Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 141
November 17, 2015
“C’est la guerre!”, part one of two…
Visitors to this website and readers of my ebooks know that counter terrorism is a recurring theme. Terrorists are monsters, plain and simple, who attack, torture, maim, and kill innocent civilians—men, women, and children noncombatants. No rationalization of such mad-dog behavior is possible. They can’t argue that we do the same. No matter how many are collateral damage in the war against terrorism, we don’t explicitly go after innocents. That is a fundamental difference only terrorists can...
November 13, 2015
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches # 108…
[Note from Steve: I’m not superstitious, but, for those who are, have a safe day today. Did you hear about the guy who went looking for the 13th floor in a hotel and fell into an open elevator shaft, all on Friday the 13th? There: who said I can’t write a horror story!]
Item. Celebrity books. Or, should I say, public confessions of the rich and (in)famous? Do you read them? The bookstores are full of them, if that’s any gauge of popularity. There’s Trump’s new propaganda piece containing no m...
November 12, 2015
7 FAQs…
[Note from Steve: You’ve seen these on other product websites—my ebooks are my products—so here’s some candid ones for prospective readers.]
I will entertain you. The stories I love to read—mysteries, thrillers, and sci-fi (or combos of these genres)—are similar to the ones I write. Mine are unique, of course, original entertainment you won’t find anywhere else. Sometimes I think my characters are really doing the writing, but I’ll take the credit.
I won’t coddle you. You might not find enoug...
November 11, 2015
Veterans’ Day…
It seems unfair that there’s only one day to honor them. No matter your political proclivities, these men and women have fought bravely for this country to preserve our freedoms, including those freedoms to have and express our opinions freely.
We’ve made some progress. During and after the Vietnam War, veterans got a bum rap. I hate to use the trite phrase, but we now recognize their service and thank them for it. Animosity in the Vietnam era always seemed odd to me; it was the time of the d...
November 10, 2015
Irish Stew # 46…
Item. Did the media lose the thread? Somewhere during last week’s to-and-fro between pundits and media about the Russian plane crash, the fact that a sat image showed a flash was lost. ISIS always takes credit for any unexplained violence—that’s how they convince stupid people to join them—but that flash tells me either an engine exploded or a bomb (possibly more than one) did. For the latter, and ISIS or not, 200+ innocent men, women, and children died. If ISIS, maybe now old Putin will go a...
November 6, 2015
Mini-Reviews #14…
Gold Rush Mystery. Mit Sandru, author (Chivileri Publishing, 2015). When I started this novella, I had some misgivings. It’s probably just me, but I didn’t like the simple drawings and media interviews at the beginning. Maybe some will see that as a clever way to do the background and/or get the story started. I didn’t, but I continued. I’m glad I did. It became an entertaining and mysterious story that kept me interested until the end.
The background can be summarized as follows: the author...
November 5, 2015
Can you afford to write a novel?
I’ve been putting stuff I write in the public eye for more than ten years now. I’m unabashedly indie; the main reason is that I wouldn’t have been able to write so many books otherwise. I started out running the traditional publishing gauntlet, reaping over one thousand rejections from many agents, feeling elated when some asked to read a MS, feeling down after they sat on it for months only to say something like, “sorry, it’s just not for me,” and wondering what it took to get past these gat...
November 4, 2015
Interview with thriller author Alexander McNabb…
[Note from Steve: Alexander McNabb is mainly an author of thrillers, having written Olives – A Violent Romance, Beirut – An Explosive Thriller, Shemlan – A Deadly Tragedy, A Decent Bomber (just reviewed in Bookpleasures and this blog–see below), and Birdkill. He has been working in, living in, and travelling around the Middle East for some thirty years. Formerly a journalist, editor and magazine publisher, today he is a consultant on media, publishing and digital communications. Alexander is...
Review of Alexander McNabb’s A Decent Bomber…
(Alexander McNabb, A Decent Bomber, Amazon Digital Services, 2015, ASIN B01632FH7E)
Ireland is a country steeped in significant history, from the medieval monks who saved the classics of Western Civilization from pillaging Vikings, to its long-suffering population whose courage and positive outlook on life have endured despite centuries of problems and provided the world with many immigrants who contributed greatly wherever they settled. It’s a country of beautiful, eerie, and primitive lands...
November 3, 2015
“Send in the Clowns”…
My father’s opinion of politicians was that they are just failed lawyers. I say, failed something. You know this country’s in trouble when the most profound statement in that GOP debate came from our inimitable and mostly absent governor, Chris Christie, who has only been eclipsed as a barking attack dog because Donald Trump is around as a noisier barking attack dog. This acerbic jerk and not a NJ favorite son said that focusing on Fantasy Football was absurd when there are so many other more...
