terrorists outright and enjoying the products of the infidel West while exploiting minorities and immigrants as virtual slaves. Now their jails provide a cushy life for jihadists, special gifts and spousal visitations await these thugs and murderers. A report in the NY Times (4/10)...
April 18, 2016
Monday words of wisdom…
The human race may starve, but at least it will be GMO-free.
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May Day Sale. 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 from April 29 through May 6, $0.99 each, reduced from $2.99. That’s a lot of spring and summer reading for only $2.
HAPPY TAX DAY!
April 15, 2016
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #118…
(UN)HAPPY TAX DAY!
Lee Child loves me. Probably not. Readers might have seen the quote from one of his books that runs across the top of this website. His secretary approved that; I thanked her, not Lee Child. I imagine his secretary also arranged to send out the marketing blurb on his behalf from Goodreads which recommends Steve Berry’s new book, The 14th Colony. Probably every Goodreads member received that spam. Or, maybe just those interested in mysteries and thrillers? I wonder how much...
April 14, 2016
Scientists and mathematicians #3…
Some theoretical physicists play loose with mathematics. Feynman, for example, never worried about the convergence of the series needed to calculate things in QED (that’s quantum electrodynamics); in fact, he designed a technique, now called Feynman diagrams, to allow him to throw away infinities easily and just hoped things would work out. That’s called renormalization. The renormalization of quantum field theories became a big deal. The electro-weak theory of Weinberg, Glashow, and Salam, d...
April 13, 2016
Points on an alternate timeline…
That’s what many of my books represent. I’ve had great fun scattering them along this timeline corresponding to an imagined but alternate future history for 10+ years. You’re probably not aware of the nexus between these books. Maybe you’ll be surprised. “OK, you have four series,” you say. “Aren’t those at least independent?” One is, the “Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries,” a miniseries of two books so far, Muddlin’ Through and Silicon Slummin’…and Just Gettin’ By (the two books are on sale from Ap...
