Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 41
October 15, 2020
Danube river ports…
This isn’t a travel blog, but I thought you, my readers, might enjoy a bit of distraction from the 2020 election’s bitter partisan battles by seeing descriptions of the Danube river ports featured in Death on the Danube, my new novel. Of course, you can read about how my main characters Esther Brookstone ad Bastiann van Coevorden react to them in the book, but this will give you a preview of what to expect…and maybe help plan your own riverboat tour?
I used several references to make these descr...
October 14, 2020
Book review of Barbara Dowd Wright’s An Irish Tale…
An Irish Tale. Barbara Dowd Wright, author; illustrations, Sokyo (2016). Sometimes you find more at the beach than you bargain for. One of my favorite places on the New Jersey shore is Spring Lake (it gets a cameo in my new novel Death on the Danube). The breakers there are impressive, and I can sit and watch them for hours, as they seem to tell me, “We will be here long after all you humans are gone.” You might think those thoughts are pessimistic, maudlin, or morbid; they’re not. It’s just a f...
October 13, 2020
Op-Ed Pages #20: I give up!
[Note from Steve: I know if you’re reading this, you’re probably a member of the good, decent citizens’ choir that hates Trump. Rest assured that I find the man despicable, a worthless piece of human trash like most fascists. It’s hard to preach to the stupid hordes of Trump’s followers, though; in general, they’re mindless zombies willfully following their evil Voldemort. But you, my readers, can help. If you can hold your nose, please work on people around you who support Trump to convince the...
October 8, 2020
Comments to my blog posts…
They can drive any author nuts. How can an author tell that someone’s comment to a blog post is spam? First, that someone doesn’t follow the rules. Here are mine (these also appear on my “Join the Conversation” web page):
No post with foul language or pornographic innuendos is accepted. I try to keep this website PG-13. Please help me in this effort. For example, your marketing posts about porn, sex toys, and ED drugs WILL be eliminated!
I also try to keep this blog commercial free. Help me in ...
October 7, 2020
Do you long for a riverboat cruise?
Cruises…. It’s human nature: When we can’t have something, we want it. That’s even more understandable now. Many don’t consider riverboat cruises, though. They prefer to cruise on floating cities, eating and partying, take perilous tenders to shore for their tours, and then do it all over again as soon as they can. They might see some sights, visit crowded beaches, and see lush vegetation and some strange animals, but they’re basically locked up 90% of the time in a crowded college dorm within ...
October 6, 2020
Op-Ed Pages #19: What does Putin have on Trump?
This question considering Il Duce’s bromance with the evil Russian has been asked many times by many people, and asked most notably by ex-Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats (another person Narcissus le Grand fired, replacing him with a toady who knows absolutely nothing about national security!). It’s a reasonable question with the Putin-led attacks on the 2016, 2018, and 2020 electoral process. Maybe that’s what all that foreign debt is about? (Eric Trump is on record saying that they ...
October 1, 2020
Book prizes…
They go from the prestigious Nobel, Pulitzer, and Man Booker prizes to less prestigious and banal ones some local book clubs or author groups hand out (often associated with some event). By and large, they all are recognitions of some author’s hard work in writing a book considered meritorious by some committee of judges—popular voting often wouldn’t provide the same recognition, because it’s often fickle, as Dancing with the Stars and American Idol have shown. (Recall Adam Lambert losing the la...
September 30, 2020
Book review of Michael Cohen’s Disloyal…
Disloyal. Michael Coen, author (Skyhorse Publishing, 2020). Of all the tell-alls about Trump aka Il Duce aka Narcissus le Grand aka that “f&%$ing moron” (SecState Tillerson quote), this one was the most enjoyable to read so far. (I’m sure there’ll be more if he gets another term–God help us!) I don’t know if a ghost-writer was used (the author claims he wrote it using pen and legal pads in his cell), but it’s well-written, a memoir more like a novel portraying the dark, psychotic mind of the mos...
September 29, 2020
Op-Ed Pages #18: Between rage and depression…
“Rage, rage, against the dying of the light….” I rage against Trump and his evil army, and I’m depressed that the light of democracy in this country is dying. Many days I think we now need another Civil War! (I’d much prefer, of course, that Trumpsters would come to their senses and realize their hero is a snake-oil salesman.) As the history of 1930’s Germany is currently repeated in our land, how can one not rage against the evil, hypocritical, bigoted, racist Trump and his followers who now ma...
September 24, 2020
Book prices…
Self-published authors want to know how to price their books. Traditionally published authors usually don’t determine their book’s price, to their consternation, because those publishers often shaft them in that process. So let’s take a step back and just analyze what an ebook or print book should cost a reader, irrespective of how it’s published.
For ebooks, prices are changing. There’s plenty of supply, but there’s also more demand because, in this time of pandemic, ebooks are the safest ones ...
