Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 38
February 24, 2021
Amazon wars…
Like most authors, I have all my books listed on Amazon. The retail giant has never done much for me (besides giving me agita), and I realized years ago that being exclusive on Amazon was a bad business decision. That’s a requirement for various benefits the company offers to authors. Those benefits just aren’t worth it if authors are savvy enough to follow this marketing maxim applied to publishing: An author maximizes her or his sales by using more retailers. In the business world of products...
February 19, 2021
“Friday Fiction” Series: 2035…
[Note from Steve: When I posted this short story in 2017, I already feared the turn to fascism I saw going on in the US under the leadership of Donald J. Trump—the US was looking a lot like 1930’s Germany! I meant the story as a warning then, and it’s even more of a warning now—the date might even have to be adjusted down a bit because the US looks even more like 1930s Germany; Trump wasn’t convicted! Although their leader is hopefully gone for good, and independent of those impeachment trial re...
February 17, 2021
The unstoppable march of technology…
Unlike science, technology often seems to have a mind of its own. Betamax was better than VHS, but the latter won (in the US); now both are dead. No OS today is more stable than that old DEC OS, but even the company DEC is gone with its 100K+ employees. New cars full of chips have a lot more things that can go wrong with them than my old 52 Pontiac, and I’m no longer able to fix anything in the former because of their complexity.
Publishing technology moves at a slower pace because readers are o...
February 12, 2021
“Friday Fiction” Series: Mr. Gualchmai, Chapter Five…
[Note from Steve: In the collection Sleuthing, British-Style, I introduced DI Clarke and DS Blake in three short stories as a homage to British-style mysteries. While this short didn’t make it to novel status (as the British coppers might have wanted, and I suggested might eventually happen one day), or the self-imposed editorial deadline for that collection (as a test case for Draft2Digital), you might find it equally entertaining. The first four chapters are found on the past four Fridays in t...
February 10, 2021
Review of Henderson’s Centricity…
(Nathaniel Henderson, Centricity, 2020, 978-1735759098)
Like the author of this novel, William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1985 Hugo winner) made an impression on this reviewer. I can’t say my sci-fi is cyberpunk, but Gibson’s novel influenced me and many other authors. Centricity is a good modern example of the subgenre.
It’s also a cross-genre tale with mystery and political thriller elements with those other subgenres of sci-fi, dystopian and post-apocalyptic, thrown in for good measure. A pandemic...
February 5, 2021
“Friday Fiction” Series: Mr. Gualchmai, Chapter Four…
[Note from Steve: In the collection Sleuthing, British-Style, I introduce DI Clarke and DS Blake in three short stories as a homage to British-style mysteries. While the following short story didn’t make it to novel status (as the British coppers might have wanted, and I suggested might eventually happen one day), or the self-imposed editorial deadline for that collection (as a test case for Draft2Digital), you might find this short story equally entertaining.]
Mr. Gualchmai
Copyright 2021, Stev...
February 3, 2021
Review of Harari’s Sapiens…
After all the hype about Sapiens, much of it probably generated by questionable publicists and even more questionable critics, I looked forward to reading it but found it disappointing. The author has a rather myopic and distorted view of Homo sapiens, the human condition, and human history. There’s also a certain smugness in the many pages of this book that can grate on you and wear you down. But let’s start with the beginning, as the Queen of Hearts told Alice.
The author throws out questionab...
January 29, 2021
“Friday Fiction” Series: Mr. Gualchmai, Chapter Three…
[Note from Steve: In the collection Sleuthing, British-Style, I introduce DI Clarke and DS Blake in three short stories as a homage to British-style mysteries. While this story didn’t make it to novel status (as the British coppers might have wanted, and I suggested might eventually happen one day), or the self-imposed editorial deadline for that collection (as a test case for Draft2Digital), you might find the short story equally entertaining. Chapters One and Two can be found on previous Frida...
January 27, 2021
Observations…
Both positive and negative events in our modern everyday lives can be used to make our stories more relevant. A hassled and hurried commuter handing a McDonald’s breakfast meal (sandwich and coffee) to a homeless person; an unthinking neighbor letting their mongrel pee on garbage bags without thinking of the essential workers, the garbage collectors, who have to collect those bags; and so forth. These observations can make our prose come alive.
Of course, authors have to observe these events and...
January 22, 2021
“Friday Fiction” Series: Mr. Gualchmai, Chapter Two…
[Note from Steve: In the collection Sleuthing, British-Style, I introduce DI Clarke and DS Blake in three short stories as an homage to British-style mysteries. While this story didn’t make it to novel status (as the British coppers might have wanted, and I suggested might eventually happen one day), or the self-imposed editorial deadline for that collection (as a test case for Draft2Digital), you might find the short story that continues here equally entertaining.]
Mr. Gualchmai
Copyright 2021,...
