Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 159
December 5, 2014
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #76…
Item: Hachette v. Amazon fallout? Not much seen, actually. I bought a copy of Michael Connelly’s The Burning Room, though. This ebook cost me $3.99, I think, but it’s now listed at $4.99. In either case, that’s in the “sweet spot” between $2.99 and $4.99, the latter price not bad for a new book of this length. So…maybe the fallout will be subtle, with Hachette and other Big Five publishers realizing that they must sell ebooks at reasonable prices in order to compete—no one wants to pay almost...
December 4, 2014
Hard-boiled or minimalist writing?
I love to chat with other authors, even if it’s via the internet. (In fact, I’m ugly and big enough that I might scare them in a face-to-face meeting!) Linda Hall, whose excellent book Night Watch I recently reviewed, mentioned that my style was a bit like Raymond Chandler’s. She was referring to my mystery/thriller/crime/detective series featuring NYPD homicide detectives Chen and Castilblanco (the series is now featured in my new look). Oh, the memories! I thought back to those many “hard-b...
December 2, 2014
Lost and found…
It’s been said that the measure of your time on this planet is how long people remember you after you’re dead. Notice I didn’t say that measure had to be positive. A person could be a scurrilous SOB and be remembered for a long time—Hitler and Stalin come to mind, for example. The other extreme might be Gandhi or Mother Teresa.
Creative people have an advantage in this respect because memory of the person can fade fast (even with the internet, very few people really know you, on the average),...
November 27, 2014
Thanksgiving…
If you traveled this holiday, be thankful you arrived…hopefully you’ll have a safe return. If you managed to eat and drink in moderation, be thankful for that–many people fail miserably. If you were constantly thinking of bargain sales all this week, you should get a life–that’s not in the spirit of this holiday.
The Thanksgiving holiday is just that…a day of thanks. You might be an immigrant mother and father living in fear that ICE will come knocking at your door. You might be homeless and/o...
November 25, 2014
An uncaring nation…
My knee-jerk reaction, even before Obama’s speech about immigration, was anger at U.S. media. Midterm election shenanigans and the snarky refusal to carry the speech on network TV are both evidence for media collusion between extreme right-wingers and the fourth estate. Of course, at best, the media is no longer an independent check-and-balance on American politics. They are sycophants to America’s right-wing one-percenters through the latter’s lobbyists and special interest groups, just like...
November 21, 2014
Movie reviews #8…
Gone Girl. OMG. Some good acting (the woman detective and the shyster lawyer) mitigate the pain, but this is still a slog—bad plot, stereotyped characters, some ridiculous dialog, and a hackneyed score make me wonder, why bother? You shouldn’t. Because the author of the book wrote the screenplay, I assume the book is just as bad (never read it—too damn expensive—and now I never want to). Maybe all those fans see something I don’t, but my knee-jerk reaction was that this was the stereotypical...
November 20, 2014
So you want to write a series?
I have written three series and am starting a fourth. A recent WD (that’s Writer’s Digest for my readers who aren’t authors) article interviews four series writers. One of the writers is Ian Rankin, author of the Inspector Rebus novels; he’s someone I discovered when I was polishing my mystery, crime, and police procedural writing skills. Unfortunately (and typically?), the interviewer led these four down a few blind alleys, so I can’t recommend this article beyond saying my interest was more...
November 19, 2014
Review of Linda Hall’s Night Watch…
(Linda Hall, Night Watch, 2014, ebook ISBN 978-0-9877613-6-1, pbook ISBN 978-0-9877613-7-8, ASIN B00NKPI2WK)
I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. One of the great pleasures I derive from reviewing books is discovering new authors I mightn’t notice otherwise. Here we have an example. Ms. Hall is a gifted writer and this novel is well written, entertaining, and different. It’s a mystery with a different wrinkle.
Emmeline (Em) Ridge is a female boat delivery captain. In other words, she’ll...
November 18, 2014
The next two years…
Is Paul Ryan sharpening his budget-cutting ax? Is John Boehner looking for special tax breaks for tanning salons? Will Dr. Death Ted Cruz crusade to leave those ten million people with new Obamacare coverage without coverage again? Will eloquent Mitch McConnell ever wipe that bourbon-induced smirk off his face? Will Dynasty lover Jeb Bush want to become Bush III? Will down-but-not-out Obama ever get another judge or diplomat appointed? Will the Giants or Jets make the playoffs?
It’s hard to pr...
November 17, 2014
Interviewing John Hohn…
[Today we have a treat, an interview with author John Hohn. He has an interesting background that probably influenced his first work, Deadly Portfolio: A Killing in Hedge Funds, more than his second, Breached (reviewed last Wednesday), but both books are intricate and excellent mysteries that will entertain you a lot more than the usual drivel you’ll find on TV. Without further ado, here’s John.]
Some bio information…
Steve: Tell us a bit about yourself, John.
John: I’m technically retired, but...
