Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 68
April 11, 2019
Interviewing author Nancy Hughes…
Steve: It is my great pleasure today to interview mystery writer Nancy A. Hughes. Her debut novel was The Dying Hour. Her other novels are found in her “Trust Trilogy” that includes A Matter of Trust, Redeeming Trust, and Vanished . Without further ado, Nancy, why don’t you tell us a bit more about yourself.
Nancy: After graduating from Penn State in journalism and advertising, I was a business writer for small to mid-sized companies and nonprofits. Then I turned to writing mysteries and crim...
April 10, 2019
Book review of M. J. Markovki’s Whatever It Takes…
(M. J. Markovski, Whatever It Takes, White Bird Publications, 2019, ISBN 978-1633633773)
Hunter Grainger acts strangely when he returns to Parker, Texas. So does Regan Argent. The two almost committed in high school; the attraction still remains. And they don’t realize how their pasts during the years away from Parker are connected.
How should I classify this novel? Much of it is steamy romance as Regan and Hunter draw closer. But all the romantic heat gives way slowly to a tidy mystery, susp...
April 9, 2019
Why ex-military?
Many of my characters are strong, smart women modeled loosely after those I’ve had the privilege of meeting during my lifetime. The same is true about my ex-military characters. I’ve known quite a few real one too. (Sometimes they’re the same). There’s something about people in the military that appeals to me. I’m neither violent nor aggressive as a person, so the je-ne-sais-quoi I like about their personalities is hard to pin down. The order they embrace in their lives both in and out of the...
April 5, 2019
Movie Reviews #74…
Dumbo. Tim Burton, dir. Not Burton’s strangest by any means, and a mixed bag. Unlike the original cartoon feature, the animals no longer talk, and the humans, with the exception of Danny DeVito as the circus owner Medici, don’t emote as actors. The plot is more twisted too and doesn’t work well in this context.
Young kids probably won’t care. Most of them haven’t seen the original either. “Look, Mommy, the elephant can fly!” If that’s not enough suspension of belief in this fantasy world (sho...
April 4, 2019
Local libraries featuring local authors…
Many residents in Montclair, NJ where I live are associated with the publishing industry—editors, journalists, screenwriters, and book authors. We’re just thirteen miles from the Lincoln Tunnel into Manhattan, so that makes sense. People stay close but move out of NYC to have some room for their growing families, and these people associated with the publishing industry are no exceptions.
There are pros and cons for Montclair authors. The big positive is that these people surround me and enric...
April 3, 2019
Steve’s shorts: Fascist Tango, Part Two…
Fascist Tango
Copyright 2019, Steven M. Moore
Chapter Four
At a Buenos Aires Hotel
Juan Carlos watched Jasmine enter the hotel. He then paid the driver and followed her inside.
“I’d like to leave a message for Jasmine Locke who is also staying here,” he told the desk clerk, who then handed him a message pad.
He wrote: “Make it nine-twenty. r/Juan Carlos.”
He watched the clerk stick it into a cubbyhole. He now knew where Jasmine’s room was—number 312.
He went up to his own room on the fifth fl...
April 2, 2019
Villains…
When readers and writers think of main characters, they’re often thinking about protagonists, the heroes of a tale. Villains are the antagonists, characters who make life difficult for the protagonists. But they can be main characters too.
Consider the Jackal in Forsyth’s thriller classic, The Day of the Jackal. He IS the main character, no doubt about it. He plays a more important role than anyone who’s after him. [Spoiler alert.] The protagonist, if there is one, might be the French Sûreté...
April 1, 2019
News Flash!
NASA scientists have just confirmed that the brilliant fireball seen in the southern US corresponded to the crash landing of an alien spaceship containing four distinct species of ETs. The skeletal remains indicate different bone structures, one with four legs and two arms. Preliminary investigations also indicate four different variations on DNA components and/or handedness of key amino acids. Stay tuned for further information.
March 28, 2019
Turning points…
SpaceX’s success with the capsule with Ripley inside (the dummy filled with sensors, not Sigourney Weaver, star of the Alien trilogy) might represent a turning point for the US space program. Since the cancellation of the shuttle program, NASA has depended on the Russians to get astronauts into orbit. After the SpaceX success, that dependence might soon end.
In the bigger picture, another turning point has already occurred. When private companies began launching successful space missions, a p...
March 27, 2019
Steve’s shorts: Fascist Tango, Part One…
[Note from Steve: This serialized novella is dedicated to the victims of political, ethnic, and religious violence everywhere, and especially to those who have been victims of far-right white supremacist and neo-Nazi movements. We’ve seen this many times recently—in fact, just this last week in Christchurch in New Zealand and not long ago in Pittsburgh in the US.
Here most of the action takes place in the Southern Cone of South America in the near future where right-wing violence and autocrat...
