Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 58
October 16, 2019
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #174…
The last quarter. It’s hard to believe we’re in it and heading for the year-end holidays. How many shopping days left? Of course, it’s not about shopping. It’s about seeing family and friends…and enjoying the festivities with them.
Holly Berry Show. This takes place in early November, and it’s a blast! Sponsored by the Upper Montclair Women’s Club (NJ), you will find all kinds of festive things for holiday decorations and gifts. Usually I’m present with my book booth too, because books make great holiday gifts...
October 15, 2019
Computers and writing…
Whether writers are self- or traditionally published, they’ll probably be spending a lot of time on their computer. While there might be a few who still write manuscripts longhand, nowadays it’s hard to be a complete Luddite.
My writing life has been a history of resistance to the computer, though. I never wrote an MS (manuscript) longhand, but I certainly made lots of notes for my storytelling on a lot of media that didn’t involve computers—napkins, post-its, backs of takeout menus, and so f...
October 10, 2019
Provincialism and nationalism…
The –isms are often thought of as political or religious: conservatism, progressivism, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, and so forth. The –isms in the title often mingle with those first –isms, but they can also appear in fiction. A lot of Steinbeck stories are examples of provincialism, for example, that of California’s middle coast area around Stockton. The US is so large that provincialism naturally occurs as varying regions become settings for a novel. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingb...
October 9, 2019
Steve’s shorts: The Seaside Caper…
The Seaside Caper
Copyright 2019, Steven M. Moore
Summer evenings, after dinner at one of the beachside cafes, Lillian would go down to the nearest pavilion and read a spy novel, or some other mystery or thriller novel, until it became too dark to read, the hour averaging around 8 p.m. in daylight savings time. Fall and spring she would do the same thing while eating her lunch, a PB&J sandwich with a fiber bar for dessert.
Those were pleasant times of relaxation, especially for a librarian. T...
October 8, 2019
Word count…
Some writers are super-conscientious about counting words. Maybe they’re ex-journalists—the editor says, “I want a nine-hundred-word story about the mayor’s birthday party”—or they’re submitting to a ‘zine—“We want short stories, three-thousand word limit.” Whatever the motivation, don’t worry about word count upfront. The right fixation should be making the words count!
Your story determines the words that are needed; how many there are is secondary. A short story can have as much impact as...
October 4, 2019
Movie Reviews #81…
Ad Astra. James Gray, director. Here’s a summary of my review of this clunker: there’s so much wrong here! If you want more info, read on.
First, there’s the confusing, illogical, and boring plot. The idea is that Brad Pitt’s character had daddy problems and wants to find his father and ask him why daddy left mommy and young’un back on Earth to go to the far reaches of the solar system. What daddy tells his son isn’t at all surprising, but I would have told him, “What the hell is the matter w...
October 3, 2019
Slogans…
I haven’t registered mine: “Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!” It describes my books. I write and sell books, in case you didn’t know.
The first phrase tells readers something about the settings in my books. I write mystery, thriller, and sci-fi novels, often combining those genres, and their settings can be anywhere on Earth and beyond. I want to entertain my readers, and I want to do so in many places so we can have fun touring the world and the cosmos together.
Althoug...
October 2, 2019
Steve’s shorts: Dr. Carlos’s Lost Love…
Dr. Carlos’s Lost Love
Copyright 2019, Steven M. Moore
Carlos Obregon performed a decent dive and surfaced in the turquoise water where bubbly froth from the waterfall floated in clumps.
“Not bad, doc,” Gina Kal said, splashing water toward him. “I’m impressed.”
“My home planet was a bit like this, you know. At least in the summer.”
“I’ve never been to New Haven,” said the exobiologist. “I don’t like crowded planets. That’s one reason I joined SEB.”
Obregon treaded water. “Good E-type planets...
October 1, 2019
Dystopian vs. post-apocalyptic…
My editing eyes were already functioning one morning after Dorian turned north. I read a headline in the venerable NY Times calling the disaster zones in the Bahamas “dystopian.” Not to diminish that huge human tragedy—as New Orleans and Puerto Rico have shown, it takes years to recover—or ignore the evidence it adds about the dangers of global warming, the idea for this post popped into my head. Maybe the Times’ loss, but my gain? They blew it. The correct word they should have used is “post...
September 26, 2019
Books I’ll only borrow…
Let’s choose one example: Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch. I’ve had my eye on this book since it was published six years ago in 2013. It dovetailed nicely into my interest in crime stories involving stolen artworks, an interest that led to The Collector (2014) and the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective Series,” Rembrandt’s Angel (2017) and Son of Thunder (coming soon—see below for a description). That interest is in turn motivated by my belief that preventing the general public from viewing masterw...
