Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 16

I try to inform…

Yes, my fiction is often complex. I sometimes receive that critique and then ignore it. You see, I don’t do simple; I refuse to write fluff. Even my comedy is complex; the rom-com The Time Traveler’s Guide through the Multiverse is hard sci-fi, and a lot in it informs and goes far beyond the fluff one often sees in that rom-com genre. (Did you know a secret op took place in Norway and destroyed the Nazi’s heavy-water production facility during WWII, helping to put an end to Hitler’s plans to dev...

“Friday Fiction” series: “The Recruit,” Part One…

[Note from Steve: This is the second story about the “Earl of Penrith.” There might be a third. Stay tuned.]

The Recruit

Copyright 2022, Steven M. Moore

DI Earl Wilson was already walking around the crime scene leaving DS Sally Hill to other chores. She’d be taking notes on her moby too, mostly about the obvious; he’d be looking for things that weren’t so obvious. They were a good team.

He was a police veteran who had started out as a patrol constable in London, a “bobby” or “top” as they were c...

Young female heroes…

I often think of tweens and teens these days; how they’ll make out in the world we leave them, the new trials and tribulations awaiting them that previous generations didn’t have to survive, and so forth. Like everyone else, they were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, but their lives were more adversely affected and interrupted than those of adults. Moreover, because they’re on the path of turning into adults, they’ll have intense adolescent problems to contend with long forgotten about by most...

A villain’s long criminal career…

I have a few series—seven, not counting A. B. Carolan’s—and Vladimir Kalinin has the role of arch-villain in four of them and in two bridge books between them. He also influences many of the events in a fifth, because five of the seven series are on the same fictional timeline that starts with The Midas Bomb and ends with Rogue Planet. (Both have paper editions if you’re interested.) I don’t know if that’s a new record for one fiction author, but it’s certainly evidence for Vladimir’s long crimi...

Why British-style mysteries?

Here’s a question you might be dying to ask: How is it that an old half-Irish curmudgeon (my desktop’s scene is a photo I took of Ireland’s Blarney Castle!) enjoys writing about British detectives? (Some of them are Celtic, though—Irish, Scottish, and Welsh.) I started down that road with Esther Brookstone and have written twelve novels that can be called British-style mysteries, which include the three “Inspector Steve Morgan” novels as the most recent ones.

The answer isn’t what you might thin...

Book pricing revisited: ebooks…

Book pricing is always debated among self-published authors and the marketing gurus who pretend to advise them; traditionally published authors have no control over it—their publishers determine pricing, often to their detriment. But we can include both groups of authors (and hopefully exclude the gurus) by asking, “What should be the price of a quality ebook?”

Note that I’m focusing on ebooks. I no longer understand print-book pricing because that’s all over the board and no longer makes any se...

A trilogy…or more?

Many of my books are part of a series, but a lot of the series end as a trilogy. The latter will probably be the fate of “The Last Humans” series (I’m working on the third novel, Moscow Menace), but it could also be the fate of the “Inspector Steve Morgan” series (three books already published).

In any case, it gives me great pleasure to announce the publication of the third “Inspector Steve Morgan” novel, Fear the Asian Evil. Here’s the summary:

Former Scotland Yard Inspector Steve Morgan’s nex...

“Friday Fiction” series: “The Novelist,” Part Two…

Let’s all give a shoutout of support for all American veterans and their families today! Whatever your politics are, our veterans don’t receive nearly the support they deserve. And cheering them on in some parade isn’t enough! Too many are struggling economically, even fighting homelessness and physical handicaps as consequences from their service to our country. “I thank you for your service” doesn’t do it. We should all pressure the politicians to enact and support the veterans programs! Write...

Book Review: Maggie Haberman’s Confidence Man…

Confidence Man. Maggie Haberman, author (2022). Unlike other books about Donald J. Trump and his MAGA fascism, this one is more of a standard biography. We see the making of a sociopathic leader who led an unsuccessful coup against the US government on January 6, 2021. Unfortunately, he’s not unique because there are many others now on America’s far right and they could accomplish what he set out to do: Turn the USA into the FSA, the Fascist States of America. In fact, he might return in 2024 to...

“Friday Fiction” series: “The Novelist,” Part One…

[Note from Steve: It’s been a while since I’ve posted some short fiction. My only excuse is that short stories and novellas are like dashes and intermediate races, and I’ve been running a few marathons by writing and publishing several novels, notably finishing the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series and three novels from the new “Inspector Steve Morgan” series. I think this short story turned out rather well—you can tell me what you think by commenting or by using my contact page at this w...