Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 152
May 14, 2015
Free ebooks v. free reading…
I have a confession: I write to entertain readers and because I love to write. Otherwise, I’d never keep this up. More than Human: The Mensa Contagion will be my twentieth ebook and seventeenth novel (I have three short story collections). But the old saw that you write the next book with the royalties from the last has NEVER been true in my case. Sales aren’t flat; they’re abysmal. Today it’s hard to even give ebooks away.
Amazon is partly responsible for the plight of most indie authors. Do...
May 13, 2015
Movie Review #13…
[Note from Steve: Every year in Montclair, NJ, during the first week of May, people in the tristate area can enjoy seeing mostly unreleased new films, meet directors, producers, and actors, and participate in Q&A discussions. Here are the three movies from the Montclair Film Festival I chose to see this year.]
The Armor of Light. Dir. Abigail Disney. This documentary is the story of Rev. Rob Schenk, a preacher who fought and is fighting to cure the schizophrenia of evangelicals who think they...
May 12, 2015
Anti-science in the NFL…
The NFL has once again immersed itself in scandal, throwing out malicious innuendoes without evidence, especially scientific evidence. It’s part of the prevailing anti-science sentiment in this country, and I’m damn sick of it. I’ll admit that QBs like their footballs in a certain way—one ESPN commentator basically announced that every QB in the NFL has preferences about the footballs he uses. But there is no scientific evidence that anything illegal was done. In fact, the only thing remotely...
May 8, 2015
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #87…
Item: Newsletters. I subscribe to a few. They come via old-fashioned email. I’ve noticed lately that some are starting to say something like “For the full graphics experience, this newsletter has a web version.” Or “This newsletter continues on our website.” Ha! I knew the day would come. When I started this newsletter, I opted to make it just a regular feature in my blog (there’s no graphics experience involved either, so everything loads nicely—I don’t do HTML and I don’t make videos).
I ne...
May 7, 2015
Fighting for mediocrity…
That seems to be the common denominator in the education debate today. PTO nowadays means that many parents and teachers do exactly that. In the tristate area, and I suppose elsewhere, large numbers of students, encouraged by parents and teachers, have opted out of the Common Core testing. TV ads attacking area governors feature irate parents who don’t want their kids tested, but if you look at the sponsors of these ads, you’ll see they’re paid for by teachers’ unions. Why this fight for medi...
May 5, 2015
Irish Stew #38…
[Note from Steve: My apologies. This is a wee bit long, but there were many news stories to comment on, and I didn’t want the news to become stale. Cherry pick the topics you’re passionate about. Feliz Cinco de Mayo!]
Item: Baltimore. Will this be a summer of peaceful protests or one of violence, rioting, looting, and burning by out-of-control thugs? My knee-jerk reaction was that Freddie Gray was injured in the street take-down—he couldn’t support himself as the cops carried him to the paddy...
April 30, 2015
Is PC too oppressive?
This isn’t a pro-Apple manifesto—I would write just the opposite for that, especially in regards to publishing, but the question in the title means something entirely different than Apple’s present domination of the tech world. What I’m asking is if “political correctness” has been carried too far in general, and whether it inhibits creativity for fiction writers in particular.
Here’s an example that caught my attention: One day last week I saw an announcement for the NY subway system that ur...
April 28, 2015
Sunni v. Shi’ite…
At the time I’m beginning to write this post, a carrier battle group is headed for Yemen’s coast to enforce a blockade against Irani ships attempting to help Yemen’s rebels. Why? They’re supporting Saudi Arabia’s bombing of said rebels. The Saudis announced they were going to stop but the bombing continues. One problem? Saudi Arabia is NOT our friend, and Iran is NOT our friend. Second problem? This is an internecine dust-up between Sunnis and Shi’ites, so what the hell do we think we’re doin...
April 24, 2015
Remembering the Armenian Holocaust…
Genocide is extreme ethnic cleansing, a holocaust…remembering the Armenian genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire!
April 23, 2015
Too low, too slow, and too small…but that’s not the point!
“Whoa! This is a disaster for national security!” rants the media. As usual, the media focuses on what they consider the scandal and ignores the real point. Doug Hughes, that “crazy guy” flying the one-man helicopter, had his message lost in the background noise from the media’s bloviating talking heads and news services looking for scandal (where did the media come up with “gyrocopter”—too many fast meals from a Greek food-wagon?). The real point is that the guy isn’t crazy. There’s too much...
