Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 6

New free PDFs to download…

Visitors to this website probably know that I give away a lot of free fiction in the form of downloadable PDFs. (The list of them is found on the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page. Just click on the titles you want to download.) Most of these PDF downloads correspond to short fiction collections or single, long novellas, but there are also complete novels available—two “Esther Brookstone” novels so far. And I’ve just added two new items: Revenge at Last and Sleuthing, British-Style, Volume Four.

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Habits that are hard to break…

Anyone who has examined this website’s list of my books knows that I’ve been writing fiction for a while now. Full Medical, the first novel in the “Clones and Mutants” trilogy, was published in 2006, but its dedication page shows that I started to get serious about my writing fiction (but still having fun!) shortly after 9/11. So let’s say I’ve been spinning yarns for a quarter century now, a duration much longer than I ever spent in one day-job (where I actually made some good money!).

This bod...

Going from sci-fi to sci-fact…

It happens. Companies competing to monetize space? Yeah, that’s Boeing vs. Space-X at least, with the latter winning now, but don’t forget European, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and other companies. Star Trek communicators? Smart phones can do almost everything Captain Kirk’s device could, although he never had AI on it and you can. (In fact, it will soon be on new iPhones whether you want it or not!) Comsats? Arthur C. Clarke predicted them, but he couldn’t have imagined Elon Musk littering valua...

Did I need a pen name?

[Note from Steve: On this day of remembrance, it’s difficult for me to post just about anything related to the business of publishing books. NYC is the the book-publishing capital of the world, but it’s also where the worst terrorist attack on complete innocents occurred on this day back in 2001 about when I was thinking seriously of retiring from my day-job to write full-time. We lost a dear family member on that terrible day (his eulogy is found in my first published novel, Full Medical); we a...

Video trailers for book promotion?

I’m not as extreme about my book promotion efforts as James Patterson (he is extreme, in many ways!), but I do have one video trailer (unlike Patterson’s efforts, it won’t interrupt your TV experiences). As Garcia Marquez did with Chronicle of a Death Foretold, I’ll also tell story of the Death on the Danube video trailer in reverse.

First, the improvement in sales figures have been pathetic: This video trailer had 78 views three years ago on YouTube (I have no idea if that’s over the last three...

Why do I give away stuff?

The simple answer: It’s my literacy project! Baldacci has a more famous one, but he gives away nothing. I figure if I give away my fiction, I can encourage people who can read to actually do it instead of watching the drivel Hollywood producers force-feed us or listening to the blather spewed on TikTok and other social media sites, in podcasts, and Fox News. (Maybe if a certain presidential candidate could actually read a book, he wouldn’t be such a pathetically ignorant and “f&^%ing moron”—the ...

Review of Maher’s What This Comedian Said…

What this Comedian Said Will Shock You: Bill Maher, author (2024). Just in time for the 2024 elections…wow! I needed this. An irreverent critique of everything going on, especially the political circus acts. It’s something that grabs you by the throat and makes you almost die laughing at the follies of human beings and their cultural milieu. (The ‘almost” will be considered below.)

We often take ourselves too seriously. Okay, life is serious. We’re now in a dash—no marathons now—for November, 20...

Authors, have you mastered the elements?

I’m not talking about weather, although it’s a bear, right? Heat, fires (my home state, California, has been burning), and heat waves have baked the country. As global warming attacks around the globe and climate change does more and more damage, it’s impossible to keep up with all of Mother Nature’s revenge against us.

No, I want to discuss other elements, i.e., have a more esoteric discussion about the elements of writing fiction. (Readers might not care too much—one can argue they shouldn’t h...

Another AI failure…

Social media is looking awfully over-the-top now as the 2024 presidential election nears. For example, Elon’s X (formerly known as Twitter) put out a Kamala Harris ad, still with her voice but with all the words changed. I don’t know if this was a scurrilous use of AI (more a scurrilous abuse by Elon?), but I immediately logged on to my account and deactivated it. (Apologies to my loyal 1000+ faithful followers there who might have been surprised by my actions, but they know as well as I do that...

Should authors be political?

My opinion of Stephen King improved when he testified against the Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster merger. To be honest, though, that was a “safe protest” for the prolific horror writer because it was associated with traditional publishing (and motivated by self-interest?) It made me revisit the oft-thought question: Should authors be political? Especially in these trying times of nasty bickering and division, not just in the US but also around the world, any reasonable answer to the qu...