Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 40
November 25, 2020
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #185 and #186…
I did it again! I forgot to post #185 here on my blog. My apologies to all readers of this blog. So I’ll start out by including points from that previous epistle, most of which my email newsletter subscribers have already seen.
Seasonal changes. Fall is an interesting time for me. As a kid growing up in California, I never experienced the wonderful reds and yellows of leaves or frost on the pumpkins. Fall just meant that I had to wear a light jacket to school and turn my mind toward football ins...
November 18, 2020
Review of Beckham’s Inspector Skelgill series…
“The Inspector Skelgill Series.” Bruce Beckham, author. As I continue my binge-reading of British-style mysteries, I came to this sixteen-book series (and counting?). Daniel Skelgill prefers fishing and running around the Cumbrian Lake Region of merry olde England to sleuthing, but doesn’t hesitate to travel to London, Scotland, or even Ukraine, to nick criminals who have committed murder most fowl. I identify with him a lot—not because I’m a fit fellow like he is (I have a few years on him), bu...
November 2, 2020
Vote!
We have a representative democracy. The only effective, legal way to let our representatives know how they should be running our country is by voting. Those who represent us well should be voted in. Those who don’t should be voted out. It’s as simple as that.
If you don’t vote, you are dissing that sacred trust and helping to kill democracy in America. So please vote. It’s late for mail-ins, but if you have a ballot, fill it out, and put it in the nearest drop-box. If you plan to vote in person,...
October 30, 2020
Review of Karl’s Front Row at the Trump Show…
[Note from Steve: I’d originally scheduled this for next Wednesday, but that would be anti-climactic, right? Also, Halloween is tomorrow. Your best plan is to skip it this year–some towns have cancelled their festivities, and with reason–but, whatever you do, be safe doing it. Protect your fellow human beings!]
Front Row at the Trump Show. Jonathan Karl, author (Dutton). This isn’t the best anti-Trump vaccine there is; Cohen’s wins that prize (recommended reading for anyone wanting to understand...
October 29, 2020
Colombian coffee, Earl Grey tea, or Jameson whiskey?
I’m not one who feels compelled to go to Starbucks for my sugary fix of a dipsy-doodle-whatever latte. First, I hate Starbucks—anything there tastes like I imagine burnt cow pucks might taste (all the sugar is to hide that taste). Second, I make great coffee, thank you—pure Colombian, flavorful, mellow, and satisfying. And third, I need my coffee to start my writing day, but I’m not going to dress up to appear at Starbucks along with bleary eyed addicts who shouldn’t even be driving because they...
October 28, 2020
Book review of Irina Shapiro’s Murder at the Mill…
Murder at the Mill. Irina Shapiro, author (Merlin Press). This is #3 in the “Redmond and Haze Mysteries.” Set after the US Civil War when war-weary Captain Redmond, a medical doctor who tended to wounded soldiers, finds he’s inherit property north of London (Oxfordshire?) and becomes an ex-pat and duke to enjoy it, Redmond enjoys an idyllic existence punctuated by crime-solving with young and newly minted Inspector Haze (Redmond has become the pathologist doctor in this novel), but that existenc...
October 27, 2020
Where is A.B. Carolan?
The US is a huge country, and that tends to make Americans a bit insular and more concerned about what’s happening in their own country. This spinning orb in space that’s our home is much bigger, of course, so others’ successes and problems are really ours too. As all avid readers know, those who travel hither and yon in their reading, the world’s more connected every day.
That connection isn’t necessarily physical—the internet extends it to the far corners of the globe—but my auspicious meetup...
October 22, 2020
Reading and writing save me!
I’m generally pessimistic and compensate for that personal flaw in my writing. I’d generally be depressed now if it weren’t for reading and writing. Politics depress me—every day there’s another abuse of power, usually orchestrated by Trump or one of his minions, and that tells me the slide into fascism continues. People depress me—I’ve lost faith in human beings, especially those fools who don’t recognize that Trump and the #GoodOlePiranhas are destroying everything good in America. Religion de...
October 21, 2020
Where are Chen and Castilblanco?
I haven’t written a new Chen and Castilblanco mystery/crime/thriller novel for years (the last, Gaia and the Goliaths, was published in 2017). The detectives were still alive and kicking in the last novel, Chen and husband Eric Kumala with a new baby and Castilblanco and wife Pam Stuart with two adopted children. Was that an appropriate way to end the series? I thought it might be a positive way to do that, a life-goes-on message where Dao-Ming Chen mellows out as a new mom and Rollie Castilbla...
October 20, 2020
Op-Ed Pages #21: The dirty dozen…
I have a list of bad books, so I thought I’d end this series with my political dirty dozen. Some of these are up for election etc. Let’s hope voters and followers disavow them and stop them from ruining our democracy. Most belong in jail and certainly will meet their Maker as ultimate Judge (not Amy because she’s in the list), and they won’t like the sentence He gives them. They are listed in the order of those closest to the Devil to ones who are possibly innocent but at least commit the sin of...
