Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 5

Three of my favorite female heroines…

Yeah, I’m a bit old-fashioned. I know I’m supposed to be more PC and use “hero” for both male and female characters as if they were neutered zombies, but what’s wrong with implying that a smart, kick-ass character has female charm as well? Screw any naysayers out there who complain, I say. At least I’m not a pervert like a certain newly re-elected orange devil! (What’s wrong with people?)

In any case, onward: Among my many novels, there are three female characters who are my favorites. Before I ...

Hispanic heritage and fascists’ blame-games…

[Note from Steve: I’m posting this article to both my blogs because it’s about politics as well as reading and writing. If you object to that, you don’t have to read it!]

Although I’m sure the neo-Nazi and white supremacist MAGA maniacs and their fascist fuehrer, Donald J. Trump, don’t give a rat’s ass about Hispanic heritage (not to mention all those other bigots, haters, and general assholes who supported him in this last election, some even Hispanics!), I want to write first about our US immi...

The sci-fi in mystery/crime stories…

I’ve been amused by how environmentalists and anti-global warming activists (little not-so-innocent Greta, are you reading this?) are now finally abandoning their Frankenstein complexes and realizing that modern nuclear reactor tech is an effective alternative to fossil fuels. Long ago I concluded that hydroelectric, solar, and wind alternatives can’t possibly provide the power needed to support human civilization. (Of course, as our last US election shows, the use of the word “civilization” mig...

Friday Fiction: Retribution…

[Note from Steve: My apologies. It’s been a while, but here’s a free and short dystopian story that will probably entertain most of my readers. It doesn’t represent the shocking justice seen in The Onion taking over that awful site that claimed the massacre in Connecticut long ago was a hoax, but I can only contribute time, not money, to the cause of healing democracy. Time is valuable to me, so giving it freely isn’t a small gift, by the way! Enjoy.]

Retribution

Copyright 2024, Steven M. Moore

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Talk about prescient!

At the beginning of my “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy,” in the first novel, Survivors of the Chaos (first edition, 2011; second edition found in the three-book bundle), I paint a dismal and dystopian picture of what has become of the US and the world. I’m more convinced now than ever before that the divisions in our country will be used by the felonious President-elect Donald Jackass Trump to destroy American democracy and democracy in our world. As Vladimir Putin stated after congratulating the jack...

Revealing clues…

I started writing mysteries long ago with the Dr. Carlos stories. Carlos Obregon is chief medical officer on a starship in the future. (See the list of free PDF downloads on the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page.) He was inspired by Isaac Asimov’s Elijah Bailey, a detective from planet Earth who solved crimes in Asimov’s robot trilogy. In other words, my Dr. Carlos stories are sci-fi mysteries, an unusual cross-genre experiment lacking a bit of originality.

It took awhile, but NYPD detective Cast...

Social media sucks!

Only a few decades ago when the internet was young and made more sense, the PR and advertising gurus who supposedly worked on behalf of authors emphasized two marketing strategies more than others: Get a website and participate in social media.

Obviously, I still have a website. I’ll admit it’s now a bit out of date. I’ve never sold my books (nor Bibles published in China like Trump) nor T-shirts with “In Libris Libertas!” displayed on them (heaven forbid MAGA T’s!). That’s just plain tacky (eve...

The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan…

This romantic sci-fi thriller is a “bridge book” (see my last post for an expanded definition!). It now leads readers from the “Inspector Steve Morgan” trilogy to the “Clones & Mutants” trilogy. It features some characters from the “Detectives Chen & Castilblanco” series and a few new ones. And like some of my novels, it was inspired by a short story; that tale asked what a future paranoid US government will do when it discovers its aging agents with Top Secret information in their heads start b...

Rogue Planet, a romantic sci-fi thriller…

I call some of my novels “bridge books”: They offer readers a span that takes them from one series to another like the GW bridge connects NJ and Manhattan. Sometimes new series intervene, though. There’s no bridge from the “Detectives Chen & Castilblanco” series to the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series nor from the latter series to the “Inspector Steve Morgan” trilogy—in a sense, there should be because these are all big series. (Esther appears in “Chen & Castilblanco” and Steve in “Esthe...

Novel to Hollywood to Broadway?

What’s wrong with this path, it and some variants so often followed? The answer: It depends…and mostly in hindsight after the story becomes ancient history. No one can deny that The Lion King’s Broadway version was (and still is!) a marvelous experience. The music was there even in the original classic Disney cartoon version, but those theatrical costumes and antiphonal drums at the beginning of the Broadway version put me on the edge of my seat, something no film version could ever accomplish! ...