Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 144

News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #104…

The more the merrier. Born Lew Alcindor, NYC native Kareem Abdul-Jabbar certainly doesn’t have to worry about name recognition. The 2.18 m (7’2”) NBA legend said in the Sydney Morning Herald (9/19): “…writing has basically been what I wanted to do the whole time.” Meaning? He had a day-job (day-and-night-job?) that distracted him because he had to put food on the family table? At any rate, we have something in common. By the way, his new book, Mycroft Holmes, is #10! I think they all are writ...

Let’s change the PR and marketing model…

Design your campaign to your book. Determine the audience for your book. Use social media. Give away freebies. Start a book blog. Accumulate hundreds of reviews. Turn your website into a sales engine. These are platitudes book PR reps and marketers throw at authors everyday. And not just at indie authors. Traditionally published authors who aren’t the prize stallions in traditional publishing’s stables—in other words, authors without the brand names (and formulaic output) of Baldacci, Child,...

Review of Katherine Hayton’s Breathe and Release…

(Katherine Hayton, Breathe and Release, Hayton, 2015, ISBN 978-0473330545)

I don’t know whether to call this mystery or horror or psychological thriller. It has elements of all three, a deliciously evil blend that might remind some of The Silence of the Lambs (a book actually mentioned in this novel). Be prepared. Harris’ novel was simple in comparison to this one!

Elisabet was in a terrible accident; she’s now an amnesiac. Lillian is a prisoner, locked in a basement cell without food and wat...

Steve’s Shorts: Mayhem, Murder, and Music’s The Tightrope Walker…Part One of Three

[Note from Steve: Today it’s a doubleheader. Here you have part one of a short story. Next you have a book review of a very intense and weird book, but in a good way. The short story is a new one in my continuing series of stories inspired by music. I’ve decided to title this series of short stories as above, so don’t be surprised to see a short story collection later on that sports this title. For now, you can read them for free and find it, along with the others, in “Steve’s Shorts.” This o...

Venezuela’s Donald Trump…

Do you want some proof that ideology doesn’t matter? (I’m referring to a previous post about ideologies and their nefarious hold on some people’s lives.) Just consider Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan dictator who inherited Chavez’ mantle and calls himself el Presidente. Sure, he won an election. But, if you believe he won it fair and square, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you. The man’s not quite the thug that Chavez was, and he’s more stupid. In his defense, he’s ruling at a bad...

Irish Stew #44 (special bonus post this week)…

[Note from Steve: This is a catch-up list of news items I’ve been wanting to comment on. Better late than never, I suppose. Cherry pick those of interest. Comments are always welcome.]

Item. The Syrian migration. Syrian refugees are flooding Europe by the tens of thousands. Initial compassion has become tempered with the realization of the magnitude of the problem. Germany, leading the way in accepting the refugees, has now reinstated border controls, stranding many along the long line from S...

News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #103…

Item. A thank you. If you’re reading this newsletter, you’re a reader of my blog. I thank you for reading. I’m now averaging about 15K visitors per month to my website; I thank all of you—everyone’s welcome. Blog readers probably make up a good portion of those visitors—I estimate at least 9K—so hopefully you’re having as much fun reading my posts as I do writing them.

I can’t say that number of visits translates into ebook sales, though. I realize some of you borrow ebooks (Prime, Unlimited,...

Ebook economics…

What’s the optimum price for an ebook? Depends on whether you’re a reader or a writer, of course. For readers, the optimum isn’t $0! You might think it is, but it isn’t. Writers are going to stop writing if you expect them to give away their ebooks. Sure, you might find an ebook in promo for $0, and, given the number of ebooks available at that price, you might read for a lifetime without paying for any ebooks. But there are authors you might be missing (I’m one of them) if you’re waiting for...

Mini-Reviews #12…

[Note from Steve: These reviews are growing a bit. I’ve written enough novels and read enough books to be opinionated about what I read. Basically I’ll choose to review a book I’ve casually read (my “official reviewing” is done at Bookpleasures) if there’s something I like enough to recommend it to my friends, i.e. all readers of this blog. That’s true of the first two reviews here. Although I don’t like to review a book here if I don’t find any redeeming qualities (I will do that at Bookplea...

The case against ideology…

Ideological truth is an oxymoron. We spent the last two centuries debunking ideologies—all the different –isms, like Marxism, Nazism, Zionism, Socialism, Communism, and so forth. We are still fighting some of those. They’re like shingles—dormant viruses that awaken from time to time to attack the body politic.

This century we are increasing our understanding of how the human brain works. It has a marvelous capacity for reason and logic, often creating great thoughts, inventing new technologie...