Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 178
October 17, 2013
Sense and sensibility…
[Reminder: No Amber Waves of Grain and Pasodobles in a Quantum Stringscape are freebies on Amazon, today, Oct. 17, through Monday, Oct. 21. Download and enjoy!]
No, this post isn’t about Jane Austen. I hate most 19th century novels in general and hers in particular. Yeah, I know she’s enjoying a revival of sorts—like an oozing zombie rising out of the tomb to bore us to death with romantic drivel. Instead, I want to talk about all the senses you might use as you write your thriller or mystery....
October 16, 2013
Book review of DK Halling’s Pendulum of Justice…
[Reminder: No Amber Waves of Grain and Pasodobles in a Quantum Stringscape are freebies on Amazon, Oct. 17-Oct. 21. Download and enjoy!]
(DK Halling, Pendulum of Justice, Quantum Dot Publishing, ISBN 978-1491264225)
Like some real roller coasters, this book starts slowly but soon becomes a thrill ride. As a writer of sci-fi thrillers, I was immediately attracted to the concept. Hank Rangar, entrepreneur and engineering genius, and friends try to file a patent and begin a start-up. The apparatus...
October 15, 2013
Nazi similes…
[Reminder: No Amber Waves of Grain and Pasodobles in a Quantum Stringscape are freebies on Amazon, Oct. 17-Oct. 21. Download and enjoy!]
Frank Bruni, columnist for the New York Times, attacked op-ed writers and other pundits on Tuesday of last week for using Nazi similes when describing Tea Party nutcases and the right-wingers who are spurring them on. I do it myself. But I say to Mr. Bruni that these similes are important. Any student of history knows how Goebbels, a master of doublespeak, cr...
October 11, 2013
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #58…
[A heartfelt thanks to you! I don’t say it often enough here, but I want to thank every person who reads this newsletter, my other blog posts, and, of course, my novels and short stories. My goal is to entertain. If I’ve entertained just one person with any sample of my writing, I feel successful. If I’ve made you pause and reflect, even better. And, if you’ve enjoyed my writing, please pass a kind word on to your friends and relatives. In spite of today’s internet marketing, word of mouth is...
October 10, 2013
Tom Clancy: from the Cold War to counterterrorism…
I read most of Tom Clancy’s books until he started writing about a secret, privately financed, vigilante organization…a bit over the top for even this old thriller writer. Up to that point and independent of his politics, I thought he could spin a good yarn backed by enough techno-babble that it all seemed real (see the Clancy quote running across the banner of this website). In fact, I’d wager that some higher mucky-mucks in the Pentagon weren’t happy at times with his description of U.S. an...
October 8, 2013
Was Citizens United a Pandora’s box?
When the conservative Supreme Court released the Citizens United judgment, I immediately thought, “Steve, this is going to be like Pandora’s box.” I’ve often decried in these pages the pervasive influence of money in politics. Our “representative democracy” already represented big money, aka the one-percenters in today’s parlance, as senators and representatives adjust their views according to pressures from lobbyists and special interests at the national level. Of course, the corrupting infl...
October 3, 2013
The independent Republic of Texas…
By the time this post appears, we might be living through another shutdown engineered by destructive, radical Tea Party Republicans bent on slashing and burning their way toward American fascism. “What do you mean?” you might say. “The Speaker of the House is not a Tea Party radical and he’s leading the charge.” Yes, he is, because these same demagogues said, “Play along with us or you’re out as Speaker.” The lobotomized self-proclaimed and narcissistic leader of the wingnut fringe is Sen. Te...
October 1, 2013
The Affordable Care Act: confusion and demagoguery…
By the time this post appears, we’ll know if the Tea Party and other right-wing demagogues have carried through with their threat to shut down the government. More worrisome is their threat to make the U.S. default on its loans, which would affect worldwide and U.S. economies in many ways. We’re already seeing the U.S. economy affected as retirees and those saving to retire see their IRAs and 401(k)’s decrease precipitously. I’ve never in my long history of studying the machinations of Congre...
September 26, 2013
Ennui versus democracy–Part III: Our elitist “founding fathers”…
[This concludes the discussion of Chris Hayes’ Twilight of the Elites and the movie Elysium.]
When you stop to think about it (or ignore all the laudatory crap in our history textbooks), the famous “founding fathers” were all aristocratic and wealthy men, our first meritocracy, if you will. Most of them were narcissistic old men tired of a distant monarchy interfering with their business interests. They wanted control, so they took it away from England. Hayes barely hints at this because those...
September 24, 2013
Ennui versus democracy–Part II: On the road to fascism…
You might be expecting a progressive’s rant here, so my calm demeanor could surprise you—of course, it depends on your meaning of “calm”! In fact, this is both a book review and a movie review. The book review part corresponds to Christopher Hayes’ (of MNBC fame) interesting and long op-ed called Twilight of the Elites—America after Meritocracy (Broadway Paperbacks, 2012). (Writers, before you start sending your MS to this publisher, take note that it’s an imprint of the Crown Publishing Grou...
