Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 30
September 10, 2021
“Friday Fiction” Series: The Prodigal Son, Chapters Seven to Nine…
[As a native son of the great state of California, I can emphasize with Irwin Pound’s sentiments found in this short novella (or long short story?). My distance from my current home in Montclair to California is farther than his distance from London to the Lake District, but the yearning is probably just as strong. I hope you enjoy this story, another British-style mystery.]
The Prodigal Son
Copyright 2021, Steven M. Moore
Chapter Seven
Before leaving, Irwin had a call from his superintendent in...
September 8, 2021
“Inspiring Songs” Series #1: “I am…I said”…
[Note from Steve: If you’ve downloaded “Mayhem, Murder, and Music,” the free collection of short crime fiction—see the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page if you haven’t—you know that music often inspires me. It’s always been part of my life. I even attempted once to write a Broadway-style musical based on Huxley’s Ape and Essence. (It’s now shredded—I didn’t get much further than a rousing march, “Seventy-Six Trombones” in an apocalyptic setting). This series of posts was also inspired by music. I...
September 6, 2021
Writing projects…
Authors like to talk about their works-in-progress (WIPs). I’d rather call them writing projects. Most of writing is DIY, up to a certain point (unless you’re James Patterson using co-authors to keep his book assembly line going). An author assembles a story like a DIY home construction project, without instructions or blueprints, of course.
I usually forget about how I assemble each of my stories—the process and the motivations. (No, I’m not going senile. I’ve just written a lot of stories!) Re...
September 3, 2021
“Friday Fiction” Series: The Prodigal Son, Chapters Four through Six…
[As a native son of the great state of California, I can emphasize with Irwin Pound’s sentiments found in this short novella (or long short story?). My distance from my current home in Montclair to California is farther than his distance from London to the Lake District, but the yearning is probably just as strong. I hope you enjoy this story, another British-style mystery.]
The Prodigal Son
Copyright 2021, Steven M. Moore
Chapter Four
The police substation was mostly dark except for the night s...
September 1, 2021
Three new additons to my “British-style Mysteries” list…
Most readers of this blog and my recent works know that I’m surviving the Covid pandemic by reading a lot, in particular, binge-reading entire series of British-style mysteries. I published a list at the end of my little collection, Sleuthing, British-style, written in honor of Dame Agatha, who started that story tradition. So here are some additions to that list (in alphabetical order, which coincidentally corresponds to the order of light-to-serious themes), the best of my recent binge-reading...
August 30, 2021
Missing something?
Surprise, surprise! Regular readers of this blog might be expecting to find a politically oriented op-ed here this Monday morn. You will now find these at Pub Progressive (for example, my Afghan series continues there). Future articles posted here will now be restricted to those dealing with reading, writing, and publishing. I hope that’s not an inconvenience.
I’m not doing this to appease some disgruntled readers or to follow the advice of writing gurus who tell authors “Don’t be political.” Th...
August 27, 2021
“Friday Fiction” Series: The Prodigal Son, Chapters One through Three…
[As a native son of the great state of California, I can empathize with Irwin Pound’s sentiments found in this short novella (or long short story?). The distance from my current home in Montclair to California is farther than his distance from London to the Lake District, but the yearning is probably just as strong. I hope you enjoy this story, another British-style mystery.]
The Prodigal Son
Copyright 2021, Steven M. Moore
Chapter One
Irwin looked up to see the woman who was calling his name. “...
August 25, 2021
Motorcars, motorcycles, and horses…
I used to like motorcycles. Even back in my tweens and teens, my mother would say, “Any motorcycle rider should be forced to sign up to be an organ donor.” She worried about the danger; I yearned to have enough money to buy one. I was a frustrated kid, seeing other boys having fun on their motorcycles yet knowing that I didn’t even have the money for a scooter. So I was relegated to being the guy on the back, a position useful for a drive-by assassin maybe, but never the fun ride one has up fron...
August 24, 2021
Something new…
Starting 8/24/2021 (today), op-eds with a political orientation will exclusively be posted on my second blog, Pub Progressive. The same rules of engagement apply (see the ROEs on the “Join the Conversation” web page), but this site’s blog will now focus on reading, writing, and publishing topics. This might upset some readers and authors; others might breathe a sigh of relief.
Authors do have opinions. Maybe it’s better that they just creep into their prose as important themes? I don’t know. I c...
August 23, 2021
What-ifs about Afghanistan…
Let’s face it: The evacuation from Afghanistan is another “Saigon moment.” But does Biden own it? Multiple presidents have committed blunders there. He’s just joined that gang. I want to go through this dark stretch of American history a bit here. It’s longer than you might remember.
Most people have forgotten the reasons why we were there, especially anyone under forty. “Wait!” you say. “9/11 occurred in 2001, only twenty years ago.” The frustration leading to the current evacuation (supposedly...
